Conquering Hollywood: The Screenwriter's Blueprint for Career Success

By Gary W. Goldstein

There are over 1,094 books on Amazon that show you “how to write a screenplay”… but next-to-nothing on how to break into Hollywood, sell your script, and build a successful writing career. Until now. As a producer, Gary W. Goldstein’s movies have generated well over $1B in global box office receipts. His portfolio includes Pretty Woman, Under Siege, and The Mothman Prophecies.

But more importantly — over the last two decades — Gary has nurtured, mentored and launched some of Hollywood’s most successful screenwriters. In his book, Conquering Hollywood, he reveals proven career-making strategies, planning and advice for aspiring (and established) screenplay writers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9780989715218

Book preview

Table of Strategies

FROM THE PRODUCER OF PRETTY WOMAN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION: START YOUR ENGINES

SUCCESS STRATEGY ONE: NETWORKING

SUCCESS STRATEGY TWO: BRANDING

SUCCESS STRATEGY THREE: YOUR D.O. LIST

SUCCESS STRATEGY FOUR: THE ASSISTANT…YOUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET

SUCCESS STRATEGY FIVE: BUILDING YOUR DREAM TEAM

SUCCESS STRATEGY SIX: GET SMART, GET LEGAL, GET PROTECTED

SUCCESS STRATEGY SEVEN: IDENTIFYING YOUR MOST POWERFUL STORY

SUCCESS STRATEGY EIGHT : MAKE EVERY MEETING COUNT

SUCCESS STRATEGY NINE: TESTING, TESTING…1, 2, 3

SUCCESS STRATEGY TEN: CREATE YOUR OWN CONTENT AND TAKE CONTROL

SUCCESS STRATEGY ELEVEN: PERSISTENCE…a/k/a PIG-HEADED DETERMINATION

THAT’S A WRAP

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FROM THE PRODUCER OF PRETTY WOMAN

Conquering Hollywood

The Screenwriter’s Blueprint for Career Success

Gary W. Goldstein

Bigger Picture Press

Los Angeles, California

Conquering Hollywood

The Screenwriter’s Blueprint for Career Success

Copyright © 2013 Gary W. Goldstein

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Published 2013 by Bigger Picture Press

Santa Monica, California

For information about bulk order special discounts

Please contact Bigger Picture Press

www.ConqueringHollywood.com

First Edition July 2013

ISBN 978-0-9897152-1-8

Published And Printed In The United States Of America

Book Cover Design by David Kessler

Layout Design by Thomas White

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate web addresses or other informations at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Neither the author nor publisher has any control over and does not recommend, endorse or assume any responsibility for third-party services, products, websites or their content.

To my dad, who encouraged me to follow my intuition,

find my true gifts and, above all, be happy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

One name goes on the book, yet many contributed. To all who generously shared their time, invaluable insights and counsel throughout the writing of this book, I’m deeply grateful.

To J.F. Lawton, Allison Burnett, Richard Hatem, Ilana Bar-Din, Bob Berlinger, Jon Bernstein and the many others who entrusted to me either the management of their career or the responsibility of producing their projects, it’s an honor to act as steward of another’s creativity and I’m humbled and thankful.

A galactic ‘thank you’ to my editor, Jeanne McCafferty. Ever-gracious, unyielding in her enthusiasm, fiercely smart, unfailingly thorough, Jeanne educated me every step of the way. This book fulfills its promise in large measure thanks to Jeanne who is impeccable, ever-patient, gently honest, unwilling to settle.

To my friends, inspirations, teachers, mentors and role models who make a big beautiful dent in my universe, I treasure your counsel and friendship. In particular, Adam Linter, a friend who taught me much and who left too soon. Grace Breuer, who’s been my Gibraltar and whose steadfast belief has sustained me through many a challenge. And Morgan Agnes Carson, a friend whose joyful creativity, heart and contribution are a gift beyond measure.

