A Writer's Life

Statistics Everywhere

There were lots of interesting statistics in Publishers Weekly today relating to retailing and Print-On-Demand.

According to a Bowker study, the Mystery Genre is what Americans read most, accounting for 17% of all books sold. Science Fiction accounts for 5.5%, General Fiction snags 3%, and Horror scares up 2%.  The same study also found that chain bookstores account for 33% of booksales while the Internet sells 21%.

A study by the Association of American Publishers found that total industry sales rose 3.2% in 2007 to $25 billion. The largest gain is among adult hardcovers, which are up 7.8%. The "largest overall gains in the year came from the smallest segments." They note that ebook sales jumped 23.6% and audio books rose 19.8%.

PW editor Sara Nelson notes in her column that Amazon accounts for slightly more than 10% of online sales. She doesn't seem  particularly worried about the company strongarming POD presses to use Booksurge, their POD service. She observes that big publishers use POD "only sparingly," that there remain many other venues of POD sales, and that lawyers she has contacted don't see the grounds for an anti-trust suit.

And in a news brief, Lightning Source has partnered with On Demand Books, the company that makes the Espresso Book Machine that prints novels for readers on the spot. So far, there are a grand total of seven machines in operation...not exactly a major force in book retailing.

NBC Fall Schedule

NBC has already announced their fall schedule  -- nearly two months earlier than usual. Variety reports that there are some surprises: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE will do a live, prime-time edition on Thursdays, THE OFFICE is hatching a spin-off, and the long-running series SCRUBS and LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT are missing from the schedule (and are presumably cancelled). New drama series include the revamped KNIGHTRIDER, MY OWN WORST ENEMY (starring Christian Slater), CRUSOE (a new take on Robinson Crusoe), and the Tom Fontana-produced series THE PHILANTHROPIST.

You can find the full schedule after the jump.

TNT Has Tess-osterone.

Variety reports that TNT is developing a series set in Boston based on Tess Gerritsen's bestselling novels. Other shows in development include one about a female reporter who discovers "a magic lamp with a genie." I'm banking on Tess.

United Artists Breaks Ranks?

Nikke Finke is reporting that United Artists has broken ranks with the AMPTP and signed an interim deal with the WGA. If this is true, it's a huge victory for the WGA and could inspire more AMPTP defections.

The Only Golden Globes the Public Cares About Belong to Pamela Anderson

I love Nikki Finke. In her report on the AMPTP's inept PR efforts, she writes:

The organization trotted out the respected David L. Wolper to put his name on a Variety letter comparing the WGA's "boycott" of the Golden Globes and Oscars to America's boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. (This is uncomfortably reminiscent of the time Miramax secretly penned an endorsement of its Gangs of New York director Martin Scorsese and attributed it to filmmaker Robert Wise. I'm sorry to say this, because Wolper has always been lovely to me, but his article is crapola. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The writers didn't even picket Brentwood.

Variety Wrong Again

Last week, Variety reporters warned us that we'd be "swift-boated" if we didn't reply to every ridiculous, inflammatory claim made by the AMPTP. Well, Variety was wrong, as proven by a report in their own pages today that shows the public is solidly behind us.

There's an image war raging during the WGA strike, and the writers seem to be winning.

Public sympathy sides with the scribes, as a study, released Wednesday, indicates.

[...]The WGA trumpeted a pair of surveys Wednesday showing plenty of public sympathy with backing of 69% in a Pepperdine poll and 63% in a SurveyUSA poll, while the companies received a only a smattering of support with 4% and 8%, respectively.

And the announcement came on the same day that WGA West prexy Patric Verrone and SAG topper Alan Rosenberg huddled with multiple elected officials in Washington, D.C., to explain the guilds' position.

"These polls prove that the public understands what's at stake here," Verrone said in a statement. "Our fight represents the fight for all American workers for a fair deal."

