A Week in Writing #369 - Report From the Front - Lightbox Expo 2021

Hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and, of course, writing.

Before I get too far, I do want to remind you, dear reader, that I do have a book coming out. Powers Squared Issue 12, What's in a Name? Part 3, drops on Wednesday, September 15th. If you want to buy a copy, and, of course, I hope you do, check out our website for links on Wednesday, September 15th.

Now that the commercial is out of the way, on with the rest of the blog.

From time to time, when I attend a convention or in this case, Expo, I like to let you know what I learned. This Friday, I attended the 2021 Lightbox Expo, a virtual event this year. While my sons have been attending Lightbox since its inception in 2019, this year I attended. My goal was to learn more about pitching, which is something I've talked about from time to time in this blog.

There were three different sessions on Friday dealing with pitching: HOW TO PITCH NELVANA with Athena Georgaklis – Head of Development and Marc Hartlen – Development Coordinator; DEVELOPING WITH DISNEY TVA with creative directors Emily Carson (Manager of Development – Disney Channel and Disney +; and Kitty Walsh (Director of Development) – Disney Kids; and METHODS FOR PITCHING WITH BENTO BOX ENTERTAINMENT with Ben Jones – Creative Director, Brooke Keesling – Head Animation Talent, and Chloe Shipco -Development Coordinator.

It was interesting how similar the Nelvana and the Disney Television Animation presentations were in that they seemed to cover many of the same points. Bento Box was a little less organized, scattered and their advice on pitch packets differed greatly from the other two's.

Some of the advice repeats but this is what I came away from the presentations:

While all would prefer for you to have representation before approaching them, only Bento Box won't talk to you without having representation.

The initial pitch packet does not have to be your Production Bible, but rather something short, 3 to 5 pages per Disney and while Nelvana didn't specify a length, they did say short. Only Bento Box, which showed one that Jones had himself done, seemed to be 10 to 15 pages long.

While Bento didn't discuss the length of the meeting, the other two made it clear that you would have 10 to 15 minutes to pitch your idea. Apparently, the usual pitch meeting is about half an hour. The first five minutes are introductory, followed by the pitch, then five minutes for questions, and then five minutes of goodbyes.

Both made it clear that you should rehearse your pitch before you give it. Nelvana acknowledged that you still might be nervous, but they want you to succeed.

Nelvana's advice:

1)  Decide who to bring to the pitch. People in the pitch are there for a reason.

2) Don’t pitch too many ideas at once. No more than two.

3) Pitch should be 10-15 minutes, you may get 30 minutes total.

4) Send creative materials as soon as possible but realize they might not get to it right away. Okay to nudge in a couple of weeks to a month.

5) Take feedback if they give it. But don’t be surprised if there is no feedback. They are very busy.

Disney's advice was more along the lines of their own story pillars. (My apologies if you're wanting to pitch a pre-school show to them, since I wasn't, I didn't really take notes when Kitty Walsh went over what Disney Kids was looking for.)

1) Know your audience: Children are less shielded than in years past. They want to have access to opportunity and empowerment.

2) Certain stories always resonate: Stories about Families, Fish out of water, With great powers come great responsibilities, etc.

3) Disney +'s audience: Kids + Parents, parents without children, looking for appointment viewing.

4) Comedy with Heart: If it’s not funny it’s not going to work; sophisticated comedy, not mean-spirited.

5) Kids like to see themselves in the stories. Diversity was played up but not just race and gender; can be other aspects including neurodiversity, relatable and inspiring characters and worlds.

6) Fantastical Wish Fulfillment: Not just Disney magic, they want stories that matter.

Disney seemed to emphasize know what your story is really about.

What Disney is looking for:

What is your creative vision: What is your show really about: themes, etc.

Visual Development

Characters and Relationships

Original Stories – Not Disney stories

The Pitch Bible should be 3-5 pages in length and include:

Logline/premise

Episode premises: a variety of shows that show emotional range

Character Descriptions: Main Characters and relationships

Visuals

Since the pitch will be a ZOOM call, they recommend a tech rehearsal and to have a backup plan.

