Author: Elise L. Connors

Elise Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book

3 Reasons Why You Should Constantly Talk About Your Book on Social Media

Book marketing professionals often discuss the importance of brands (authors, books, etc.) embracing the idea of transparent and natural engagement with users of social media. What if you don’t agree? Are there ever good reasons for constant promotion of your book on social media sites? Sure, here are just a few of the best:

  • You like annoying others. Sure, people are on social media sites to start, build, and grow relationships, but they want to hear about your book book all of the time. Not really. People want to connect with relevant people who engage/participate in relevant discussions. If you annoy them, they will either ignore you or disconnect (unlike, unfriend, unfollow, etc.) from you.
  • You know that everyone needs to know about your book, and they all need to buy it. Target markets? Who needs ’em? Your book was written in gold, and there’s no reason they wouldn’t want to read it. Not necessarily. Every product on the market has a target market. Think about it… not everyone is interested in even the most common things – TV, internet, telephone service, etc. Why would your book be any different? Define your target market and aim to connect with them in a natural way.
  • You want to be ignored. For every person who ignores you, there are 100 more people who will listen, right? Not exactly. People that you connect with are not “a dime a dozen.” They also don’t grow on trees. Cherish the relationships you have built with the goal of building even more meaningful relationships.

Social media can be a powerful book marketing tool – especially if used correctly by authors who take the scenic self-publishing route. You don’t have a traditional publisher standing behind you or throwing their marketing dollars at your book. So, you have to figure out how to “go it alone.”

Interacting with new potential readers on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. could be a potential goldmine for opening the door to earning even more royalties from your book. You not only have a chance to connect with people that you already know, but you can meet new people and form new relationships. Make every opportunity count!

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com.Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist self-publishing authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.
Elise Speaks

Screenplays: Five Key Moments

Last week we covered the three acts essential to every story, and every screenplay. Within those three acts are five specific moments, called “key moments,” that move the plot along and strengthen the power of the main characters.

1.) Inciting Incident/Point of Attack
Every movie – without exception – has an inciting incident, a moment when the story first hints at the conflict to come. Most often, the inciting incident occurs near the end of the first act, but many films plunge into the main action right from the beginning.

2.) Lock In
This is the point at which the protagonist is locked into the conflict around which the story revolves. This plot point, usually at the end of the first act, launches the character into his quest to solve the problem that defines the film.

3.) First Culmination.
The first culmination is the point at which the protagonist solves a problem that is important to the story but not the main conflict, usually midway through Act Two.

4.) Main Culmination
The conclusion of the second act sees the resolution of the main tension or conflict …

5.) Third Act Twist
… but our protagonist is tested once again in Act Three. While a script can certainly resolve without a final monkey wrench, this plot device is useful for revealing or further illuminating the changes that have taken place in the characters’ lives.

While this is an exceedingly simplified overview of the elements of a screenplay, mastering these concepts is an important first step to understanding how a “formula” can help a writer produce a well-organized screenplay.

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com.Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist self-publishing authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.
Elise Speaks

Screenplays: The Essential Three Acts

A professor I once knew used to boil down good storytelling into a very simple mantra: “Every story has to have a beginning, a middle and an end.”

Well, duh! I know, I know … It seems like a no-brainer – and it sort of is – but when it comes to movie scripts that work the way they’re supposed to, these elements, the three “acts” of a story, are crucial. Not only that, but these stages of storytelling require very specific ingredients that, when combined properly and precisely, make for a compelling script.

Act One: Story Set-up
The first act of your script must immediately and clearly set the tone and establish a theme for the film. Is your story a light-hearted comedy, or a quirky superhero caper? This beginning not only must introduce your main characters, but should define their weakness, tensions, conflicts, objectives and what’s at stake for them. Near the end of the first act, the inciting incident occurs. It’s the moment in the story when you lay out the important conflict that defines your tale.

Act Two: Obstacles
The second act revolves around the main character’s attempts to resolve the conflict introduced in Act One. The character is confronted with an obstacle or a series of obstacles. The script must describe in visual terms the character’s attempts to overcome. It is in Act Two that the screenwriter can introduce a subplot that runs parallel to the primary conflict. Throughout this act, the main characters should be further developed; it should be clear in this act how the efforts to deal with the conflict are leading to change in the characters.