Let's Put On a Show

Nikki Finke reports that "High School Musical 2" broke just about every record there is for a made-for-cable movie. For one thing, it was the most-watched cable program AND the most watched basic cable movie of all time. That alone would be remarkable enough, but with 17 million viewers, it ranked as  the most-viewed Friday program, cable or broadcast, in the past five years. As Nikki says:

Just shows that TV viewers will respond to good, clean, energetic fun. Not everything has to be edgy.

How many networks do you think will take that message from the numbers? None. What we will see are a lot more teenage musicals.

Out of Touch

Mark Harmon is on the cover of TV Guide, illustrating their story on the "turmoil" behind-the-scenes on NCIS. The article is tepid, out-of-date and hopelessly vague…and laughable to anybody in the TV business. It just goes to show completely out-of-touch and irrelevant the reporting on the entertainment industry is in the mainstream media and even in the trade publications like Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Most of entertainment industry reporting, and I used the term "reporting" lightly, is driven by press releases. There is no actual reporting going on any more…much less anything approaching "investigative" journalism. This week's TV Guide story about NCIS is just the latest, obvious example. The fact is that the "turmoil" on NCIS is hardly anything new and has been common knowledge in the TV industry since the show's first season. Just about every writer/producer but me, it seems, has been on – and quickly off – the show at one time or another. For the last few years, stories about the script woes and costly production problems on the show could be heard at just about any casual gathering of TV writer/producers. Did any of it creep into the press? Nope. And by the time the showdown between Harmon and series creator/showrunner Donald Belisario was reported by the press in a very watered-down form, it was old news and irrelevant to everybody in the TV business. The real story is why CBS allowed the ugly and expensive situation at NCIS to continue for as long as it did...but nobody is going to report that story. It would be too interesting and informative…and embarrassing for the studio and the network. There are several other shows that have had, or are presently experiencing, more turmoil than NCIS was…and we aren't hearing about it in the press. And we probably won't.

I've been slogging through the four months worth of issues of Daily Variety that accumulated while I was shooting FAST TRACK in Berlin and am shocked by how little useful information there is. I can get the same information – maybe even more – by just browsing the web each day. I am seriously considering dropping my Daily Variety subscription…and I've been a subscriber since I was nine years old.

Bond Gets Bold

Variety reports that  Marc Forster, director of MONSTER'S BALL and FINDING NEVERLAND, has been hired to helm the next James Bond film, which will star Daniel Craig. This is an unusually edgy choice for the  legendarily conservative Bond producers and shows how dedicated  they are to continue redefining 007 for a new generation (these are the same producers who stuck with director John Glenn for several Bond films and  turned  away overtures from the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg). CASINO ROYALE scriptors Paul Haggis, Neil Purvis & Robert Wade are once again teaming up on the script. Purvis & Wade are Bond veterans... they also wrote the last few Pierce Brosnan 007 films.

The Verdict is In

Variety reports today that the jury has delivered their verdict in the Clive Cussler SAHARA case. They've awarded the author $5 million in damages and ruled that the producers have to pay him $8.5 million for the rights to the second book that they'd originally licensed to film...but that now won't ever be shot. The jury decided that Cussler is owed the film rights back because, under the terms of his contract,  principal photography on SAHARA did not start on time.

On the other hand, the jury also determined that Cussler falsely and intentionally miss-represented the sales figures of his books, which means the Judge could throw out the jury's award for the additional fee for the second book. The Judge will schedule a hearing to deal with that issue.

Naturally, both sides are claiming victory.

"We're $3.5 million ahead and Clive got his rights back," said veteran showbiz litigator Bert Fields, who represented Cussler. Fields added that because of the jury's finding that Cussler intentionally misrepresented book sales, he would not rule out an appeal.

Putnam maintained that Crusader was vindicated because of the findings of Cussler's intentional misconduct and the fact that the only damages definitely awarded at this point were the $5 million to Crusader.

"We consider it a great victory," Putnam said. He added that the disparity between the findings of misrepresentation and the damages would make him consider an appeal, particularly if the court finds Cussler is owed for the second book.

Cussler, 75, said he was pleased with the verdict but wasn't ready to gamble again on turning one of his many books into a film.

"There won't be another Clive Cussler film, at least not during my lifetime," he said.