Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 109

Built for Adversity

Human beings are built for adversity. Probably all extant species are, or they wouldn’t still be extant. But we humans in particular—lacking claws, fur, fangs, etc.—have needed the evolutionary edge of being designed for hard times.
Almost every great book or movie is about adversity. Moby Dick, War and Peace, The Hangover. The whole concept of
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Monetizing Slush

My first job in publishing was as editorial assistant (secretary/apprentice) to the editor in chief of a major publishing house (since dissolved and folded into a division of Random House Inc.). One of the first things presented to me was a very large pile of submissions that one and all referred to as the slush
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Laser Targeted Marketing

Continuing with the video chapters of “A Long Tail Business“:
Today’s three are Laser Targeting Marketing, Tribes and Authenticity, and Permission to Intrude. We’re stealing from Seth Godin today—his concepts of a “tribe” and of “permission marketing.”

In a Long Tail business, a presence on the web is essential. Through that presence—a site, a store, a blog—a
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Major Keys and Minor Keys

We were talking last week about thinking in terms of multiple drafts. The corollary is to concentrate on only one objective per draft — e.g., stakes, rhythm, theme, length, and so forth.
Another one I like is Major Key and Minor Key.
I’ll go over a manuscript or screenplay, for example, looking only for these. I’ll ask
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Controlling Your Destiny

Today’s three video chapters of “A Long Tail Business” are Controlling Your Destiny, Cottages and Empires and Job Number One.
As before, each video is about two minutes long. The overarching theme of these three chapters is how starting your own Long Tail business can pay off, not only financially, but in terms of the heart.

In
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Outreach, Part III: The Book Trailer

Two weeks ago I watched a work-in-progress version of Josh Hanagarne’s book trailer.
It’s one of the best I’ve viewed. Why? It tells a story—and left me with something I wanted to share.

That thing that stuck with me the most? His mentions of those people who wouldn’t let him fail—those friends and family members
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Thinking in Multiple Drafts

[Quick note: if you're interested in the videos we started here last Wednesday ("A Long Tail Business"), they continue this week—and for the next month—on Mondays. Click here or on "The Series" drop-down menu above to view the other videos.]
I imbibed this piece of screenwriting wisdom from Jack Epps (“Top Gun,” “Dick Tracy”) a few
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Barriers to Entry

Last Wednesday Shawn and I launched a new series called “A Long Tail Business.” It’s a video series. We posted the first three videos—each about two minutes long—on “Writing Wednesdays.”
Now we’re switching over to this Monday slot. We’ll have three more videos today, then three more for each of the following three Mondays. Fifteen “chapters”
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The Pareto Principle Meets the Long Tail

Remember last week when I wrote that Steve Pressfield’s publishing company, Black Irish Books, had sold 85% of the number of THE WAR OF ARTs that his Big Six publisher had sold per year? A few people who read the piece thought I overstated the viability of book publishing as a long tail business.
The gist
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A Long Tail Business

We’re gonna try something different this week. Instead of a post, I’m going to put up a video. Actually three videos, each about two minutes long.

Here’s what this is about:
After Shawn and I started Black Irish Books, we had the nutty idea to go into a film studio and talk about the process—why we decided
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