John August

Follow Up

Suing to get an agent, cont’d

Film Industry, Follow Up

Justin Samuels, the guy who [filed a lawsuit](http://johnaugust.com/2011/suing-to-get-an-agent) against CAA and WME for not representing him, just [wrote in](http://johnaugust.com/2011/suing-to-get-an-agent#comment-190743):

> Mr. August, you’ve no idea what other things I have or haven’t done to break into the industry. You’ve no proof that I haven’t previously lived in Los Angeles. You don’t know if I’ve had internships or not, or if I’ve done other industry jobs or not. You’re making assumptions without having evidence to back them up.

That’s not an excerpt. That’s the whole thing.

True: I have no proof that he hasn’t done those things. I also can’t prove Amelia Earhart never French-kissed a squirrel. But I trust my hunches.

If Justin is writing in to set the record straight, couldn’t he, you know, *set the record straight?* For instance, he could say when he lived in Los Angeles. Or had an industry job. Or won screenwriting competitions. Or applied for studio-backed diversity programs.

He’s given me no reason to assume he’s done anything other than write scripts, query letters and lawsuits. Maybe he’ll read this and fill in the details.

Justin followed up his first comment with another one specifically about internships:

> I should say something about internships. Internships are often unpaid, meaning the intern is working for free. Exploitation at its finest. Its okay if the intern has parents who are willing to subsidize or is on a government program, otherwise the intern may end up sleeping in a cardboard box (the intern maybe unpaid, but rent, food, gas, and other necessities are never free).

> So basically, one need not apply for an internship if one doesn’t have either parents or the government to cover one’s expenses.

Here Samuels has a point. Unpaid internships favor those with enough money that they don’t need to get paid. It’s a concern I’ve seen raised in many industries, particularly ones like art and publishing that are centered in high-cost cities like New York.

But I’d argue that unpaid internships are actually a very small part of the Hollywood ecosystem. All the interns in Los Angeles could get Raptured tomorrow and the town would function just fine. A much more fundamental part of the film and television workplace is the front line of PAs and assistants who toil long hours for a wage that, while meager, is livable.

Justin, if you’re sticking around, the 80+ commenters on the original thread probably have questions for you.

Animation scripts aren’t always short

Follow Up

Dan Gerson writes in with a follow-up on my post about [short scripts](http://johnaugust.com/2011/can-my-script-be-as-short-as-somewhere):

>You had a footnote about the length of feature animation screenplays. You described them as often shorter than live action screenplays, and obviously, that was your experience on Corpse Bride.

>Just wanted to offer a different perspective. Having worked on a whole bunch myself, for Pixar and other studios, I’ve found that more often than not, page counts are a little higher than live action. Often, it’s because of the level of description.

Dan offers some examples:

Toy Story – 80 minute running time, 143 page script
Finding Nemo – 100 minute running time, 141 page script
Incredibles – 115 minute running time, 125 page script
Toy Story 2 – 92 minute running time, 117 page script

> I’ve chosen these at random. It could be that this isn’t a great sampling. Whatever the case, I thought my experience might help those writers out there who are concerned their feature animation scripts are running long.

Fucking pilots, cont’d

Follow Up, Rant

Following up the [previous post](http://johnaugust.com/2011/fucking-pilots), several TV writers I’ve spoken with agree with commenter Nick:

> Network execs in 2011 cannot afford to scorn cable TV programming. Maybe ten years ago they could, but now they all want their own cable show. They want the same level of prestige and edginess, but they want to somehow make it within the confines of the usual network restrictions on language and sexuality.

> The easiest thing to do, then, would be to take an outstanding cable pilot script and strip the offending elements from it, leaving (in the network exec’s mind) a perfect product: edgy, yet safe; prestigious, yet nipple-free.

> A writer who hands in a network script laced with nudity and profanity and the like is playing right into the fantasy. It’s got the same TV-MA stuff you’d see on cable, so presumably the quality of the rest of the script must be right up there.

> On the other hand, if the same writer handed in the same script but without the naughty bits, it would look like just another network script. And the exec doesn’t want to make a network show; he wants to make a cable show. On a network.

What bugs me about this isn’t the swearing — I love all variety of curses, the filthier the better. What annoys me is the dishonesty. The bait-and-switch.

Imagine I wrote an ABC pilot that featured a scene in which Angelina Jolie plays poker with Jennifer Aniston, with Brad Pitt’s heart as the wager.

Maybe it’s a great scene. Family Guy could do it as animation. But for a live-action show, it’s completely fucking moot, because Jolie/Aniston/Pitt are never going to agree to play themselves in this pilot. I’ve wasted everyone’s time putting this scene in the script.

It’s the same with characters saying “fuck” and “shit.” It’s not going to happen on broadcast television, so including it is just jerking everyone around.

Sales figures for The Variant

Follow Up, The Variant

questionmarkJust wondering if you’d be willing to share sales figures on “The Variant.” How many copies sold? I’d like to get a gauge on how feasible using the digital market is over print copies.

— Jeremy W. Bouchard

answer icon[The Variant](http://johnaugust.com/variant), a Borgesian spy-thriller short story, was my first experiment with self-publishing on the Kindle platform. You can find it on Amazon [here](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029ZAPRW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0029ZAPRW).

As of March 31st, I’ve sold 4,608 copies through Amazon at 99 cents. I get 35 cents on each, earning me $1,613.

The majority of these sales came in the first six months. I now sell between 10 and 45 copies per month.

variant sales chart

I also sell The Variant as a [direct download](http://johnaugust.com/variant), for which I give up only a small transaction fee. I’ve sold 740 copies, earning $732.

I haven’t tried selling The Variant through iBooks because, honestly, it’s a massive pain in the ass. As annoying as Amazon’s DTP scheme can be, Apple’s is byzantine. There are aggregators (like Lulu) that take some of the sting out of it, but for a surprisingly large cut of the action.

If self-publishing were more than a hobby for me, I’d definitely focus more energy on getting the maximum value out of both The Variant and its successor, [Snake People](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H8GF0U/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004H8GF0U). (Which, by the way, is desperately in need of some reviews. If you’ve read it and liked it, I’d appreciate some feedback on its Amazon page.)

I have a few book-like projects I hope to put out this year, but I haven’t made firm decisions about what form they will take. They might be physical books like [A Book Apart](http://www.abookapart.com/)’s great little tomes, Kindle-able ebooks, PDF/ePub combos, or even iOS apps. Ultimately, it will depend on what’s best for the content, and which can best reach the audience.