Inside The Cover
Book Reviews
Review by Marie D. Jones
B$ A SCRIPT SALE When You Don't Live In Hollywood
By Paul Sinor
Sub Rosa Books, 2003
265 pages
Amazon.com price: $20.97
Genre: Screenwriting/Film
With a title like B$ A SCRIPT SALE, you know you are getting a real insider's account of making or breaking it in Hollywood, and that is exactly what you get with this great tool for anyone trying to make it BIG as a screenwriter.
Author Paul Sinor has written a book that packs so much punch and information, you will feel out of breath once you've closed the back cover, but you will have learned just about everything there is to learn about how to write, pitch and sell a screenplay in today's crazy marketplace.
This is truly a "survival guide" for screenwriters who want to get to where they are going with as few bumps, bruises, and embarrassments as possible.
The author, a produced writer and someone who has done everything he writes about, takes us on the ride of our life as we navigate together the rough waters of the Hollywood dream. Sinor covers writing the script, pitching the script, revising and negotiation and meeting with major players over the script, marketing the script, formatting the script, and everything else you can do with the script that is legal in the United States! From the first FADE IN to the final FADE TO BLACK, we learn so much about what our role is as the writer and how we can best present ourselves and get what we want, we won't even NEED an agent after this book (although if we want one, and we should, Sinor tells us how to approach them best as well).
The title refers to Best Strategies and that is what Sinor offers; great suggestions for maneuvering around, back, between and through the Hollywood system that can get us to the people who can say yes. He teaches wonderful and workable strategies for cold calling, querying, clever ways to get a meeting to go your way, how to get out of a bad situation or pitch, getting to people you normally can't get to, knowing the rules, following the rules, and ultimately breaking the rules to your advantage.
B$ A SCRIPT SALE is written in a fun and crazy style, with many different font styles and sizes used for emphasis, and plenty of humor, personal experience and energy. It is one of the most usable books on making it as a screenwriter I have come across, even with its pretty steep $29.95 price
tag ($20.97 on Amazon.com), but I do think it is worth having nearby so you can refer to it again and again as you climb the ladder of screenwriting success. Sub Rosa Books publishes other B$ titles on debt control and budgeting, and you can learn more about their books and their entertainment productions at
www.subrosabooks.com. I highly recommend B$ A SCRIPT SALE for any screenwriter yearning to get a handle on the system, and yank it for all it's worth!
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Marie D. Jones writes screenplays as well as fiction,
articles and essays for several national publications. Her new book is LOOKING
FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES (Paraview Press). She is the creator of an
award-winning children's video, PIG TALES, and has written and produced several
direct-to-video projects in national distribution. Her greatest creation is her
toddler son, Max, co-created by hubby Ron. They live in San Marcos, California.