Introduce Yourself

Have a visual aid

Do your homework: Will your show fit? Does it already exist on another channel?

Lead with your personal story: Why are you the one telling the story?

PRACTICE YOUR PITCH!

Don't come in with consumer product plans - that will come later.

Leave Behinds – Go Digital

Be Patient – Okay to F/U but they have 70 shows in development at any one time. Keep at it. They are only interested in about 1 out of 100 pitches.

How does one go about pitching? Do Not Send Unsolicited pitches.

Reach out through Representation or set up a general meeting. This is advice all three presentations agreed on, again Bento Box was the only one who won't talk to you without representation.

Disney expects you to drive your pitch through the process of Greenlighting a pilot, which can take 2 to 5 years. And there is no guarantee even if you get to pilot it will become a show. Yes, it sounds like an impossible hill to climb.

They also recommended if the answer is "no" to take it graciously and not "fight" it. There will be other pitches. It's about making connections if nothing else.

Bento Box seemed to have a long view in mind, as in you're just out of school and trying to build a career that will someday lead to your having the opportunity to make a pitch. Not great advice if you're many years out of school and are not willing to wait for 7 to 8 years to make a pitch you have now.

I also attended a presentation that was titled HOW TO GROW AN ONLINE FOLLOWING, hosted by artist Phil Saunders. The actual presentation was really more about how to use your online presence to drive people back to your website and to subscribe to your newsletter. He used a lot of Venn Diagrams to illustrate the desired Flow of Content, which is something I can not recreate here.

He said that creatives have three goals: the need to create, the need for validation, and the need to make money and in his Venn diagrams there are places where the circles overlap.

Saunders is someone with a large social following but even he knows that doesn't mean much when it comes to selling his work. As an example, you might have a 500,000 following. Out of that group, maybe 30,000 would see a particular post but only a few hundred might click on the profile and even fewer will go to the website. A rule of thumb he used was that if 10 people like something, only one will buy it.

He also made the point the goal is to get subscribers to your newsletter. These are people that are more invested in your work. Social media platforms will come and go but people's email addresses rarely change and the fact they've given you an in means they're more interested in your work than someone on say Instagram.

Paul, Trevor, and I did an On the Air with Powers Squared about our experience at the online con, which includes their experience with other presentations, so it might be worth a listen. You can catch it here.

Part of the weekend was spent getting ready for our signing at Golden Apple Comics on the 18th. We have all the issues we need, we think but it's also the peripherals like signage and handouts and on and on. Got a bit of good news: our colorist, Julia Canon, will be going with us. I want her to feel a part of the group even though we're not selling any issues she's worked on just yet.

There are also pages to look at during the week from our artist, Rachel Wells with a few changes along the way. Issue 19, Kamaitachi, is really going to look different than our other issues.

I started a new review this weekend for The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), a silent animated film from Germany, but I didn't get that far as of this writing. While we're talking Trophy Unlocked, this week's Saturday morning review continued our month-long salute to the caped crusader with Paul's review of Batman: Gotham Knight. Game Day Wednesday featured Paul's review of No More Heroes III.

No new queries this week. I have my desired amount out, five, and besides, I had to watch my team, the Dallas Cowboys, lose their opener so time was tighter than normal; you've got to have your priorities.

Did a little work on Skylar, and by a little, I mean a little. Some things get the short shrift and my novel seems to be what gets it. But I did work on it and that's the important thing. It may only be a few minutes a day but I do try to get to it whenever I can.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you again next week. But hope to see you Saturday.

A Week in Writing #368 - Happy Seven Years

Hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and, of course, writing.

Happy 7th Anniversary. Traditionally that would be copper or wool; now it would be Desk Sets, or a Pen and Pencil Sets. The latter doesn't seem all that modern anymore, does it?

I've been writing this blog since September 1, 2014, which seems like ages ago. Everything seems longer ago in the COVID age we live in. It's hard sometimes to imagine life before lockdowns, masks, social distancing, and vaccines. Life without masks seems like a million years ago.

