Anne Miles's Lounge Discussions

As a Christian filmmaker, I gotta give the cred to God. He brought me a Christian thriller script that hopefully I will finish this week. I've been working on this thing, which will as I see it be a pilot for a series, since 2008. God works best when man is at rest, so I let Him give me the ideas. And everything is falling in place as it should. God is good...all the time!

I tend to wake up in the middle of the night and write. I'll just go to town till sun up. That's when the best stuff happens for me.

Whenever the inspiration, story idea, element or component comes to me I pen/pencil it down. I am currently writing 2-3 hours every other day for a project. I use several coffee shops. Quiet or not, doesn't bother me, and I prefer using a notebook with Final draft.

I mostly write wherever I can. Inspiration most often strikes when I'm at work or when I'm in no position to write...I take a lot of notes. On anything. At any time of day or night. I can play with an idea in my head for several days/weeks before getting around to write down a rough outline, and then I go from there. Separating every idea, every scene on different pieces of paper really helps since I'm a visual person, which is why there are dozens post-its and notes glued to a wall right now. That way I can see the whole story, and it's easier to edit see if there's anything wrong with the plot, etc.

I prep for it. Like Kelta said, I use music to keep me on track. The very first thing I do when starting a new screenplay is I put the score together. As I think about the major scenes in the script, I carefully research the music that tells the story without writing a word. I put this together in an iTunes playlist that I modify as the scenes reveal their true direction. It's a great way to stay on track if you have to take a break from writing to earn a living.

I have used both moo and vista print. I am very happy with both of these sites. Moo is a UK based business so it does take a little longer to get those if you live in the states

If interested, I have a discount code (10% off) for moo.com : http://www.moo.com/share/tc86k6

Search "Cheap business cards" and psprint has them for less than $25 for 1000 but only through the search link... full color, double sided!

http://www.vistaprint.com has 500 cards for $9.99, but I would suggest making your own. With the right program (I use Corel) you can do some amazing things, even double-sided. It takes time to set it up the first time, but it's for good. Then whenever you need more, just hit print.

Moo.com they're quality.

We can do book trailers, but I don't think live action are really necessary and would be cost prohibitive. We price per-project :-) If you wanted to do live action I'd find some film school students and ask them for help!

Anne, I agree. With a few exceptions, most books can be done without the live action trailers. I think they look nicer and it isn't confusing the for audience. What is a typical range for your trailers?

We have a pretty high demand for our services, which range widely and our availability is limited so I don't want to give a range for us as it may not be typical? We are $75 an hour and we would not just do a trailer for someone, we do full marketing plans. The reason for that is that we want you to actually sell, not to just take your money. LOL. A low end project for us starts at $3500 and goes up from there and usually includes an online marketing plan, web site, and then whatever viral tools we deem necessary. But a video like the one you did would only take us about a day to produce and deliver, so if we did just that it would be around $750. I'm working with three nonfiction authors right now, they don't get trailers! We did a sharable childrens book in pdf format for one, are doing a youtube channel for another and then have set up a huge megablog for the third, with plans for video podcasts. The podcast lady has published 17 books by various publishers and is fairly well known in her niche ;-) But I am posting resources on here where if you listen, you can go to find those resources and roll your own solutions. so watch for that ;-) A trailer can be effective if it goes viral and thats a big if. So if you do one it has to be something people will want to share or talk about. Don't just do a trailer to do a trailer.

Just a comment. My trailer for FRACTURE The Secret Enemy Saga has not gone viral (that would be cool) but it has gotten FRACTURE a lot of attention. I have it on my blog http://vmmckevitt.blogspot.com/ and facebook page and shoot it anywhere that I can get attention. I am doing a book signing at K-Mart in Centre, Alabama Saturday and they are going to stream it throughout the store.The trailer is well done and I have O. G. Tomes to thank for that. Works for me!

I have the software and experience to complete a book trailer for a reasonable amount of money within a short amount of time. Let me know how many slides you will be using, if they are stills or videos, and what your turn-around time is. We can talk about the specifics.

In my humble opinion, the changes in the industry with ebooks and self-publishing is not a good thing. Anyone can publish anything now and a lot of it is not even competent. Noted science fiction writer, Ursula Le Guin says that because of the changes, it is very difficult for a writer to make a living. Even so you have to accept the changes. I do have a few of my short stories published with ebook companies (not self published), but most of them appear in printed books.

John, the vast majority of self published material is illiterate dreck - hence the buying public has grown savvier. i know people now who would just randomly buy things in genre, that now check to see who the publisher is. Writing was never the most lucrative profession. As a plus, there are SP writers who have built careers and do very well. But it's not a magical 'nyah evil gatekeeper' prospect that so many clueless souls imagine it to be. It does mean that it's helpful for a writer to have a blog, and interact with their fan base, which was never needed before.

I agree, Rachael. Amazon has helped by adding the approximate length of a book on sale for Kindle, along with a decent sized preview. Readers can tell whether they're getting a short story, novella, or a full length novel, along with a look at the editing and story content. I've noticed lately though, the marketers are filling up the preview length with ads to give the readers a shorter look. :) I think the next step on Amazon's part would be to preview an entire first chapter past the commercials.

I agree with you, Rachel, that's why I try to get my books reviewed by the Midwest Book Review and other, recognized reviewing agencies. Still, I’m not sure that is enough... Steven Nedelton @www.snedelton.com

On the other hand, some published novels were not so hot and yet did fantastically. I'm sure I don't have to mention them by title. So, go figure... Our reader public is partly to blame too...