I Sold a Screenplay · 17 October 2015
I am so excited. I sold a screenplay.
Actually, I sold a couple screenplays. A couple copies of the same one. Which is completely different from what most people think of as “selling a screenplay.” It means I basically sold a book. That I have made a couple bucks rather than signing a contract for potentially lots of bucks. But that is okay. It also means that I have actually made some money writing.
In this day of self-publishing, it is not uncommon for an unknown like me to make money writing books. There are people in my writing group (I hope that I can still consider myself part of the group since I have not attended in quite some time) who have published books and made a bit of cash. Some of them have done it with the traditional print method of finding a publisher and getting published. Some of them have done it the digital way, via Amazon or other digital publishers. And some of them have done the print on demand way or what some have called “vanity publishing,” paying for somebody to publish their stuff one at a time when somebody wants to buy.
Personally, I have tried to go the “traditional” way without any luck so far. I have sought agents and publishers, but it seems that the writing world is like the rest of the world in the way it operates. You either need to know somebody in the business to help you get started or you run up against that old catch-22 that says in order to get published, you need to already be published. Needless to say, not many publishers or agents are willing to take a chance on a blogger with a few hundred Facebook fans, a few dozen Tritter followers, who knows how many imaginary fans, and a couple actual faithful readers who will admit to reading almost every week (thanks Marc and Mike).
Besides trying to go the traditional publishing way, I have also tried going the vanity route. Print-on-demand was not a common thing back in 1997 when I published Musings of a Mediocre Man. The book is still out there for people to order, but I doubt I made the money back that I spent to publish it. Oh sure, I am glad I did it, but then again, I did not pay the high prices that people pay today. Regardless, I can still say that I have an actual book in print. At least it is in print when people demand it.
I have had a bit of good fortune in the digital publishing arena. Today, I have nine published titles on Amazon.com. Which is not to say that I am raking in the cash, but I have sold a couple copies here and there. And I can say that I am a published author. Even if I am my own publisher and Amazon is my only distributor.
Which brings me back to my original but slightly misleading statement.
I really have sold a couple screenplays. Somebody or somebodies bought them from Amazon. I probably even know the somebodies. But that does not really matter to me. What really matters to me is that people actually spent their hard earned cash to buy something I wrote. Which means that somebody might actually read what I wrote. Which is why I am so excited. Somebody bought one of my screenplays.
© 2015 Michael T. Miyoshi
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