Screenplay Critique--aka "Coverage"

Many budding screenwriters pay big bucks to send their scripts out for critiques by supposed experts.

The purpose is to get tips about how to improve the screenplay.

However, sometimes the coverage can go beyond constructive criticism and be brutal.

With this in mind, a writer friend of mine (Chris Neiman) recently sent the following message to a company called Scriptapalooza about the coverage a fellow screenwriter (not me) had received:

Dear Scriptapalooza:

I am sending this to explain why I did not order coverage from Scriptapalooza.

I recently saw coverage that another writer received from Scriptapalooza. It's understandable and desirable that you would be negative in your coverage; no script is perfect, and it is helpful to the writer that you point out flaws to be corrected. However, this coverage went far beyond that. It was extremely negative, to the point of seeming, at worst, hostile, and at best, annoyed. There was not one word of encouragement in the coverage. The overall tone of the coverage was rude and condescending and almost angry.

It's a miracle to me that the writer who received your coverage – who is actually quite talented – went on to write another script.

I think the people who do your coverage need to be aware that writers tend to be sensitive people who can be easily hurt and easily discouraged. The writer who received your coverage apparently isn't, but I am. And because I am, I don't want to risk getting the kind of rude, discouraging, and condescending coverage that was given to this other screenwriter. I certainly don't want to pay $100 for the level of hostility and verbal abuse that I observed in that coverage document.

I hope that reading this will remind you that the people who order coverage are your customers, and that while you are certainly being paid to point out flaws, it is possible to do so and to be kind and supportive and encouraging at the same time. That's what good coverage and good customer service are about, and if your coverage writers in particular and Scriptapalooza in general are unable to do this, you should not be providing coverage.

I hope this message is helpful to you.

Chris Neiman


In fairness to Scriptapalooza, I want to add that the president, Mark Andrushko, promptly wrote a nice note to Chris, in which he said, in part, "I completely agree with you."

How to Create a Hyperlinked Table of Contents for Smashwords

How to Create a Hyperlinked Table of Contents for Smashwords

If you have multiple stories or chapters in your ebook, you’ll probably need a hyperlinked table of contents if your book formatting is to be approved for premium distribution to lucrative online sales outlets such as Apple, Sony, and Kobo on Smashwords.

What is a “hyperlinked table of contents”? It’s a table of contents near the beginning of your ebook where a reader can point to and click on a chapter name or story title and immediately be taken to that place in the book.

I admit that I was intimidated by the words “hyperlinked table of contents” at first, especially by the word “hyperlinked.” It sounded like I’d have to create some kind of computer code—something I don’t know how to do.

However, I found that creating a hyperlinked table of contents isn’t all that hard.

An expanded version of this blog entry is now available as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc. under the title
"Basic Formatting & How to Create a Hyperlinked Table of Contents for Smashwords." I hope you will buy it and find it helpful!

List of Some Famous Authors Who Have Self-Published

Some famous authors who self-published at some point in their careers are:

William Blake

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Stephen Crane

e. e. cummings

W. E. B. DuBois

Alexander Dumas

Zane Grey

James Joyce

Rudyard Kipling

D. H. Lawrence

Anais Nin

Thomas Paine

Edgar Allan Poe

Ezra Pound

Carl Sandburg

George Bernard Shaw

Upton Sinclair

Gertrude Stein

Henry David Thoreau

Mark Twain

Walt Whitman

Virginia Woolf

(From a longer list found at http://www.groundbreaking.com/SPAuthorsList.htm)

Let's Work Together: Part Two

This is a very long blog entry, in five parts, about how indie writers, musicians, and film people need to work together and support each other. (Scroll down to see Part One.) 

Part Two: Disrespect and Downright Theft

Writers have a chance to circumvent—perhaps even destroy—what 1940s hipsters called “The Man,” or what 1960s hippies called “The Establishment.”

And it deserves to be destroyed.

Some cases in point:

In the 1970s, Stephen King was Doubleday’s hottest author. Yet when he visited the Doubleday offices, he was practically ignored by everyone but his editor, presumably because he wrote horror and not “highbrow” literary books like Doubleday’s Leon Uris. This lack of respect, plus the feeling he deserved more money, led King to find another publisher (Lisa Rogan, Haunted Heart, New York, St. Martin, 2010, 86-89).

In the 1980s, literary agent Richard Curtis openly charged, “Publishers have always cheated authors.” (Edwin McDowell, “Publishing Agent Says Writers Are Being Cheated,” The New York Times, February 4, 1983).

And the disrespect and cheating continues.

On March 24 of this year, horror writer Brian Keene published the following at his Web site: “Starting in late 2009, Dorchester-Leisure began making late payments to some of their authors. Indeed, some authors report never having received payments at all, nor royalty statements verifying what, if any, monies were owed. . . . [Meanwhile] I had not been paid since late-2009.” Keene signed an agreement with Dorchester to take back the rights to all of his books. However, Keene writes, “Dorchester has repeatedly violated that agreement.” (Brian Keene, “Boycott Dorchester,” Brian Keene: Official Website, March 24, 2011, (http://www.briankeene.com/?p=6140).

Meanwhile, literary agents and publishers continue to reject hopeful writers. Of course, they have to do it. But must they do it with such flippancy? Or nastiness? Or relish? If you don’t believe me about the flippancy, nastiness, and relish, just follow some agents on Twitter and look at the abuse in their tweets against the writers who submit to them. Yes, it’s anonymous, they don’t name the writers, but it discloses an underlying attitude of, at best, contempt.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is:

EBooks!

Coming Soon: Part Three: E-scaping