LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – The novella “Embassy” recently was sent around to producers by talent manager Joel Gotler, inviting them to team with him to create a movie package to offer major studios.

What was unusual was not that the thriller was written in five days by New York real estate investor, hedge-fund manager and author Richard Doetsch, or that it was published by Simon & Schuster but isn’t available in bookstores.

What was new was that “Embassy” has been published as a Vook, a hybrid of text and embedded video that intertwine to tell the story of a hostage crisis and can be read and viewed full-screen online or on any mobile device. The Vook, Gotler says, is “the hottest thing right now.”

What the Vook offers, along with a dramatic “Die Hard”-style story, is compelling video that helps sell the concept — an element many producers are adding to market their projects alongside a script, book or graphic novel.

Why so much effort? In a consolidated marketplace, with fewer buyers making few movies and creating fewer TV pilots, they are demanding a higher level of proof that whatever they buy can be made into a movie or TV show.

“It’s more work now,” says Gotler, president of the Intellectual Property Group, a management and production company with literary roots. “You need a compelling story, but that isn’t enough. You’ve got to bring in either a director, a writer, co-financing or a co-production deal. We’re trying to think outside the box.”

Many movies come from obvious sources — best-sellers, remakes or high-concept marketable elements including toys, video games or classic TV shows — but there still is a market for original material, especially family movies, comedies, horror and action pictures. However, the bar has been raised as to what it takes to make a sale. There are a lot fewer pitches or even spec scripts being sold, unless they come with elements that elevate their value.

“Right now, the development dollars are hard to come by,” says Erwin Stoff, a partner at 3 Arts Entertainment, which manages talent and produces projects. “People are way more careful about what they are buying, so the more you have to offer going in, in terms of a comfort level in that what they are buying is a movie they will want to make, the greater the likelihood you are going to sell it.”

Stoff recently sold “Water for Elephants,” a best-selling historical novel by Sara Gruen. To make the deal, he partnered with producers Gil Netter and Andrew Tennenbaum; attached his client, writer Richard LaGravenese; and director Francis Lawrence.

“We had one of the most respected screenwriters and a very in-demand director and a property with heat,” Stoff says. “It was still not the easiest of materials to sell because people are far less into speculative buying than they were.”

In this case, “Water” found its level at Fox.

Producer-manager Doug Drazin of Epigram Entertainment says he recently submitted two scripts that “two years ago would have been bought. Now, it’s, ‘Yeah, bring an element attached.’ So I’m saying, ‘OK,’ and what I’m finding is agencies are more open to reading material because they realize they have to do more packages themselves.”

The shift has hit cost-conscious studios and networks, most of which have pared development staffs, a process that accelerated during the 2007 Hollywood writers strike. As a result, they look to packagers, especially manager-producer hybrids, to come in with material that won’t require extensive additional development.

“They want stuff that is as close to ready to go as possible,” says J.C. Spink of BenderSpink. “If you can come up with stuff that makes sense, they’re really excited to be in business with you.”

Spink uses the analogy of a Crock-Pot, or slow cooker: “It used to be a quick-fried sale; now we’ve gone to the Crock-Pot sale, adding ingredient by ingredient and letting it simmer. It’s definitely harder to set things up, but what is good is that for the first time as a business, we are setting up stuff that they will really make.”

That often means not only enlisting one’s own clients but also working with other managers, talent agencies and producers to gather elements that make projects attractive to buyers. “It’s always been a business of matchmaking,” Spink says. “It’s just the matchmaking has gotten a lot more specific.”

Spink recently sold to DreamWorks a book titled “I Am Number Four,” written by Jobie Hughes. It was brought to BenderSpink by its client James Frey.

“We found the right elements in terms of filmmakers with Michael Bay directing and Steven Spielberg executive producing,” Spink says. “We hired a writer after the fact. It was the Bay attachment that got it set up.”