Act Three: Story Resolution
New tensions and conflicts are introduced in Act Three, but this time changes in protagonist’s outlook lead him to confront this tension in a different way. The final act is where plot twists provide unsuspected but welcomed surprises, as well as the “obligatory scene” during which the script delivers some sort of anticipated payoff to the audience. Lastly, the final conflict is resolved and the audience gets a glimpse into the characters’ new realities.

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com.Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist self-publishing authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.
Elise Speaks

Scriptwriting 101: Show, Don’t Tell

Books are a wonderful thing. A writer can put us right inside a character’s head, simply by telling us flat-out what he’s thinking. Book authors have the luxury of being able to spell out in crystal-clear terms what a character is plotting, what she’s doing, why she’s doing it and what was on her mind at the moment.

Movies don’t speak the same language. Film is just as vivid, but in a much different way. As a book author, you know exactly how to tell your story – just spell it all right out. However, if you’re telling a tale for a movie audience, you have to get the feel for conveying many of your most important ideas visually.

So keep this mantra in your head as you rewrite for the silver screen: Show, don’t tell. Keep these rules in mind as you develop your screenplay.

  • Slow the chatter. Too much dialogue is a scene killer; it bogs down or interrupts the action. It’s usually dull, so please, don’t overdo it. In fact, don’t do it at all where you don’t absolutely have to.
  • Describe your action. Emphasis on action. Describe what your characters do as the story plays out. Omit descriptions of what motivates them to carry out these actions; unless your movie has a narrator, there’s no way to convey these to a viewing audience. Show motivation with solid, tangible actions or through the arrangement of scenes.
  • Allow for interpretation. This is a difficult concept for many to grasp, but it’s important to leave wiggle room for a set designer, producer, director and, ultimately, actors to interpret your script and bring it to life. It needs to be specific enough to convey a clear story, yet vague enough to allow these players to envision all the possibilities. After all, picturing the potential is what sells scripts in the first place. To that end, resist the urge to write instructions to your actors and director into your script. Instead of writing “Bill looks sad and places the manila envelope in the mailbox,” go with a looser “Bill places the envelope in the mailbox.” Let the ultimate owners of the script decide the character’s demeanor and other visuals that convey the action.

Frame of mind is half the battle. If you can keep these goals in view, your screenplay will quickly take shape.

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com.Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist self-publishing authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.
Elise Speaks

Big Book to Big Screen: Arranging Your Story for Your First Screenplay

Writers already know all the vital elements of storytelling: antagonists, protagonists, the inciting incident, plot points, character development, and all that juicy conflict that makes for a compelling page-turner. Book authors explore these elements in great depth over dozens, even hundreds, of pages of prose. What stymies many accomplished authors is how to adapt these often lengthy tomes to the much more concise screenplay format.

There’s no question — a movie must tell in roughly 120 script pages what an author usually tells in several times as many pages of single-spaced paragraphs. Paring down that kind of volume can seem like an insurmountable task, but if you organize your book a different way, you’ll be off and running before you know it.

Many writers find it useful to begin the screenwriting process on notecards. This is essentially another way to outline your script, but notecards allow you to rearrange, add, and remove elements easily. Start by writing the title and brief summary of each scene in your book on a notecard. (A scene is a short, self-contained segment of a story that takes place in a specific time and/or place.) If you’re a beginner, consider writing down even those scenes you don’t expect to include in your final script. These may prove useful to you as you determine what other scenes to drop, add, or combine.

Next, decide whether you want to tell your story in chronological order or some other fashion and arrange your cards in that order. Once this is done, you can begin paring down.

Paring down your scenes for film format may be the most difficult part of the process. Writers fall in love with their own words. Cutting them or telling the story without them (using visuals instead) can make a writer feel as though the heart and soul of their work is lost. But the Big Screen is a different animal.

Flip through your notecards and pull out all scenes that don’t a.) advance the plot or b.) develop your main characters – all of them. Be merciless. If that charming café scene does little more than look pretty and show verbal prowess, it has to go. Your visual story will be all the better for it.

Elise Connors ABOUT ELISE L. CONNORS:
Elise works as the Manager of Author Support of Outskirts Press.  She also contributes to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com.

Elise and a group of talented book marketing experts assist self-publishing authors and professionals who are interested in getting the best possible exposure for their book.