Warren Adler's Blog, page 39

Creativity Over Coinage: Why Making Money Is Never My Objective For Writing Literary Fiction

One of the greatest biographies ever written was James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson. In the biography is a quote by Mr. Johnson that many writers repeat ad infinitum: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” I must confess that, as per his universal claim, I am that blockhead.

Giving the benefit of doubt to the great Mr. Johnson, I do believe he meant something far more subtle and layered: writing, after all, is a broad term. It is a skill that applies to many, many occupations, including journalists, copywriters, screenwriters, commercial writers, and non-fiction and fiction writers in all categories.

The Dance of the Coin

My definition of what constitutes “writing” is fiction literary writing: the novel, the short story, the play, the poem, the kind of writing that is often referred to as an art form. Those of us who are readers have no trouble with that definition and can easily provide a long list of suitable authors and books.

If this is what James Boswell means when he refers to “writing,” then I must respectfully take issue with him, because he is suggesting that literary writers can avoid blockhead status only when they are paid for writing.

Must literary writers, including myself, quell the urges of our pen unless and until it includes a monetary transaction? Does he mean that a literary writer should not be published unless they are paid for it? This implies that our writing must be bought before it qualifies as real writing. Believe me, I am not against other writers performing their art exclusively to the dance of the coin. If I followed that course, I may have greatly enhanced my personal wealth. My assertion is that no literary writer who respects their art should consider money as their first objective.

My Failure (Or Not)

My failing, I suppose, is that I just can’t “write to order.” It violates my DNA. I confess I have tried to do it in the past with very spotty and unsatisfying results. The fact is that I, along with many of my fellow writers, have found that we can only write what we want, when we want, and how we want. Thankfully, I had discovered this preference early on, and I have spent the better part of my life writing works dictated to me by my personal muse. If others are willing to pay the price of reading my material then fine. If they are not willing to pay the price for my writing, but want to read it just the same, there is a vast network of libraries available. I might cry in my gut, but never show a shed tear.



Back in the Day 

Much of my work has been with novels. In my early days I worked with publishers on the proviso that I first suggest what I want to write, and then I write it. Early in my career the wonderful Editor in Chief of Putnam, the late beloved Clyde Taylor, picked my second novel out of a two-paragraph mass mailing, and asked me to send it on. Its title was Banquet Before Dawn, a story of gentrification in Brooklyn in the sixties. He published it with little changes. It was not a bestseller, by far, but the satisfaction of seeing it published was enough. Taylor also supported my yet to be written book Trans-Siberian Express, through the exchange of the following dialog:

Me: “I want to write a love story that takes place mostly on the Trans-Siberian Express, the longest rail journey in the world, which goes from Moscow through Siberia to the Sea of Japan.”

I remember him biting into his sandwich, chewing for a moment, and then saying: “Write it.”

He did arrange an advance, not very much if I recall, but that, for me, was simply a token bonus. I would have written it anyway. Ironically, it was immediately bought for the movies for the munificent sum of $225,000, a bonanza in those days. As it happens, it went into development hell and never reached the silver screen. But it did get published all over the world and continues to be read to this day. It is having a resurrection through digital publishing, which I embraced in the late nineties when the rights to all of my published novels were reversed back to me.

Creativity over Coinage

I know my opinion will not be universally hailed. As they say, we don’t live by money alone, but we can’t really live in our contemporary society without it. The image of the uncompromising starving artist composing in his or her cold garret is a classic example that illustrates the fearful fate for the unrecognized and unheralded. I doubt if such an outcome ever inhibited the true artist, whose real nourishment comes from their work.

For those of us who aspire to the high art of literary writing, similarly to painters, composers, musicians, and others who prize, above all, discovering insight into the human condition, we will always put creation over the clink of coinage. It is, of course, a romantic notion, and I have a feeling that James Boswell’s blockhead assertion would not have applied. All things considered, what are your thoughts on the struggle between commerce and creativity?

 

You may also like Pen or Computer: Which is Better for Creativity?

Warren Adler’s Newest Mystery-Thriller, Treadmill, is Officially Available. 