I'll be honest, I'm not always up for writing this every Sunday but that's part of having a routine. You may not always feel like doing it but it's the thing you do. And like it or not, this is something I do. I started this to keep myself honest about writing. If I'm going to blog about what I've done, I've got to do something. Believe it or not, sometimes that is the motivation to write during the week. I feel bad if I write I'm going to do something and I don't do it. You may not care or not, but I feel like I'm making a promise to you and if I don't do it, I'm breaking it.

Case in point, this past Thursday, I made a point of sending out my fifth query, partly because I need to and partly because I wrote that I would. I know I don't keep every promise I make but I do try to be honest here so I'm being honest with myself. Hopefully, that makes sense.

I've tried over the past seven years to share what I learn with you as well. I'm not talking about the ups and downs of my writing life as much as when I attend a conference about writing, I try to share. I figure that's the least I can do. If you're willing to read my missives then I should try to provide information that might be useful.

On that subject, I'm going to virtually attend LightBox starting on Friday. I'm looking for information on pitching and growing audiences, so I'll be sure to pass on that to you next week. Obviously, I don't know the secret sauce of either.

With the BD coming up and the usual work on an issue, Powers Squared has been keeping me pretty busy. A lot of that has been reviewing the work of others, this week our colorist, but I think it's paying off. We're doing the BD (which stands for a French word for what we might call a trade paperback or trade hardback) for one of our on-demand publishers, Artithmeric. They're going to do a Kickstarter to raise money to try and have our book translated so it can be sold in Europe.

Paul and I worked on rewriting some of the dialogue in an effort to improve it. Trevor has finished re-lettering all but a handful of pages as a result. It's really the artwork we can't change but we have worked on a new cover and back cover for the book. So far so good.

We also have a new issue dropping on September 15th and then we're doing a signing on the 18th, which I know I've mentioned before but here it goes again. My sons and I, and hopefully our current colorist, Julia Canon, will be at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles on Saturday the 18th from 1 to 3. We'll have all the issues plus some extras so I'm hoping if you're in the area you will drop by and say hi. If you tell me you read about it here, I'll try to do something special for you.

On other writing, I did some work on the Skylar manuscript several days this week but I'm still going back through what I've written so far. I am making changes and there are more to come, but I think I've sort of mapped it out in my head, just not on paper yet.

As far as reviews go, I did complete the review for Mystery of the Wax Museum, which I believe will see the light of day in October during our usual horror month. I also wrote a new review of Picture Snatcher (1933), which may not get published for a while but at least it's done. Trevor's review of Batman Forver (1995) was this past Saturday's Morning Review and his review of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut for the PS5 went up on Wednesday morning.

I would be remiss not to thank my son Paul, who has been a willing editor on this blog since its inception. This wouldn't be near as good without his help.

Well, that will about do it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #367 - Powers Squared Takes Over

Hope everyone is staying well, getting vaccinated, and, of course, writing.

I know Powers Squared plays a major role every week in my creative space but this week it seems to have, at least temporarily, taken over. Part of that is due to getting ready for our signing on September 18th, the release of Issue 12 on the 15th, getting the Remastered version of Issues 1-5 ready for the Kickstarter in the Fall, and working on our Pitch Packet.

To start the week off, ComiXology rejected our submission, not for content but because there was some pixelation on page 3 of the book as well as other issues with Compression. They also complained that we had set it up under the wrong Series number. To tackle the last one first, for some reason there are two numbers for Powers Squared when we submit, even though they've told us they've removed the unnecessary one. We picked the first one listed but apparently, that's the wrong one. When we resubmitted, there was no way to correct that, so we're hoping our note in the "Tell Us About Your Book" section will explain and they'll tell us the right one to use so we don't have to guess in the future.

As far as the pixelation and compression issues, we went back to Trevor and his original files. He has a new version of Adobe and we're hoping that will do the trick. The other platforms, both print, and digital, did not have any issues.

In the past, we've let Comixology set the release date but we decided to go with the 15th even if they're not ready yet.

I wrote and Paul edited a press release about the signing and the release of the new issue. The first news site I submitted to on Sunday, published it on Sunday. If you regularly read the First Comics News site, you may have already seen it, if not here's a link. As always, if you're in the LA area and want to show some love, the signing is at Golden Apple Comics on September 18 from 1-3. We hope you'll be there.

