Your marketing starts with E-script

Just as the Internet has opened up new avenues for filmmakers to get their movies distributed and seen online, writers also now have the opportunity to upload their manuscripts and have them beamed directly onto computer hard drives and into mobile devices.Screenwriters can now publish their screenplays for Kindle and Nook e-book readers, as well as for various print-on-demand services. Screenplays aren’t normally thought of as publishable, unless they’ve been written by high-profile writers like William Goldman or the Coen brothers. Still there are examples of filmmakers who built part of their reputation by selling their screenplays in printed form. The most significant example of this is Spike Lee, whose relentless self-promotion early in his career included a published production journal and screenplay for each of his films. Dave Trottier self-published “The Screenwriter’s Bible”, which ultimately became a top seller in its market, with total sales of nearly 300,000 copies.

However, nobody seems to have really found the right format, connected movie scripts with a viable market of readers, or provided an easy way for screenwriters to make the transition. Ken Miyamoto, professional screenwriter and producer with many studio meetings under his belt (Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, etc.), thinks he’s solved the problem.

You have been a professional screenwriter for many years. What made you create eScriptsHub.com?

Rejection. As screenwriters, we pour our hearts and souls into our stories. We spend anywhere from a few months to a year or more on each script that we write. And what do we want to do the moment we finish that final draft? We want to take it to people that can get it made.

And then what happens? Most of the time … nothing. Even making a sale on a spec script is damn near impossible these days. That’s what is unfortunately unique about screenwriters. We only have one platform for our work to be seen. We want people to see it on the screen. If the scripts aren’t produced in whatever fashion, nobody sees it.

Then I started to look at my own spec scripts, thinking, “Gosh, I’d like them to have an audience.” Then I started to look at the current craze of e-books. Self-publishing e-books on Amazon let undiscovered writers attract hundreds of thousands of readers.

Thus my idea of e-scripts was born. The thought was to create a hybrid of e-books and movie screenplays. To create a format that popped off of the screen of those Kindles, iPads, and PCs.

eScriptsHub.com itself started as a drop page to my own eScripts. Then I began to think that if I really wanted this new format and platform to grow, we’re going to need to drive a universal format to offer readers some consistency. So I created the Hub to be a central gathering point for this format and platform, offering screenwriters everything they need and also offering readers a place to learn more.

How is an eScript different in format from a regular script?

I heard readers complaining many of the scripts self-published on Amazon were converted PDFs. They look horrible on Kindles, Nooks, tablets, and PCs. That format and the fonts that we normally write screenplays with just don’t pop off of the screen like an e-book.

The format changes that I eventually made to eScripts came to me by chance. I eventually discovered that moving almost everything to the left margin made the reading so much better.
Beyond that, with eScripts, we’re allowed to use chapter headings, images, and can allow ourselves to use an extra few lines or so here and there in our scene descriptions because this format doesn’t make us abide by Hollywood standards.

Why would ordinary people read eScripts?

To me, reading screenplays is a whole new medium of storytelling for readers. A visual medium. It’s the perfect hybrid of literature and watching movies; two of the world’s most favorite pastimes. Besides, the exciting factor for readers is that it lets them experience a whole story, told in visual flare, in just two hours’ worth of reading. eScripts are perfect for lunch breaks, late night reads before bed, while waiting for the flights in the airport, etc.

If the format is easy to read, would it make sense for development professionals to read all scripts in eScript format?

That would be a big leap for them. Creatures of habit. Personally, I think it would make a real difference, especially with the advent of iPhones, iPads, tablets, Kindles, Kindle Readers, Nooks, etc. But easier said than done.

Why would screenwriters like their un-produced scripts to be published as eScripts?

By all means, screenwriters should go the film industry route to try and get their scripts packaged, sold, and produced. The reality of it is that chances are that’s not going to happen. So if it isn’t happening, with self-publishing your scripts as eScripts, you expect a Plan B to be implemented. You have a secondary platform.

And who knows what happens then? The possibilities are endless. In the end, the short answer to this question is that it offers screenwriters multiple platforms instead of just one. And with multiple platforms come multiple opportunities. And with multiple opportunities come better chances for our dreams to come true.

b) Read the article again to find 10 Complex Object forms.