INTRO TO FREE ONLINE VERSION
The original MYSAM (Make Your Story A Movie) book was traditionally published by Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin in 2012. What you’re reading now is a sort of v1.5, partially updated while I work on MYSAM v2.0, which will feature expanded coverage, including information on digital/streaming and series, which are far more important now than they were when MYSAM first appeared. This version 1.5 may go offline when v2.0 comes out.
If you’d like to be notified when new MYSAM chapters and other material (full-length interviews etc.) appear on this site, sign up for the MYSAM mailing list, which should be up and running in June, 2021. I’ll also let you know when v2.0 comes out in book form (and offer you a discount to boot). You’ll get no more than one email a week (probably fewer), and your information will not be shared.
Feel free to link to this page or the MYSAM Book Page, but do not post or otherwise publish or share any of this content elsewhere without prior written permission. Written permission to post online excerpts totaling 500 words or less (all posted excerpts combined) is hereby given, provided you attribute the text to “John Robert Marlow” and include (with each excerpt) a working and clearly-legible link back to this website’s homepage.
This online version is a work-in-progress; should you spot any typos, bad links etc. (here or elsewhere) feel free to drop me a note at the address on the Contact Page.
This website and the Make Your Story A Movie book
© by John Robert Marlow, all rights reserved.
MAKE YOUR STORY A MOVIE: INTRODUCTION — THE POWER OF HOLLYWOOD
“Looking back,” says Rex Pickett, author of the novel Sideways, “I wish I hadn’t taken the measly $5,000 advance from the publisher. Had I waited until the film was released, I’m told the book would have sold for $1,000,000.”
Rex divides his life into before-and-after episodes. “Before the movie, I was nobody. My life was complete shit. The day the movie went into production, I made $300,000. Suddenly everybody wanted something, and I had four agents working for me.” Read more…