Michael Margolis, Jonathan Fields, Peter Hoppenfeld, Michael Fishman, Jim Kwik, Tommy Bahler - friends, brothers, mentors, each of whom is a bold adventurer and deeply committed to extraordinary works of great service. All big brilliant stars in the constellation of my life, each of whom adds a dimension to my understanding and joy. Some people just make you play a better game.

I’ve no doubt overlooked and forgotten to name many that deserve mention, either for their contribution to this book or simply for the exquisite pleasure of and lessons learned from our friendships.

And to an early hero, Maxwell E. Perkins, who inspired me to leave a perfectly good life as an attorney in San Francisco and run away to the circus! And, finally, to my greatest hero, my dad, who travelled an unimaginable distance and taught me more about life than I can put into words.

Gary W. Goldstein

FOREWORD

by J.F. Lawton

(screenwriter)

Pretty Woman, Under Siege, The Hunted

When I first met Gary Goldstein, I had been struggling in Hollywood for five years, dreaming about becoming a screenwriter but getting nowhere. I had no agent, no manager, and no prospects for any. I worked odd jobs to pay the rent on a tiny apartment, off the end of Hollywood Boulevard, where hookers would pace up and down looking for customers. At the time, I was making money teaching more successful screenwriters how to use Macintosh computers for word processing. One recommended me to Gary to help him with his own computers.

I knew that Gary ran a management company for writers, but I was too nervous to ask him to help me. I needed the cash from his computer consulting gig and didn’t want to bother him. But after I had finished my work on his new computer system, having heard I was a writer, he generously offered to read one of my scripts.

By that time, I had written a pile of different scripts and occasionally ‘industry’ people would agree to read them. But they rarely did. Because, frankly, reading a 120 page script is a pain in the ass for anyone who’s busy. But I sent a script over to Gary in hopes that, this time, it would be different.

It was. Gary actually read it. He told me it was pretty good, but he wasn’t looking for any more clients. But he thought maybe he could help me find someone else to represent me. Did I have any more scripts? I sent him another.

Gary read that one too, and thought it was interesting. But again, he wasn’t looking for new clients. Did I have any more scripts? I did, but I wasn’t sure what the point of him reading them was if he wasn’t going to represent me. Still, I sent him a third script, thinking this was all a waste of our time.

The next time we met, not only had he read that third script, he said he wanted to represent me. He quickly explained how he worked. He took a commission off of any script that he sold, except for the ones that he produced himself. I was thrilled. Here was a person who could not only sell my scripts, but produce them. And he was smart enough not to sign me off of one script, but had read several to see if I was truly a good writer who could deliver. He signed me off of my writing alone, despite the fact that I had no credits and no prospects. I left thinking that with this powerful manager/producer’s help, I would finally get a chance to make it in the industry.

And I was right. Within a few years, thanks to Gary, I had several movies produced, most by him, including a couple of box office smashes. One of them was about those hookers near my apartment. He became not only my manager, but my best friend.

However, when I look back on the day when Gary signed me as a client, I realize I forgot to ask a very important question.

What the hell have you done ?

The answer, I would not fully realize until many successful years later, was: little.

Because at the time I met Gary, he hadn’t produced any movies. He had just started his management company, and didn’t have a clue about the business of Hollywood. He was just an ex-hippie lawyer who got bored with his old job and decided it might be fun to get into movies. This should have been obvious to me, because who the hell would waste their time reading three full scripts from some unknown writer?

I am, to this day, grateful that he did. In retrospect, it’s probably better I didn’t know that he knew nothing about the business. He certainly didn’t let the fact that he knew nothing get in his way. And, as William Goldman famously said, this is a business where nobody knows anything.

After all these years, it’s finally been my turn to read something that Gary has written. It’s been a pleasure. Here is a book of practical advice for those seeking a career in Hollywood, written by someone who, at least now, really knows what the hell he’s talking about. Maybe it isn’t so true that nobody knows anything. Because I think Gary certainly does.

Conquering Hollywood

The Screenwriter’s Blueprint for Career Success

INTRODUCTION: START YOUR ENGINES

I dare you to prove that you are more than you ever believed yourself to be. Dare to prove that there is more in you, more to you, that there is a dimension of you that the world has not seen. Dare to spread your wings, and soar, and sail.

