The Creative Writer's Companion: Selling Your Ideas for Movies, Books, Electronic Media, and More

One would be wise to focus not on this book's title, but on its subtitle. The book has little to do with creative writing. It has everything to do with creative marketing, for people who write--for people who, like Stan Corwin, see the word exploit and its derivatives as having positive connotations. Not that we have anything against milking an idea for all it's worth ... we just don't want anyone to be misled. What Corwin is interested in here is creating a product "that can be marketed in several different areas." Forget the old "if you loved the book, see the movie" cliché, says Corwin. "If you loved the book," he says, "see the cable special, listen to the tape, play the electronic game, and put the calendar on your desk."

"Your expertise in the field you are writing about is a tangible asset in your book presentation," says Corwin, and indeed, he is unusually qualified to have written this book. In the late 1980s, he published a book-tape combo called Is Elvis Alive? that became a New York Times bestseller. That segued into a television special, an is-Elvis-dead toll-call poll (1 million people paid $1 each to make that call), and a toll-free Elvis-product line, which featured yet another book and a video. Corwin was there at the beginning for Dr. Stillman's Quick Weight Loss Diet, Al Secunda's The 15 Second Principle, Elaine Partnow's Quotable Woman, and Helen Santmyer's And Ladies of the Club. "There is a whole new media world out there ready to be exploited for the right commercial media or book property," says Corwin. You just have to hit upon next year's "trendy topical subjects" and know how to market them. Corwin's primer, 172 pages though type size and white space are both generous, discusses the creation and protection of your idea, the media marketplace, the publishing world, and the various spin-off markets: movies, television, audio and video, the Internet, and merchandising. --Jane Steinberg