What Spink hesitates to attach is an actor. “There are only about 20 actors that get a buy everywhere,” he says. “Every other actor, some studios like and some don’t. In a market where you are down to 12-13 people who can actually pay a fair amount of money for a script, I find that attaching actors can actually be a problem. What’s been successful for us is finding the right material and packaging it with a writer.”

Sometimes, however, having the right actor can help. Lucy Stille, who heads the literary-rights department at Paradigm, recently represented “The Fabulous Fraudulent Life of Jocelyn & Ed,” an article that appeared in Rolling Stone about modern grifters that she felt was a surefire movie idea. Before going to studios, she gave it to Annette Savitch, a partner with Natalie Portman in Handsome Charlie Films.

“She loved it,” says Stille, and gave it to Tracy Letts, who wrote “August: Osage County” not long after he won a Pulitzer Prize for drama “because she knew Tracy had a deal at Warner Bros.”

“The combination of a terrific article, Natalie and Tracy got us a deal at Warner Bros.,” Stille says. “I doubt, had I just sent the article cold to Warners, I would have done that. So all of us are spending much more time trying to put the right smart pieces together. The truth is, a lot of executives at the studio level don’t have the time or inclination to do that.”

When it makes a package stronger, Stille won’t hesitate to reach out to big talent firms Creative Artists Agency or International Creative Management for clients. She says that while she looks out for Paradigm clients first, “we want to do what is best (to sell a book as a movie). If that means reaching out to another agency, we’re secure enough to do it.”

Although this evolution is more pronounced in the feature world, consolidation and cutbacks also have changed the game in television.

“Packagers have become more important because buyers have smaller and smaller budgets,” says Brian Volk-Weiss, head of production and senior vp talent management at New Wave Entertainment/Dynamics. “People are being laid off, so there’s a real need at the buyer level to have a lot of these components put together.”

Volk-Weiss compares it to the way NASA worked during the 1960s and ’70s, when the agency created every tool and piece of hardware in-house. “Now NASA has a lot of budget cuts and goes to vendors to lower overhead,” he says. “The same thing is going on with studios and networks right now: If they used to have six people developing shows or 10 developing features, they now have three and four, respectively. There’s a real impetus for outsiders who are not on their payroll to develop, and that’s where packagers come into play.”

Five years ago, Volk-Weiss says, New Wave was “scared” to attach too many elements to a pitch or script because it might give buyers a reason to say no. That idea pretty much has been turned on its head. “You don’t want to be in a room anymore where the buyer goes, ‘Great, but who is going to write this?’” he says. “Basically, they want all the pieces put together.”

Volk-Weiss says his company almost always prepares a short video to help sell a concept. “I go into a room with 20 people and pitch an idea with a brown dog, and you’ve got 20 people thinking about 20 different brown dogs,” he says. “When you go in with tape, you are showing the buyer exactly what we mean. That’s why we have such a high pitch-to-sale rate.”

Having the video already created is among the exciting things about the Vook, says Brad Inman, the technology’s creator and CEO. “We think our technology, and video clips, is something that can be used to set up bigger movies and bigger events.”

For now, one can read and watch the Vook on an iPhone for $4.95 or online for $6.95, with a selection of titles from Simon & Schuster that includes “Embassy,” an exercise book and a cookbook.

By Alex Ben Block

PATRICK’S EMAIL

Hi Gary,

I accepted your Facebook friend request some time ago because I like the work you did on the Under Siege films and The Mothman Prophecies (a highly underrated thriller, in my opinion). I also admire the success that you had in regard to Pretty Woman.

Recently, I’ve received two requests from your account to become of “fan” of yours. Now, I mean no disrespect in saying this, but I declined the first as I found it a bit crass to make such a proposition to people who are already Facebook friends. I received a second fan request a short while ago and it gave me the thought to investigate a bit further into what you’ve been doing with your time since your last feature production.