~ Jack Boland, developer of the Master Mind Journal

You’re serious about your talent and kicking your career in entertainment into a higher gear. I know this because you’ve just picked up this book and turned to this page.

By choosing this book, you’ve already distinguished yourself as being among the few who actively seek out information, strategies and tools to grow your career as a business.

Success in Hollywood is a choice. It’s a set of habits, a mindset, a discipline and an action plan anyone can master. This book is designed so you know exactly, specifically and precisely what to do to gain advantage over your competitors who are not doing what it takes.

Experts in the business world hold varying opinions on many things, but they all claim marketing is the key to success for any career or enterprise (and likely responsible for as much as 90% of individual successes). Let’s face it, the un-marketed career is a hobby.

Hollywood, like all of life and business, is not a meritocracy. Those who market themselves the smartest, the most effectively and the most frequently, are the ones who succeed. Period.

Talent comes second to marketing. If that weren’t true, only those with extraordinary talent would succeed. If that weren’t true, only high quality films and TV shows would get produced. But we know that’s not the case. You likely have said to yourself on occasion, I have more talent than so-and-so. Very likely you do. But the person with less talent whose work is up there on the big or small screen was fiercely determined and consistently dedicated to marketing themselves. They simply meant it and wanted it more. That’s where the rubber meets the road.

CAREER, NOT CRAFT

Although this is a how to book dedicated to screenwriters, this book does not address screenwriting techniques or craft. There are many valuable teachers, seminars, books, webinars, CDs and DVDs dedicated to the art of writing screenplays. They can be found on Google or Amazon, or in any major bookstore.

This book teaches career. Screenwriting is a business, requiring business skills and a career plan. Your business model or career plan does not need to be lengthy or complex. In fact, simple is better, and easier to execute on a regular basis. It should be thoughtful, fun and something you’re genuinely excited about and willing to do for yourself. You want a plan that embraces effective strategies for:

marketing

networking

team-building, and becoming represented by an agent and/or manager

developing a creative signature

pitching

getting your scripts read by the right people

and more.

This book is your roadmap to success in Hollywood. Your how to guide. It is constructed so that after the introduction of a few essential business strategies, you will put those strategies into practice and that’s when the how-to comes into play:

How to gain access.

How to get noticed.

How to initiate relationships.

How to adopt successful strategies to build a career in Hollywood.

So you can become a working professional in film and/or in television. And that’s the point, isn’t it?

Here’s what this book is not:

It is not about craft.

It is not a collection of war stories.

It is not from the point of view of a successful producer or other seasoned professionals in the entertainment business.

This book is from your point of view. It gives you the things you need to know to ‘make it’ in the competitive world of film and TV. The things you need to do, that anyone can do if you’re serious and modestly disciplined. The things that will help you create your opportunity, create your break in the biz, and put you in the driver’s seat of your career.

And being in the driver’s seat of your career—whether you’ve just completed your first screenplay, or have been writing for years—means the freedom to abandon a day-job because you’re earning income from your writing. Getting your screenplays optioned, purchased and produced is attainable! Getting on staff on a successful network or cable series is within your reach.

AN INSIDER’S EXPERIENCE

This book is a distillation of my experience in Hollywood and the savvy I’ve accumulated over the years.

As a literary manager and later as a producer, I’ve represented and collaborated with creative talent for 25 years. My focus and specialty has been newer or professionally younger talent. Initially, my own lack of experience dictated this as a practical matter. The excitement of discovering, championing and succeeding with and for younger writers inspired me to stay the course. Necessity motivated me to design and refine techniques to accelerate their success. Early on, I didn’t have the luxury of taking years to transform a new writer with real talent (but with a scant or non-existent resume) into a revenue-generating client. The faster I launched careers, the more sense it made for all parties concerned, and it simply became habit to stick with a targeted handful of techniques that consistently delivered real-world, rapid results.