There were also new pages to review for Issue 19. We even had our artist on our podcast On the Air with Powers Squared on Friday to discuss putting together the issue. She had sent pages earlier in the day and we used the show to talk about one more change we wanted her to make. We also discussed the back cover she's drawn for the BD for the Kickstarter. That's really coming along.

On that topic, Paul and I both individually reviewed the 100 pages Trevor had re-lettered. We have a few changes we need to have made but nothing too significant and nothing that is really his fault. It is interesting to see the first 2 story arcs at one time and see what still needs to be updated. We've been looking at that in conjunction with talking about the pitch packet, which Paul has also edited this week. Oh, the changes we would have made if we only knew what we were doing. Frankly, from a creative point of view, I'm getting tired of the first five issues and want to move on to better issues in the future.

There's more that I could discuss about Powers Squared but hopefully, that gave you a taste of what we've been through.

Let's move on to Trophy Unlocked. I've been tasked with writing two reviews, one for the animated film Batman vs. Two-Face (2017), which I've completed but not posted, and the other is Mystery of the Wax Museum (1932), which we watched on Saturday which I'm only partially finished with. The Batman review is for a planned salute to the Caped Crusader in September and Wax Museum is for October and our salute to horror.

Otherwise, the blog just completed No More Heroes week, with four reviews. On Monday, it was No More Heroes (Wii), on Tuesday it was No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, on Thursday No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Switch), and on Friday Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (+ DLC) (Switch). All were written by Paul, as was Saturday morning's review of Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train.

Despite everything, I did send off a new query on Thursday for Broken People; another email one, the type I prefer. While it is essentially the same query, there are some subtle changes. This time, I did some rewrites on the brief synopsis agents seem to want. So, that brings me up to four.

I also did some more work on Skylar this week, though, honestly, it is never enough time.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #366 - Finally Scheduled a Signing

Hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and, of course, writing.

Well, persistence pays off, at least sometimes. After several months of writing with no response, we finally had a breakthrough with Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles and were able to reschedule our March 13, 2020 signing that was canceled due to COVID. My sons and I, and I hope our current colorist, will be there on September 18th from 1 to 3, Delta permitting. It seems like a long way off and the world can go to shit many times before that date, but here's hoping. I've been buying copies of older issues, the current collection of the first five, and even bought some business cards for San Romero Community College. I hope if you're reading this and want to be supportive, you'll make the effort to come by and say hello.

Oh, by the way, this won't be the only time that you hear about the signing, so don't worry about that.

In other Powers Squared news, we looked at thumbnails for the next eight pages of Issue #19 and reviewed colored pages from Issue #18. Meanwhile, we're still working on the BD for the Artithmeric Kickstarter coming in, I believe October. Trevor has finished his updates to the lettering for the first five issues. We've settled on both a front and back cover to the book. I'm hoping that we get everything we need to provide as soon as we can. I don't want to be scrambling at the last moment.

Sort of out of the blue, I had a friend contact me to help him with a graphic novel. I wasn't really sure what to say. I sort of had plans for the weekend, so I didn't want to commit to calling him. He sent me seven pages from a movie script and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure what the film is about. I want to be helpful, but I don't feel like I have a whole lot of time to commit to it. But we'll see.

I managed to send a new query this week. Another email and one with a time limit to hear back from with the proviso if they're interested. I will, of course, let you know if I do hear back and even if I don't, that's the point of this blog.

I did some writing but more thinking on Skylar this week. It's coming together in bits and pieces and I'm hoping to work more on it tonight, as a matter of fact. I did work on it this week, but it's been several days since I've actually written on it.

On to Trophy Unlocked, where for the second week in a row I had the Saturday Morning Review. This week, it was Rain (1932). That was followed on Sunday with Trevor's review of PAW Patrol: The Movie, so you can see we cover everything from pre-code films about prostitution to animated films about cute puppies saving lives. Wednesday was Paul's review of the videogame Return of the Obra Dinn to round out the week on the blog. I did write a new review of Breakfast For Two (1937), but no idea when it will go up, so stayed tuned.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #365 - A Little Bit of Everything

Hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and, of course, writing.