I perused your website, looking over the details of your books, as well as your one-on-one mentoring and MasterMind conference call offerings. While reading through the testimonials I did some quick IMDB searches to see how well things had worked out for those who provided rather glowing critiques of your programs and was surprised to find some not listed there at all and others who had only a single writing credit from years ago.

Now, I am an aspiring screenwriter and do have decent understanding of how the Hollywood system works, but frankly I’m uncomfortable signing up for any of you’re programs given the lack of documentary evidence that I can uncover in regard to others finding fruitful benefits from doing so. I’m interested if you might share with me some concrete examples of writers you’ve aided who have reached a degree of *ongoing* success, preferably recent examples. I know you mentioned Matt Reeves in the VTTV infomercial, but I must say that I find much of his current professional prosperity to derive from his ongoing association with JJ Abrams. I mean that as no poor reflection on your clear skills as a producer, only that others’ guidance have been critical to his rise to fame.

We both know that there are lots of folks peddling mentoring assistance and concept/script feedback these days, many where to say they’ve reached a marginal degree of success in the film making business would be a bit of a stretch. I’m sure you’d agree that there’s a big difference between getting a credit on a project or two and making an actual name & career for yourself. You’ve certainly accomplished the latter, and doing the same is what interests me, but there are so many traps in attempting that tough feat, a great deal laid with nefarious & greedy intent, that I do think it only fair to be very shrewd in choosing which avenues to try, avenues such as your live assistance packages.

Again, I enjoy many of the films you’ve made and might be interested in the assistance that you have to offer in regard to a few scripts I’ve been developing. I was just hoping that you might be able to provide me with some more details about the impact that your aid has had and how to get a career off the ground as opposed to making only the briefest of splashes.

Patrick

GARY’S RESPONSE

Patrick, your skepticism is not uncommon.

Every writer I mentioned was, at the time I began working with them, unproduced – and usually hadn’t even optioned or sold anything, nor did the majority of them have previous representation.

J.F. Lawton is one example — no options, no produced films, no agent or manager, no ‘conversation’ of any kind. Yes, he went on to work with James Cameron, Joel Silver, Dick Donner, many others.

But it doesn’t begin there. It begins, as with any enterprise, by building brick by brick, relationship by relationship.

Matt Reeves absolutely did not start by associating with J.J. Abrams, he earned his way up to that relationship (with multiple produced projects paving the way, all based on a series of quality relationships). The same for every writer I mentioned.

For some reason, people look at a great success and find a reason why that “doesn’t count”. But every success is founded on smart and hard work, relationship building and consistent marketing and persistence – the little but profound choices each of us makes every day to commit to results that are not visible in the short term, but that ultimately determine our success or lack of success.

I know of few in any industry who simply catapulted in one year or less to astonishing success, myself included.  If you harbor that sort of expectation, then my mentoring would not be appropriate.  Nor would the experience of writers I’d managed years ago, or that of my mastermind group, support a decision to be mentored by me.  I do not possess a magic elixir and do not promise near-instant results.

Allison Burnett’s “Fame” is now being marketed and released, but when we met he was doing homegrown no-budget black & white films with his friends.

Every single story, every single success is based on cumulative relationship building. Not one of the people I referenced “got a credit” or “made a splash” on a project, and then had their career fizzle. Had that been the case, I would not be holding them up as proper models for an enduring successful career.

It’s not, however, about them. It’s always and only about the level of commitment any of us make to our own career and the consistent choices and behaviors we embrace – for better or for worse. I am not “peddling” anything. I make myself available and I’m delighted to work with those who choose me. For those that choose otherwise, that’s also perfect.

Taking dominion and taking action to grow a career is only about being “shrewd” in the context of how soon, with what strategies, and with whom you align to ‘make it happen’.  Choose wisely, but choose whatever you intuitively feel is right for you and that allows you to advance toward your life goals.

Mentors and masterminds are a value second-to-none for those committed to finding their path to success.  It’s up to you to find key relationships that suit your temperament and goals. I agree not every teacher or mentor is right for everyone, and vice versa.