What you are about to learn are the identical strategies I used to transform non-working, newer talent into working talent with real careers. I even became my own client, transforming myself from talent representative to film producer. Well over one billion dollars in worldwide film revenues later, I’m proof of the success of this method. I put into practice every single strategy I describe in this book to grow not only the careers of many clients, but my own career in Hollywood.

These simple strategies worked for my clients, they worked for me personally, and they will work for you. In the majority of cases, my clients, like many of you reading this book, had no agent, no attorney, no team. They had a dream, and they had talent. They just needed a concrete, focused action plan to make it. So, if you want to distinguish yourself, make relationships, learn how to gain huge advantage over the thousands of other writers who are your competition, read on!

PUT IT IN WRITING

Starting with laser-focused strategies greatly magnifies your probability of success. A written set of goals and a detailed plan for achieving those benchmarks is essential.

Starting without a plan is a recipe for frustration, confusion and failure. You’re competing toe-to-toe with countless established professionals and newer competition, with thousands more each year from all around the U.S. and beyond joining the ranks of those dreaming of breaking into Hollywood.

You wouldn’t get in your car and set out to drive to a new distant destination without consulting a map -- and your career deserves more care, planning and effort than a casual road trip.

The confidence of having your own unique success map is the most valuable gift you can give your career. Each day, each week, each month, you know what to do and can actually measure how much closer you are to achieving each of your goals and desires.

Your success depends on one thing: preparation. Prepare a smart plan, study the strategies in this book, do the exercises, make a commitment to take action every day (even if only for 30 minutes), and you will increase tenfold your chances for success in Hollywood. The strategies in this book will open doors and create opportunities faster and faster the more you take action.

My mission is simple:

I want writers to learn how to get ahead in this business of show, how to be smarter than their competitors, how to get noticed, how to develop relationships and, as rapidly as possible, begin to work with quality people and projects. If you do, you will build your resume and reputation as well as your success and satisfaction.

I want you to make it on your own terms, not wait to be ‘discovered’ or rely on winning some form of cosmic lottery. To take that pro-active role, you need clarity and a plan, strategies that are simple and, when taken in combination, are the stuff of success in Hollywood. The tools, behaviors and ways of thinking that 97% don’t know or won’t do.

I want to give you the tools to develop your career plan, and the know-how to execute that plan with clarity. When you combine your writing skills with a smart plan, you shift into a higher gear professionally. Use the strategies in this book as a starting point, power your plan with your own personality and style and goals in mind, act upon them as part of your daily routine, and you will create positive results.

If you believe you have the talent, then you deserve to do something real about it. In my view, you actually have an obligation, a responsibility, and a duty to yourself and to others to make your talent known, to do whatever it takes to share that talent with the world on the biggest stage possible.

Your reward will be your ROI, which no longer stands for ‘return on investment’ but for ‘return on involvement’. What’s required is the commitment to become deeply engaged, wholly and absolutely involved in your life and business, your dreams and actions, then to embrace those dreams and bring them into reality. That’s the choice. That’s the decision. If you decide, the steps are not that hard. But you need to make that choice, that commitment, or this book will be of no use to you.

If you choose to keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same results you’ve always gotten. But, if you’re ready for a change… you’ve come to the right place! And once you’ve made that life-changing decision, continuous learning is the central key to your success.

STARTING TODAY

Since you’re still with me, I take it that you’re serious about making it in Hollywood as a writer. So it’s imperative beginning now, beginning this very day, that you…

Are focused, not random in your approach;

Are clear, with an exact, specific and precise plan for success; don’t allow any confusion;

Learn what to do and how to do it, and recognize the missteps to avoid;

Create rapport with the right people, and not waste time with the wrong people;

Make real progress in your career by being a consistent and productive marketer.

I want you to learn what few know or practice, the things that allow you effortlessly and consistently to ‘wow’ people. If you follow the steps that I detail in this book, you will find yourself, on a daily basis:

Knowing exactly what to do to rapidly shift your reality (in months not years);

Taking small, defined steps every day, staying focused, and getting results faster than ever before;

Actively managing your daily activities – and your attitude – with a sense of comfort;

Setting detailed, achievable goals you can achieve now (not in some distant future).

As you