 

The post Creativity Over Coinage: Why Making Money Is Never My Objective For Writing Literary Fiction appeared first on Warren Adler.

Creativity Over Coinage: Why Making Money Is Never My Objective For Writing

One of the greatest biographies ever written was James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson. In the biography is a quote by Mr. Johnson that many writers repeat ad infinitum: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” I must confess that, as per his universal claim, I am that blockhead.

Giving the benefit of doubt to the great Mr. Johnson, I do believe he meant something far more subtle and layered: writing, after all, is a broad term. It is a skill that applies to many, many occupations, including journalists, copywriters, screenwriters, commercial writers, and non-fiction and fiction writers in all categories.

The Dance of the Coin

My definition of what constitutes “writing” is fiction literary writing: the novel, the short story, the play, the poem, the kind of writing that is often referred to as an art form. Those of us who are readers have no trouble with that definition and can easily provide a long list of suitable authors and books.

If this is what James Boswell means when he refers to “writing,” then I must respectfully take issue with him, because he is suggesting that literary writers can avoid blockhead status only when they are paid for writing.

Must literary writers, including myself, quell the urges of our pen unless and until it includes a monetary transaction? Does he mean that a literary writer should not be published unless they are paid for it? This implies that our writing must be bought before it qualifies as real writing. Believe me, I am not against other writers performing their art exclusively to the dance of the coin. If I followed that course, I may have greatly enhanced my personal wealth. My assertion is that no literary writer who respects their art should consider money as their first objective.

My Failure (Or Not)

My failing, I suppose, is that I just can’t “write to order.” It violates my DNA. I confess I have tried to do it in the past with very spotty and unsatisfying results. The fact is that I, along with many of my fellow writers, have found that we can only write what we want, when we want, and how we want. Thankfully, I had discovered this preference early on, and I have spent the better part of my life writing works dictated to me by my personal muse. If others are willing to pay the price of reading my material then fine. If they are not willing to pay the price for my writing, but want to read it just the same, there is a vast network of libraries available. I might cry in my gut, but never show a shed tear.



Back in the Day 

Much of my work has been with novels. In my early days I worked with publishers on the proviso that I first suggest what I want to write, and then I write it. Early in my career the wonderful Editor in Chief of Putnam, the late beloved Clyde Taylor, picked my second novel out of a two-paragraph mass mailing, and asked me to send it on. Its title was Banquet Before Dawn, a story of gentrification in Brooklyn in the sixties. He published it with little changes. It was not a bestseller, by far, but the satisfaction of seeing it published was enough. Taylor also supported my yet to be written book Trans-Siberian Express, through the exchange of the following dialog:

Me: “I want to write a love story that takes place mostly on the Trans-Siberian Express, the longest rail journey in the world, which goes from Moscow through Siberia to the Sea of Japan.”

I remember him biting into his sandwich, chewing for a moment, and then saying: “Write it.”

He did arrange an advance, not very much if I recall, but that, for me, was simply a token bonus. I would have written it anyway. Ironically, it was immediately bought for the movies for the munificent sum of $225,000, a bonanza in those days. As it happens, it went into development hell and never reached the silver screen. But it did get published all over the world and continues to be read to this day. It is having a resurrection through digital publishing, which I embraced in the late nineties when the rights to all of my published novels were reversed back to me.

Creativity over Coinage

I know my opinion will not be universally hailed. As they say, we don’t live by money alone, but we can’t really live in our contemporary society without it. The image of the uncompromising starving artist composing in his or her cold garret is a classic example that illustrates the fearful fate for the unrecognized and unheralded. I doubt if such an outcome ever inhibited the true artist, whose real nourishment comes from their work.

For those of us who aspire to the high art of literary writing, similarly to painters, composers, musicians, and others who prize, above all, discovering insight into the human condition, we will always put creation over the clink of coinage. It is, of course, a romantic notion, and I have a feeling that James Boswell’s blockhead assertion would not have applied. All things considered, what are your thoughts on the struggle between commerce and creativity?

 

You may also like Pen or Computer: Which is Better for Creativity?

Warren Adler’s Newest Mystery-Thriller, Treadmill, is Officially Available. 