Do the economic headlines of today make you feel discouraged and fearful?  Do you worry about  economic gloom and doom and tend to feel anxious or paralyzed by external events, or do you see possibility and opportunity for daily action based on strong personal beliefs and a bold yet pragmatic plan that focuses on rich opportunities, your talents and the value of what you have to offer?

You may well have heard the tale of Susan Boyle, a middle-aged woman of unremarkable appearance from a modest hamlet in Britain.  In 1995, Susan auditioned as a singer on a ‘Star Search’-like British tv show (‘My Kind of People’), only to be shamelessly mocked and insulted.  When Susan recently auditioned and was selected to appear – 14 years later – on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, she defied expectation and literally moved the audience and judges to tears with an exhilirating rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.  People all over the world are wearing t-shirts of Susan, Larry King interviewed her, Hollywood wants to make a film with her, Oprah has invited her as a guest on her tv show, and Elaine Page, Susan’s hero, wants to perform a duet with her.

J.K. Rowling, reknowned for her magical ‘Harry Potter’ series of books, has become one of the world’s most celebrated authors, reportedly having become a billionaire from her magical writings.  Her books enjoy immense popularity around the globe, critical acclaim and commercial success, having sold over 400 million books and translated into 67 languages.  The last four of J.K.’s series about Harry’s struggle against an evil wizard have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.  ‘Harry Potter’ has spawned an industry, including movies, videogames and themed merchandise, all borne from the creative mind of one woman.  Yet, J.K. Rowling’s private journey was anything but simple.  Her mother died from multiple sclerosis, J.K. was subsequently diagnosed with clinical depression and contemplated suicide, all the while a single parent surviving on welfare while working on her first novel.

Chris Gardner’s story of trial and disappointment is well-chronicled in the film “Pursuit of Happiness”.  Frustrated in his quest to become a stock broker, Chris’ circumstance went from bad to worse during a 10-month interview process with a San Francisco-based firm.  His girlfriend ran off with their only son and all Chris’ belongings.  Soon thereafter, Chris found himself penniless, and jailed for ten days for unpaid parking fines, only to be released the day before his final interview.  Chris showed up for this crucial meeting in dirty jeans and a t-shirt, openly admitting the truth of having lost his son, being broke and released from jail one day earlier, and without a home.  To his amazement, the interviewer was sympathetic, having endured a painful divorce, and immediately put Chris in the company’s training program.  His son was soon returned to him, and together they survived on the streets, later finding the means to live in a $10-a-night motel.  Years later, having passed his broker’s exam and working for a major brokerage house, Chris struck out on his own, securing major clients and never looking back.

What compels some people to quit in the face of adversity and rejection, while others pursue their dream with a single-minded sense of purpose?  Why is quitting not an option for some?  What force of will fuels people to rise above bad circumstances or a string of initial failures?

Anatole France reminds us ‘to accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe’.  Confucius’ wisdom held “our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”

Why most give up after a few rejections is not so much a mystery, as a magnficent tragedy.  Lack of belief in oneself is the stuff of emptiness, frustration, dashed dreams, plowed-under human capacity, negative self-image and sadness, whereas persistence and hard work fueled by belief in oneself yields the miracle of joy and contribution, success and meaning.  Is it possible to accomplish your true purpose, live a joyous and richly rewarding life, and enjoy a persistence borne of a balance between head and heart when you’re busy beating up on yourself for a momentary ‘failure’?  Can you imagine what you might accomplish if you held fast to an unshakeable belief in yourself?

Waking each morning, we are given a choice and it is ours to choose wisely.  Do you choose to listen to and consume the fear and skepticism so prevalent in the marketplace of humanity, surrounding yourself with those who encourage anxiety, negativity and limitation, or do you choose to believe deeply in yourself and thoughtfully embrace – both personally and professionally – those who align with your values and life vision?

One choice results in the ultimate injustice of not bringing forth our best and our greatest gifts to be shared, the other choice yields rewards beyond our limited imagination.

