How Books And Movies Will Be Made*

From Morguefile

C|net has an article about how Amazon is changing the rules for books and movies - how Amazon*** is re-inventing (some would say destroying - crushing all competition - um...well, you get the idea) publishing by making it easier and faster, among other things.  They're taking some risks on some unique books (the example they use is Jeff, One Lonely Guy - which sounds sort of like Post Secret, only phone messages and texts...  So, I guess it has potential - it's probably worth a read - almost certainly the kind of thing you can just pick up and read a page or three and then put down again for a week or three...

And so Amazon has some exclusive content - paying, for example, $850,000 for a memoir by Penny Marshall and there's an incentive program called KDP Select that I found an actual user review of here.

So what?  Well, so Amazon isn't just the most convenient RETAILER now, Amazon is also creating content.  Publishing is relatively easy, all things considered.  But they're also working on movies.  According to the article, there have been more than 7,000 scripts submitted, 700 test movies and 15 are in "various states of development."  And it looks like they're looking to do TV, too.

Because the internet has kind of opened up the playing field - you know, everybody who ever thought of writing a script now has a place to submit it - maybe not to make the Hollywood super mega-bucks - but the odds of hitting there with your unknown script are, well, you're more likely to be struck by lightning while being attacked by a shark...  But if you have a few scripts that have gone through some development somewhere then maybe that script might get looked at in Hollywood - or you might develop those Amazon scripts and, in a more indie fashion, build a career on your own terms...

But one thing's for sure, things are changing....














*IF Amazon has it's way - read on, Macduff**
**Yeah, it's a twist on a misquote, I know... Shakespeare misquotes
***So what do you call Amazon, a publisher? Website? Retailer? What the heck IS Amazon now?