| GET PUBLISHED! GET PRODUCED! |
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Congratulations! You are holding in your hands the keys to the Publishing Kingdom. But beware. Like the proverbial Excalibur, your success in the book business can not merely be yanked out of stony obscurity on sheer hard work. It takes a lot more. A lot more than talent. More than luck. More than good looks.
It takes...in a word...management.
Let's stay with the Arthurian metaphor for a moment (because that's what we writers do, we work those metaphors). Arthur had his Merlin, right? Well that's the kind of management I'm talking about. I'm talking about a mentor in the mythological sense. The trusted consigliere. Someone who points you in the proper direction, kicks your butt a little, and sends you on your journey.
Merlin was nothing — he was a piker, an amateur.
I got Peter Miller.
And please don't think of Peter as a mere agent — although he can work his mojo in that area like nobody else. He could agent the spots off a leopard. But he's more than that. He's a literary manager in every sense of the phrase. He manages your literary life.
Let me give you an example. Fourteen years ago I was an out-of-work filmmaker with delusions of grandeur and thousands of dollars of debt. I had sold a couple of short stories to a few underground magazines, and had gotten a bunch of empty promises from Hollywood producers (is there any other kind of promise from Hollywood?). And then I made the best decision of my career.
I took my first stab at a novel, and sent it to Peter Miller.
And he rejected it.
(Did I mention he's a sadist, too?)
Because that's what Peter does: He builds careers. He develops writers. And that's why we clicked. I happily rewrote my manuscript to his specifications, and zipped it back to him, and he was impressed by the cojones of this young kid who refused to take no for an answer. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
A year later, Peter called me and said, “The Eagle has landed, Junior.”
A quick aside: For some reason, this phrase, which originated with the astronauts finally reaching the lunar surface after an arduous spaceflight, has found its way into business parlance. It has come to mean: The deal is signed, sealed and delivered — we did it!
And now that I think of it, selling a book is not unlike making it to the moon.
But what Peter Miller was able to secure back in 1992 for my first novel, The Black Mariah, was definitely out of this world. Warner Books won the bidding war, and New Line Cinema offered a five-figure option against a mid-six purchase price for the movie rights. The frosting on the cake was the way Peter wedged me into the film deal: I was hired to co-write the screenplay along side my childhood hero, George Romero, the creator of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.
My career in the book and movie businesses had officially started with a bang.
But remember: Peter is about the long haul. He's constantly working with me on the next project, the next big book. Developing, brain-storming, editing, polishing...selling, selling, selling. He literally manages my time. “Here's what I want you to work on next,” he'll growl at me over the phone in his good-natured New Yawk bark, and then he'll steer me toward the next big deal.
Another aside here: Peter Miller is the consummate New Yorker — a streetwise, whip-smart, fast-talker. But mostly that's his phone persona. In person, he's a big teddy bear. Boyishly handsome, with a big mop of hair, he looks twenty years younger than his 53 years. And maybe that's why he's so good at creating deals, creating commercial niches for his clients.
Which is exactly what he has done for me with a vengeance. Since The Black Mariah was published back in '92, Peter has sold nine more books for me, with many more pending. He has placed much of my work overseas, resulting in foreign additions in a dozen different languages. He's gotten me a movie deal on every single book — that's right, every book. And as this goes to press, we're staring down the barrels of two major motion pictures based on my work going into production next summer.
Which brings us back to the handy little tome you now hold in your hands.
Over the years, Peter has taught me a lot, but perhaps the most important thing he's taught me is how to be a professional. And that's what this book can do for writers of all persuasions. In the arts, being a professional doesn't mean selling out. Nor does it mean wearing berets and thumbing your nose at “the man.” It means having a career. It means working not just hard but also smart.
Which is what's inside this book — the smart stuff.
Read it carefully.
The career it creates could be your own. — Jay Bonansinga
Review of Former Second Edition of Get Published! Get Produced!
Order Get Published! Get Produced! for $21.95 S & H included.
There is probably not a single other profession in the world for which its fledgling participants are less prepared or less knowledgeable about the art, craft, and business than the rewarding and treacherous world of writing. I believe that ninety-nine percent of the people who set out to write a screenplay have never read one: most don't know even know the rudimentary elements of format. Most non-fiction book writers think the minutiae of their lives — “This is about angst in my Italian/Jewish/Chinese/Lativian family” — has some universal importance. There are far too many would-be works of fiction in which plot and character are not revealed, but explained, although occasionally one of this latter ilk does make it onto someone's best seller list.
I know of no activity that requires more time, more effort, more talent, more luck, more good advice, a thicker skin, a more tolerant spouse, more understanding children or more tolerant friends than writing. When are they going to invent steroids for writers, so we can hit the dangling participle out of the park? Until then, remember this simple phrase. Writing is not a sprint, it is marathon. It helps to have the energy of a speed freak, the imagination of Arthur Rimbaud and better connections than the Pope.
It also helps to have Peter Miller on your side, for a multitude of reasons. He's smart as hell, he has great taste in both literate and commercial pursuits (and the rarest of stories, those that manage to be both), he's loyal and punctual, he never procrastinates, and he loves new writers and new ideas.
Since you don't have him in your corner as of yet, I suggest that you don't read his book. I suggest you study it, perhaps render it to memory. Get Published! Get Produced! should be mandatory reading for everyone crazy enough to think they can do this work and get away with it. There is more practical knowledge and poignant insights in this slim volume than you are likely to find in any other of its kind.
There are four words that matter to a writer. THE END. BIDDING WAR. I have accomplished the former on four books and twenty-five screenplays. My novel and screenplay, 1906, were the subject of the latter, all thanks to Peter Miller.
Like my friend Jay Bonansinga, whose forward you may or may not have skipped over because you are anxious to flip to the “How Much Money Can I Make Section,” I have a life and a career thanks to Peter Miller. I follow Peter's advice.
I suggest you do the same. — James Dalessandro
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The truth is, he should have rejected it. The novel wasn't ready. But here's the key to Peter's magic: He sent along notes. He took the time to read the submission, and he had some good things to say about it as well as constructive criticism. And that was the beginning of my true education in building a career.