When you’re building your career in the film business, access is key and quality relationships are critical.

Please join my free preview call May 13 at 6 pm PST. I’ll talk about ‘Scaling the Great Wall of Hollywood’ and all the strategies I’ve learned over the years and will reveal over the course of this 6 week teleseminar.

Register for this “live” free call by clicking on this link now:

http://www.garywgoldstein.com/3keys1

Every writer I represented as a literary manager had never been represented before. Every film I produced – both studio and independent – was written by a screenwriter who’d never been produced previously. I love working with and launching the careers of amazing talent who simply haven’t figured out how to get in the door of Hollywood.

Please bring any questions you have to the call. I’ll be answering your questions toward the end of our “live” call together.

I’ll be hosting a FREE preview call “live” next Wednesday, May 13, in the evening (6 pm PST) for my teleseminar ‘Scaling the Great Wall of Hollywood’, which begins May 21 and continue for six weeks.

Please come learn how to gain access and create meaningful relationships for your project and career. I want to answer your questions and deliver as much value as possible for you.

Please register for the free preview call by clicking on this link:

http://www.garywgoldstein.com/3keys1

In a recent video, I described how an agent shopped ‘auction-sytle’ the screenplay for ‘The Mothman Prophecies’, only to see it die right there on the spot.

When you’re building your team, how do you determine if an agent or manager is right for you ? What are the questions you can ask to learn if they have a smart strategy for you ? What do you need to know to effectively manage those relationships ?

There’s a success formula that will help you attract quality representation and maintain productive, enthusiastic rapport with your agent or manager, and keep them working hard for you.

I’m excited. I’ve finally decided to re-launch “Scaling the Great Wall of Hollywood” – the teleseminar I just taught for the first time last Fall. It was so intensive, so successful, the response and results have been so significant, that I’m inspired to re-teach all the success strategies I’ve learned over the past 25 years in the film business, representing writers as a literary manager and later producing their films. Getting results, elevating careers to the next level, and closing the gap between where screenwriters are and where they want to be is massively rewarding.

I’ll be hosting a “live” FREE preview call next Wednesday, May 13, in the evening (6 pm PST) and the workshop begins May 21 and will go for 6 weeks.

Please register for the free preview call here:

http://www.garywgoldstein.com/3keys1

I’m looking forward to revealing tactics that move projects and careers forward, and answering everyone’s questions.

What compels some people to quit in the face of adversity and rejection, while others pursue their dream with a single-minded sense of purpose ? Why is quitting not an option for some ? What force of will fuels people to rise above bad circumstances or a string of initial failures ?

The rags-to-riches story of John Paul deJoria personifies the American Dream. Spending much of his youth in a street gang in East Los Angeles, John Paul deJoria was repeatedly admonished by his high school math teacher that he would “never, ever succeed at anything in life.” After a couple of years in the Navy, deJoria aimlessly floated through a series of jobs, from janitor, to pumping gas, to bicycle repair, to selling encyclopedias, insurance and copier machines. Still in his twenties and too proud to ask for help, deJoria found himself homeless, sleeping in his car. Eventually he landed a job for $650 a week with Redken Laboratories, the leading professional hair salon product company. When he was fired by Redken, deJoria approached his friend Paul Mitchell, a leading hair designer and, with $750 of borrowed funds, they partnered in a new hair styling product enterprise. The ‘enterprise’ consisted of a post office box and phone answering machine. Visiting salons door-to-door, they offered to do free demonstrations – a sales strategy never before used in the business. They even offered a full money-back guarantee if a salon did not sell 100% of all their products. Despite their boldy innovative approach, the majority of doors were slammed in their faces. That was then. Today, the company’s annual revenues top $1 billion. Although unable to afford color packaging when starting out, their products bear their black and white brand to this day – a reminder of their humble beginnings.