It was a busy week, with a little of everything going on. I'd like to say everything was humming along on all cylinders, but that's not really the case (I'll get to the details later).

Let's start with querying. I managed, on Thursday, to send out my second one in a row. I know that's nothing remarkable, but it's something I hate doing. I'm pretty sure I'm not good at it, considering the results I've been getting with this round of queries, which is none. But I try to be positive and hopeful. I'm not sure if that's a sign of insanity or not.

I'm still going with agents who want email queries, which is this one. For those keeping score, I have two live queries out there now. There was a third, but it's been 12 weeks, which is what the website said was when I'd hear back if they were interested. If I hear something later from them, I'll consider it a bonus, though the last time I heard late from an agent it was to just reaffirm the rejection.

I did work on Skylar again this week, though I haven't worked on it since Wednesday.

When it comes right down to it, I'm only writing 5 to 6 nights a week, including query Thursday night. If you're curious as to my schedule, Friday nights after we do OAPS, more on that later, we eat pizza and watch a movie, so no new actual writing gets done. It's not like I'm not working, but the actual writing is rare on that night.

Speaking of Friday, we did our 101st On the Air with Powers Squared with our creative team on the show for our monthly roundtable. I'll admit I was in a bit of a bad mood going into the show. Maybe I'm being impatient, but sometimes it doesn't seem like the artwork (plain and colored) are coming in fast enough. I know I'm not the only sole support for either artist, but I thought we had agreed to a certain number of pages a month and that's not always happening. I think I made the issue clear and we managed to have a good show, especially when we got off topic and started talking about bird stories.

Saturday was Free Comic Book Day, the second anniversary of our first signing at the local comic book store. We decided to do reviews on next week's show about the comic books we pick up, so we did a "What's in My Bag?" video, ala Amoeba records. While they have celebrities tell you what they purchased, or what they're trying to hype at the moment, we discussed the five comic books we picked up, as a preview for next week's OAPS. You can watch the video (it's short) here.

One of my unofficial positions on the podcast is playing producer, so I'm in contact with the next people we plan to have on the show. Now it seems their appearance may be shifting since it's supposed to be when their Artithmeric Kickstarter starts and we have been told different dates, so we'll see.

We're still working on ours. Trevor is about done with the remastering work he's been doing on the lettering and our artist just finished, at least inks of, the cover and some thumbnails for the back. I had hoped we'd be done by the end of the month but I fear it will go into September, which is why I set the deadline early to cover that contingency.

Wrote a new review this weekend, Private Detective 62 (1933), publishing date unknown. However, my review of Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919) went up as the Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Wednesday's review was Paul's about Papers, Please, a puzzle simulation video game from 2013 for Microsoft Windows and OS X.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you back here next week.

A Week in Writing #364 - Yes, I Sent a Query

I hope everyone is staying safe, getting vaccinated, and writing.

Yes, the headline is correct, I did send a query this week. I don't know about you but I find the queries that you do on a form rather daunting and a tinge more impersonal than those that want an email. To be honest, I'm not good at the marketing the forms want you to provide. While the forms seem to have standardized the process, at least for the querier, the agent's response to them is not. I don't know if an agent ever really sees the forms, the same way I'm never sure the agent reads the email, but it seems to me that it's faster to send an email, though I get the same anxiety either way.

Going through what's already out there, I closed out another query DNR, so I've got two. One that is coming up on the 12 weeks the agency's site said they need and the one I just submitted on Thursday night.

I did some more writing on Skylar, even though I think I just got through one more chapter this week. Still, it is some progress and I do like working on it. I got a late start last night and didn't get as far as I had wanted to get, but I could barely keep my eyes open.

On the subject of writing, we published our podcast with Carla Hoch, the author of the book Fight Write; it was our 100th episode of On the Air with Powers Squared. I think it was a good interview and I encourage you to watch and/or listen to it. Links at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/oaps and it will be going up on our YouTube channel on Wednesday. If you write fight scenes, you'll want to catch it. I've just finished reading Fight Write and would highly recommend it, even if Carla had not been on our show.

