December 29, 2010 – Peace Corps Worldwide

The Future of Publishing Is Yesterday!

Dec 29 2010

This article appeared a few days ago in the LA TIMES. It was written by Alex Pham. If you are a published writer or want to become a published writer, you should read this article on self publishing and the future (and past) of publishing. • Joe Konrath can’t wait for his books to go out of print. When that happens, the 40-year-old crime novelist plans to reclaim the copyrights from his publisher, Hyperion Books, and self-publish them on Amazon.com, Apple Inc.’s iBooks and other online outlets. That way he’ll be able to collect 70% of the sale price, compared with the 6% to 18% he receives from Hyperion. As for future novels, Konrath plans to self-publish all of them in digital form without having to leave his house in Schaumburg, Ill. “I doubt I’ll ever have another traditional print deal,” said the author of “Whiskey Sour,” “Bloody Mary” and . . .

How Tom Hanks got into the Peace Corps

Dec 29 2010

Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. I picked this story up from his blog. • This is a true “Hollywood” story of how my writing partner and I got Tom Hanks to star in our 1985 movie, Volunteers. We wrote the first draft five years earlier (so far this is a typical Hollywood story). The movie centers around a preppy Yalie who ducks a gambling debt and winds up in the Peace Corps. Hilarity ensues (at least on the page). Sargent Shriver, then the head of the Peace Corps, read it and said it was like spitting on the flag. I knew we were onto something. The producer asked whom we thought might be good to star and we suggested this guy who at the time was in Bosom Buddies on ABC – Tom Hanks. The producer scoffed. Tom Hanks couldn’t get a movie made. We were . . .

Archive - December 29, 2010