Fran Harris proudly wears a ring. Playing for the Houston Comets the very first season the WNBA was formed, Fran’s talent as a professional athlete was the stuff of legend. Yet, it’s the personal side of her journey that makes Fran a true champion. Growing up in a modest section of Dallas, Texas, Fran’s mother died when Fran was in her teens and, while two of her brothers went to jail, one of them also suffered a serious issue with drugs. Not having a formidable success model in her world, Fran was nonetheless determined not to be a teenage mother or fall prey to drugs, but to make a better life for herself. Fran began playing NCAA basketball while at the University of Texas at Austin. Later, amidst the politics of the sports world, Fran was cut from the U.S. Olympic Women’s basketball team, and swore she’d never play basketball again. With degrees in journalism, she went on to get her Ph.D. in business adminstration and become a successful young entrepreneur. Then the WNBA was announced. It was 1997 and Fran hadn’t played basketball in over eight years. But her dream was rekindled. She decided on the spot she had to play in the first-ever season of this new professional league. Fran announced to friends inside and outside the sports world that she was going to try out. Every last person gave her reasons not to do it. She was too old, she hadn’t played in too many years, she was out of shape, she shouldn’t risk the business success she’d worked so hard to achieve, she was 30 years old ! Despite the odds – there were only two spots available on the Houston Comets team – Fran didn’t listen. She began training daily and changed everything – the way she ate, the way she walked, the way she spoke – all in pursuit of her single-minded goal. When she entered the gym for final tryouts, Fran faced 250 younger women athletes all vying for the very same two spots. Fran was chosen to play for the Houston Comets, and the team went on to win the first seaon’s championship. Fran wears that ring to this day as a reminder that no force should keep a person from the life they deserve.

John Grisham is one of the world’s best-selling authors, with over 250 million books in print in dozens of languages, and whose books have given us some of the greatest films of our time. Before turning to writing, Grisham was devoted to the idea of being a baseball player. That dream was dashed when he was cut from his college baseball team. Grisham went on to become a lawyer, practicing in a small town firm for a decade. In 1984, having witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year old rape victim, Grisham began writing his first novel. What if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants ? Three years later, he completed a manuscript entitled “A Time to Kill”. The rejections came fast and often, and for a long while thereafter. Publishers and publishing agents seemed unanimous in their response. It was only persistence that finally found Grisham’s manuscript picked up by a small press that printed a limited number of copies of his book. Throughout, Grisham never waivered and busily went to work authoring his second novel, ‘The Firm’, which went on to become the seventh bestselling novel of 1991. Grisham’s novels connected with audiences worldwide, and films spawned by many of his works, including ‘The Client’, ‘The Pelican Brief’ and ‘The Runaway Jury’ went on to enjoy stunning commercial success.

Have you ever suffered a defeat or fallen short of a goal ? When faced with great difficulty or repeat rejection in the past, has your habit been to abandon your vision ? Did you somewhere deep inside feel you cheated yourself or that if you’d only dug a bit deeper or tried a slightly different approach, you might have met with success ?

Either you determine what constitutes the difference between a success in the making and a failure, or you allow others to make that judgement for you. Either you persist and adopt strategies with unflagging determination to realize your result, or you give way to your doubts, fears and perceptions of what others might think.

One of the greatest architects of all time, Frank Lloyd Wright, said “I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” Yet as Seth Godin wrote: “Persistence isn’t using the same tactics over and over. Persistence is having the same goal over and over.”

Having graduated college and determined to become a criminal defense lawyer, a young man had his heart set on working for a particular foundation located in a ghetto that provided legal defense and other social services for its community. This was to be his training ground and leg up to get into the law school of his choice. With no experience, the foundation would not hire him. Nonetheless, he showed up week after week, insisting they accept him as a volunteer intern for one year. Finally, they relented. For one year, he learned legal research, interviewed witnesses, did absolutely anything asked of him and learned everything he could. Near the end of that year, he received a rejection letter from the only law school he wanted to attend. Having given his all, working long hours and devoting himself to the foundation, the community and the work, he was devastated. Upon learning the news and unbeknownst to him, three young attorneys from the foundation had secretly and immediately set a meeting that very afternoon with the dean of the law school. Putting their reputation and that of the foundation on the line, they surrounded the dean, insisting she grant a wild card admission on the spot. Champagne in hand, they returned to deliver the surprise news.