 

The post Creativity Over Coinage: Why Making Money Is Never My Objective For Writing appeared first on Warren Adler.

“So You Want to Become a Famous Self-Published Author?” featured in FACTS&ARTS

Warren Adler’s “So You Want to Become a Famous Self-Published Author?” featured in FACTS&ARTS

Read the entire article here

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Actor/Producer Julian McMahon Along With Director Charlie Loventhal and Grey Eagle Films to Produce Adaptation of Warren Adler’s Novel FUNNY BOYS

Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck and Fantastic Four) and Charlie Loventhal (Mr Write and Meet Market), in partnership with Grey Eagle Films/Grey Eagle Development,  will be developing and producing FUNNY BOYS, based on the novel by Warren Adler. Paradigm will package the project.

Adler is best known for the blockbuster novel “The War of the Roses“ which spawned an iconic film and international play. Set in the 1930s in Brownsville Brooklyn  and the famed New York State, Catskills, FUNNY BOYS, follows the story of Mickey Fine whose ambition is to be a comedian and follow in the footsteps of the great  names of the era; Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Joan Rivers, and scores of others who got their start in the many Borscht Belt hotels.

Jonathan Robert Adler, CEO, along with Grey Eagle COO, Stephen Greenwald, former President of DeLaurentis Entertainment Group and Embassy Pictures, have  already launched a number of development/producing deals.

FUNNY BOYS is just one of a number of Warren Adler novels in various stages of development by Grey Eagle Films. Other Grey Eagle projects include THE WAR OF  THE ROSES: THE CHILDREN adapted by screenwriter and Novelist Alex McAulay and codeveloped by Permut Presentations, TARGET CHURCHILL, co-developed by Solution Entertainment Group, MOURNING GLORY, to be adapted by award-winning writer and director Karen Leigh Hopkins, CULT, also to be adapted by Alex  McAulay, CAPITOL CRIMES, a TV series based on Warren Adler’s Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series, co-developed by Sennet Entertainment, with Eric Overmyer as  showrunner, and soon to be announced thrillers TORTURE MAN, RESIDUE and THE WOMANIZER

The post Actor/Producer Julian McMahon Along With Director Charlie Loventhal and Grey Eagle Films to Produce Adaptation of Warren Adler’s Novel FUNNY BOYS appeared first on Warren Adler.

“So You Want to be a Famous Self-Published Author?” featured on THE HUFFINGTON POST

Warren Adler’s “So You Want to be a Self-Published Author?” featured on THE HUFFINGTON POST

Read the entire article here 

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Warren Adler’s “So You Want to Be a Famous Self-Published Author?” featured in PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES

Warren Adler’s “So You Want to Be a Famous Self-Published Author?” featured in PUBLISHING PERSPECTIVES

Read the entire article here.

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So You Want to Be a Famous Self-Published Author?

“It’s so easy to become an author of novels. Others have done it, why not me?”

Authordom



In writing a novel, all you have to do is follow the formula. Classes abound that teach the formulas. Hell, you probably believe you can imagine and create stories as good as any of them. You have things to say, stories to tell, fantastic ideas floating around in your imagination that deserve to be communicated to a vast army of readers. You’ve been validated by your teachers and peers. Maybe a publisher took a chance on your first novel. Okay you didn’t sell that much but the publisher didn’t promote it and you know in your gut it is a great piece of work. It is a prize worth pursuing. You burn to write stories and novels. It is in your genes. You thirst to see your work converted to the big or little screen. And the money? Lots of money rolling in. You’d be lionized at book parties. People would line up for your autograph. You know in your heart you can be the next Hemingway, the next Faulkner, the next Fitzgerald. Your talent deserves the celebrity and prestige of authordom, the shot at immortality.

However, you’ve submitted your ideas to agents and publishers and they barely read a single page. Alright then, you have tried all the traditional ways of getting published. Agents have ignored you. The traditional publishing business is faltering anyhow. Barnes and Noble is going south.

