Hints Linking INDIE film teams to Writing for Independent Publishing

These last four days were a feast of great talents in film-making at the American Film Institute festival. Did any of you see it? It was much better than watching a college football game. These were heartfelt communal experiences. I recommend you try it before it is over, or join next year. It is a yearly event, superbly designed by talented film buffs, and is a concise forum for creativity at large.

I travelled, quickly, from my office computer and handheld, to Syria, cab rides between China and Hong Kong during the protests, and a series of conversations occurred between great INDIE actors and directors. I even watched a biosketch on the long deceased Tennis star, Arthur Ashe, that made me weep. In a mere 1 hour and 38 minutes, I was more fully informed by feelings on why black lives matter.

Some of the films were brilliant in 37 minutes. Many were the best INDIE films of the last year, where the cost of their production was less than a tenth of what studio films in Hollywood cost. In my judgement, all of them were top notch in terms of creativity and emotional impact. I loved it, had trouble taking the time away to eat or to run elements of my company. I can not say the same for quality when I go to big screen big Hollywood productions these days.

The big takeaway for me: Creating INDIE BOOKS — thru teams of independent designers, and editors, and team players — is similar in costs/benefits and results to making an INDIE film. It takes a team, and the creative lead has to be a masterful facilitator.

I loved this festival, as much as I love Writer Festivals, because you get the result in an immediate way. You get far more immediate experience than when writing like I did for giants such as Simon and Schuster or John Wiley and Sons.

From 1990 to about five years ago, I wrote dozens of commercial books, but there were months of delays and tons of interveners wanting to protect their investments, thereby warping your story lines into something they can promote. As you commercialize with the big ten in publishing, I found you lose artistic control, again and again. There is now this more immediate path, working with a “direct from the publisher” house like BOOK BABY.

Creating a Storyline, A Room with a View, a Home for Readers/Viewers

They say that Rome was not built in a day, nor was any worthy storyline.

I promised you a more immediate experience, a more authentic use of your creative teams. But it still takes time. It takes time, and effort, and creative license to finish a book worthy of a diverse viewership/readership. Yet it now pays to cut the middleman out, and do it yourself. Construct your own team of book designers, editors, visual artists, and get it done your way.

Sure big Studio movies are entertaining; but they only cover the stories that have a big degree of certainty of promotional/benefit returns. They may make you feel happy, like in eating candy, but do they last past the time you leave the screen? Smaller productions, like smaller creative book teams, offer a performance style that sells well, like with a family, that means business, not just profits. You go to do this not out of wildness, but from considered discontent, and business smarts. You launch this way when you can afford to leave your literary agents, their big city PR teams, and move forward into work that allows you to discover the artist in your teams, not just the profits.

Of course, you need to admit that in leaving “the big time publishers’’ in New York and UK and even the progressives like BK in San Francisco (a house I invest in for its quality is high, and its products solid), you lose some of the momentum of built in promotional paths. That is what enables a Simon and Schuster to take a book like my 1990 title to them in a book of the year status with the Nature Society of England, and then have it resold as Quality paperback, and even in Rodale editions. I did not do that, and made almost none of the money. Accepting this forfeit of ready made promotional channels, you need to get closer to your reader and buyer then.

As an independent author, you get to keep a far greater portion of your royalty; in the case of BOOK BABY, it is a fifty fifty partnership. At best, even after a New York Times and Washington Monthly bestseller, John Wiley was only able to get me 25 percent royalty; Simon and Schuster was far worse in royalty rates, and even a great house like Sourcebooks was limited in how long they stand behind a title. Think this through as you all decide, my new reader friends, contemplating your own contributions.

It Takes a Small Creative Team

Here is the way to visualize the new path, the path of creating your own creative team for book publishing. Think about Nicolas Cage in his new film PIG, where he plays an eccentric selling high quality mushrooms into the big city life he had left in disgust. During the American Film Institute’s festival de-briefs, you can hear Nicholas, and the makers and stars of Zola, Belfast, and other INDIE films, reflect on what you get by going the “lower” INDIE route.

Why is it that we are still calling work with houses like BOOK BABY self-publishing? Why not call it INDIE PUBLISHING. That would be more accurate, and less self-deprecating. You do not need the editorial judges that went to the Ivy schools anymore; if you are experienced, and know how to build your own team of editors that care about the legacy and punch of your work. I am blessed to have worked with Peter Lynch, formerly from my publisher Sourcebooks, for six books in a role, because I hired him as a part of my team, without interference any longer by the owner of publishing houses.

I do the same with the design team, my company COO for example has published more than six hundred independent books before joining my team. Luckily, my management consulting firm allows me to attract such talent, but the point being, it can be done, and then you are FREE, full creative license, which calls for even more discipline and focus.

Earning Back Your Creative License

Creative license gives you a room to populate with your own designated designers, editors, and focus group leaders. You even can have fun, and earn insights into the value of your, by working to earn endorsements, rather than forgetting that process to the big city publisher.

Here again is a parallel between INDIE FILM and INDIE BOOKS.

As the film industry is going for only a few 100 million and above blockbusters, they parallel what is happening at the big ten commercial publishers. If you cannot guarantee a few hundred thousand in book sales, you will not get the assignment. When I wrote my last five biographies of yet to be famous people like Linda Coady, Eileen Fisher, and the 90 year old Undersecretary of State Frank Loy, I did it in defiance of the publishing norm. Amazon’s biography editor had offered me 100,000 dollars in advance to write about Michael Bloomberg.

I did it my way, and have enjoyed every minute of “controlling” what I wanted to say, which would never have happened if I wrote about the billionaire Bloomberg for another billionaire Jeff Bezos! Think about it my friends.

Now technically, an INDIE FILM is defined as something that can be shot in less than two months, and that costs less than 22 million in total budget.

I would like you to begin a dialogue with us at AWARDS@ahcgroup.com on how you’d define the budget and team of an INDIE PUBLISHING VENTURE.

Thank you. The four young men from Liverpool said it best…..

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s based on a novel by a man named Lear.
And I need a job.
So I wanna be a paperback writer!

You can download a sample of my latest book “A New Way to Wealth: The Power of Doing More With Less”, by clicking here. OR you can order copies of my book by visiting my Amazon Author page.

See my latest article published by GreenBiz: The missing monster message at COP26