I was that young man. And I was amazed to the point of being speechless. These three attorneys canceled their court calendars for an entire afternoon to do everything in their power to deliver my dream. This was their way of expressing their appreciation for my persistence and dedication, for the value I contributed to make their work and the foundation’s mission a bit more successful, for being a positive and consistent presence, and for volunteering my best.

Have you ever been amazed by people going out of their way to do something extraordinary for you ? Have you ever wondered what inspires people to take such action and be so generous of spirit ? Can you conjure up the feelings of wonder, appreciation and joy that flow from being on the giving or receiving end of such bold and generous moments ?

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s willingness to go above and beyond, to make choices and take actions that might well be considered ‘extraordinary’.

That moment was a powerful reminder of something so central to a successful life. Much hinges on the quality of relationships we create for ourselves, and how fully and authentically we invest ourselves in these primary human relationships. As Aristotle said: “In the arena of human life, the… rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.”

I’ve been slowly writing my book “Tactical Toolbelt for Screenwriters: Success Strategies to Market and Grow Your Passion as a Career”. It’s nearly finished. The real success of my teleseminar – “Scaling the Great Wall of Hollywood” – inspired me massively and, as soon as it ended, I launched back into my book with even more enthusiasm and real world desire to impact others in a positive way.

The astonishing success of my seminar amazed even me. The amount of hands-on, concrete simple strategies I was able to squeeze into that course, and the amount of real-world traction people experienced in just over a handful of weeks exceeded my every hope and expectation.

It was so jam-packed, I had to add two additional Q+A sessions to insure everyone’s questions got 100% answered. And that was on top of the usual hour of Q+A at the end of every week’s regular class. The content, questions and group mastermind elements were unimaginably energetic and value-laden.

The seminar ended the week before Xmas and, over the phone and via an outpouring of emails, the group was clearly disappointed for the course to come to an end. These few dozen completely committed writers and producers participated every week from Canada, Australia, all over the U.S. I’ll continue to mentor quite a few.

The best part: I consistently receive emails delivering more incredibly good news – real world results – from quite a few of the screenwriters and producers in the course. The majority have taken major action based on tailored strategies, and I see more good news is just going to keep coming in.

It just didn’t matter where they’re from, what age they are, what level of experience in the film business. Knowing how to be an effective ‘advocate’ for their film projects only depends on their willingness to get in the game. And this teleseminar proved that in spades.

Using simple strategies, learning how to network in a very targeted way, how to truly get in the door (via phone, email, social marketing and beyond) and get ‘heard’ and get read… that’s the stuff of moving a creative career forward. And that’s precisely what happened and continues to happen.

So the course truly motivated me to launch back into the book and get it done. It proved to me the power and value and need for this very focused approach and set of step-by-step tools for anyone who wants to drastically increase their likelihood of making it in Hollywood.

I was so amped up and inspired by the teleseminar, by the massive response and results being reported, that it lit a fire in me to spend most of the holidays working on my manuscript. I’ve only a couple of more chapters to revise, a few more dynamic tools to layer into some of the various sections, but overall the book as a powerful set of career-advancing tools has clearly come into full focus.

I’m incredibly grateful and appreciative of the many who just spent the better part of two months with me. They deserve enormous kudos for their dedication to growing their careers, for jumping into action, making half an hour a day available to master simple but powerful techniques.

They showed me just how realistic it is to transform valuable information into smart action and quickly achieve results. In less than one year, I plan to publish a series of success stories from this group and celebrate their ‘wins’. I feel genuinely honored to know them and to have mentored screenwriters and producers with this level of commitment.