Hire an editor and submit again? Maybe. Or you could find a business created expressly to increase book sales, get it on television, into the movies, adapted for the stage, getting discovered. You go to conferences on digital publishing, get the real skinny from speakers who tell you about how to make it, how they made it. Advice for the self-published author is coming at you from people who tout their expertise, who know how its done, who can offer you the magic ladder that will get you into the stratosphere.

Want it Done? Just Do it Yourself

So you decide to do it yourself, go the Amazon way, make it on your own. You could sit at home and enjoy the fruits of fame and fortune; Amazon has come to your rescue. You can now take your manuscript and convert it to a book with your name on the cover without having to rely on a traditional publisher. Imagine, Amazon can do it all for you, soup to nuts and shazam, there’s your book. No more stigma of the vanity self-publisher. You’re up there with Stephen King or Stuart Woods or Nicolas Sparks and Nora Roberts.

You take the plunge. Amazon welcomes you into their book-selling machine and for all intents and purposes you are what you always dreamed you would be: an author. You are an author, a bona fide author. Your friends and family are proud of you. You receive their plaudits, their congratulations.

Okay, so you don’t quit your day job, but for some, just being published is worth the journey. You are an author, sainted by experience, up there with Dickens, Tolstoy, Balzac, et al.

Now what? Why aren’t the readers stampeding to the cash register to buy your book? Try it at $9.99, then $5.99, then $2.99, then .99 cents. Finally, for free. Imagine the irony of becoming a best seller for free. Hell, you can get all the great sets of classic writers for peanuts as well. You can’t blame Amazon. They made your dream come true; indeed, they have made the dream come true for millions.

The “How to Succeed” boys

You might think I’m putting you on, satirizing the author’s dilemma. I’m not. I’ve been at it for many years, analyzing the process, studying it, experimenting. There is no magic bullet. Call this little exercise a cautionary tale. Better yet, a reality check.

You will, of course, soon discover that you are in a very, very crowded pond, in the company of millions of authors and over three million books on sale. How could readers find you? Oh, they might take a chance for free, or pack you into their Kindle to read some day. Maybe.

Now the “How to Succeed” boys will get you, drag you into their conferences for a price, show you how to stand out from the mix. They will promise you speaking gigs, publicity, discoverability, and on and on. They will tell you to get off your butt and blog like all get out, social network like crazy, create a massive circle of “friends,” network like hell. Cultivate your “friends.” They yearn for communication. Personalize yourself. Tell them your life story. Bond with them. Keep them engaged. It’s hard, time-consuming work. Maybe some of them are actually readers. And finally, push these “friends” to buy your books and, above all, to read them. Stop promoting yourself for just a minute and they will quickly forget you. Getting your name burned into the public conscious is a task requiring all your ingenuity and time. The net is like a bullet train, passing people at warp speed. Getting their attention for any length of time is a paramount. Keeping their attention is a small miracle.

Lady Luck

In no way do I wish to dampen one’s great expectation to become an author. Go for it. Some, with social network skills, optimism, energy, and luck might develop a following. In the end the work will tell. In fact, it’s all about the work. Are your stories worth the effort? Do they engage, connect, inspire, hit the magic gong? If you stay the course, the sales, recognition, celebrity, and fame you crave and hope for will be yours.

In the end, talent and Lady Luck might bring you that great grand prize. As they say, it takes two to tango and, after all, someone does win the lottery.

Warren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses which was made into a hit film and will debut on Broadway. His newest thriller, Treadmill, is available.

This article is also published on Publishing Perspectives and The Huffington Post

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Warren Adler”Are Jews Really Safe in France?” featured in CONSERVATIVE NEWS FLASH

“Are Jews Really Safe in France?” featured in CONSERVATIVE NEWS FLASH 

Read the entire article here

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“Are Jews Really Safe in France?” Featured in FRONTPAGE MAG

Warren Adler’s “Are Jews Really Safe in France?” featured in FRONTPAGE MAG

Read the entire Article here

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“Where is Our Literary Culture Headed?” featured on Edie Melson’s THE WRITE CONVERSATION

Warren Adler’s “Where is Our Literary Culture Headed?” featured on Edie Melson’s THE WRITE CONVERSATION.

Give it a Read Here 

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