This is the last of a series of Q&As with the four featured keynoters for “Pivot. Publish. Prosper,” ASJA’s 46th annual writers’ conference. On Member’s Day, Friday, May 5, Lane Shefter Bishop will be speaking on “Advice from the Hollywood Book Whisperer: Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence.” A multi-award winning producer/director who has received numerous accolades for her work including an Emmy, the DGA Fellowship Award for Episodic Television, among others. Shefter Bishop is also CEO of Vast Entertainment, the premier book-to-screen company, working with heavy hitting production companies like MarVista, Lionsgate, CBS Films, Lifetime and SyFy, to mention a few. She produced “The DUFF” and is currently developing the TV series’ “Anne Perry’s Stranger,” and “Shifters.” She is also the author of Sell Your Story in a Single Sentence; Advice from the Front Lines of Hollywood (W.W. Norton, 2016). CNN has dubbed her “the Book Whisperer of Hollywood.”
Although you’ll need to listen to her talk to get the full Hollywood insider scoop, she shares a few well-chosen thoughts with ASJA Confidential:
Your talk covers loglines and how they can help an author sell their material as well as garner film and TV deals. What exactly is a logline and how does it differ from an elevator pitch? A logline is a one-sentence selling tool that doesn’t just market; it conveys what makes your story unique from all others in that particular genre. For example, I was brought a woman’s personal story about her struggle-filled life involving drugs and prison. To sell it, I focused my logline on the fact that at only 19 years old, she ran the biggest drug cartel in US history – that’s what is unique about her story. An elevator pitch is more of sales tool which outlines an idea in a few seconds or sentences that might cover the time period of an elevator ride. It’s less unique and targeted than a logline.
Why are loglines so important? This sounds terrible, but nobody in Hollywood wants to read, especially a 300-page book. What they do consider are ideas, snappy one-liners and single page synopses. So you can be the best writer in the world, but if the idea isn’t presented in the desired format it won’t sell.
It’s like dropping breadcrumbs; you tempt them with a log line, then a one-pager, then 10 pages of the story itself and then 20 pages more. Slowly but surely they become hooked, and you finally get them to read the whole manuscript. It’s a hell of a process.
You mention that it’s sometimes better to sell a project that’s only been partially completed or is unpublished than one that’s already out there. Can you explain this? As I said before, the challenge is in snagging their interest. And if they think it’s something completely new that they can have a hand in shaping, so much the better. With things that are not yet published, networks and studios get excited because they are getting a sneak peek at something totally new.
I’ve sold a lot of projects based on just an idea or from an unknown author; for example, the material for the in-development movie “Reboot” literally came out of the slush pile of unsolicited material from an agent friend of mine. It was author Amy Tintera’s first book, but within a few months, she had a deal with Fox.
How did you get into the book-to-film business? As a director and producer, I was always on the lookout for material to adapt to TV and film. But out of, say, 300 screenplays only about two were good. With the same number of books, the odds were much higher, closer to about 50. Books are a gold mine for great ideas.
How can writers stand out from the herd? Today there are a lot more buyers, which is amazing. But thanks to self-publishing and all the other options out there, there are a million people selling as well. And, as always, content is king. So the challenge is not only knowing your audience but in consistently giving them the next best thing or potential hit. My best advice:
- Be specific, the more so the better – that’s what makes your material unique!
- The entire plot will never fit into one sentence (nor should it), so instead ask yourself, what is the most unique aspect of my book? That’s what should be in your logline.
With a bestseller, you’re going to have an audience, regardless. So if you come up with something that’s never been done before in a genre that sells, then you have an edge over whatever else is out there.