Now that we've crossed into the Powers Squared section of this post, let me give you an update. We just submitted Issue #12 to comiXology so we're off to the races. Issue 12 is What's in a Name? Part 3 and concludes the story arc. The logline: Marty and Eli have each other's back but continue to be drawn apart by the events and people in their lives. Could this be the end of Powers Squared?

Our on-demand publishers already have the book and the other submissions are pretty easy to do (GlobalComix and Kindle). When a date is set, I will, of course, let you know. What you do with the information is up to you. That is a veiled plea to buy it.

We've shifted some of our attention to the coming Kickstarter with Artithmeric.com. They want to get our book, as well as others, into bookstores in Europe. We've remastered some of the dialogue and our artist is coming up with a new cover and back cover to use on the BD (bande dessinée) that they'll be kickstarting. The cover, at least the drawing has been completed and they've approved, so now we're working on the back cover. My goal is to get our end done by the end of the month with the Kickstarter to go live in October. If you've never read the comic book this would be a good jumping on point, as it will be the first five pre-Rachel Wells issues.

No new review this week, as we changed up our norms. We watched The Suicide Squad on Friday, reviewed today on Trophy Unlocked. Instead of watching an old movie, we instead watched four episodes of Harley Quinn, the DC animated series with Kaley Cuoco voicing the main character.

That said, my review of The Racket (1928) went up on Saturday. This is the film I wanted to watch after reading Bathing Beauty: A Novel of Marie Prevost by Laini Giles. The film was nominated for the first Academy Awards but lost Best Picture to Wings.

On Wednesday was Trevor's review of the video game Phineas and Ferb: Day of Doofenshmirtz, so now you're caught up.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.

A Week in Writing #363 - Recovering from Comic-Con@Home

I hope everyone is staying safe, staying well, and is, of course, writing.

Usually following Comic-Con I go through a slight depression. I don't mean that I get clinically depressed or anything like that but that after five days of living the dream, the reality of life sort of sucks. When you do Comic-Con from home it's not quite the same thing, so getting back to reality isn't as jarring.

My excuse this week for not sending any queries this week is that Thursdays, the night I try to send them out when I do, was also my wedding anniversary and even though ours was a home-bound celebration, I didn't have the time or inclination to send them that night.

With that out of the way, let's get on to what I did do, which includes getting back to Skylar, my oft written about but little worked on current novel. There were a couple of days this week that I did get  1000 words plus written. There is a change that I want to make to the story but I'm going to wait until I get through a complete draft before making it. But I'm feeling good about it.

I started a new review that I'll try to finish tonight for Big City Blues (1932). My review of Downstairs (1932) was this week's Saturday Morning Review on Trophy Unlocked. Prior to that on Wednesday, it was Paul's review of the video game The Mummy Demastered for the PS4.

On to Powers Squared. This week, we finally worked out the pencils for pages 5 through 8 and we should be receiving the inks any day now. This has been a surprisingly difficult issue though I don't think it has anything to do with our artist, who seems game to go through multiple versions so we can get what we're after.

We did two podcasts this week. On Thursday, we shot our 100th episode of On the Air with Powers Squared, interviewing Carla Hoch, the author of Fight Write, a book written to help writers with fight scenes in their books. I think it was a great interview and I encourage you to watch and/or listen to it when we release it on the 6th. We had met Carla at the Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference in 2018, which seems like a decade ago, and she was nice enough to be our guest.

On Friday, we did our usual live OAPS podcast, with Trevor as a guest. We talked about Comic-Con@Home and our impressions of the virtual event.

I'm hoping that this month we concentrate on two things. One is the cover and back for the BD that will be a part of the Artithmeric-sponsored Kickstarter, which is scheduled for October. We've done some preliminary work on the front cover with Rachel and discussed an idea for the back but I'd like this to be a priority.

The other is for Paul and I to work on the Pitch packet for Powers Squared that we've been kicking around since before the pandemic. I'm hoping we can put it together and get it done.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and I'll see you next week.