“Did you know they’re using your book at _______?”
This information was whispered to me the other day to let me know that Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need is now officially in use at the studio level.
I was REALLY happy with this info, which added the studio (which I feel awkward revealing) to a list of agents, managers, and screenwriting teachers who also find El Cat! of use.
Cooool! I thought to myself.
Then I got an email from a reader telling of HIS success with the book: “… I resubmitted my script based on re-writing my logline according to your book and now everyone wants to read my script!”
The reader just wanted to say Thanks! for the tips I had laid out in Chapter 1. It made THE difference in going from a NO to a YES on the very same movie idea he was out there pitching before using the “4 elements of a successful logline.”
Then there was this: “I was in the meeting and the executive turned to me and said ‘I think the hero needs a bigger Save the Cat! moment…'” That comment came from a writer pal who was shocked — SHOCKED — that his friend had written the book that was now being used by his bosses to develop material.
And that’s not all:
— We only just got back up to speed on Amazon. Seems copies of Save the Cat! were SOLD OUT. They had it on 4-week back order until the new printing came through, making it the fastest-selling book in my publisher’s history.
— Several scripts written in the seminars I’ve conducted have started to leap the hurdles of agent, producer, and studio.
— I have recieved one script from a student that I have passed on personally to a major agency. I am very pleased with the result and hope an announcement about it will be forthcoming.
And as with all of these news flashes, I couldn’t be happier!
Point is: It’s happenin’.
The principles set down in my little how-to are starting to take hold!
Thank you everybody!!
And keep the success stories coming!
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I’ve purchased several of MWP books and if SAVE THE CAT! is the publisher’s fastest selling, that says a lot!
BTW, in THIS GUN FOR HIRE (Paramount, 1942) in an early scene, Alan Ladd playing a hitman, checks into a cheap motel and upon entering the room, he and the maid disccover a stray cat. The maid hits the cat to shoo it away and Ladd stops her, saves the cat, and serves up a saucer of milk.
He’s right.
Hellboy did a pretty good job saving the cat(s) as well.
But didn’t Doctor Evil SHAVE the cat?!?
Good work, Blake!
Rah! Rah!
I think I got my copy in mid-July. When did the book come out?
But immediately after I finished it, I started talking about it to almost every other writer I’ve encountered. Word-of-mouth baby!
But it’s cool that it’s taking root so fast and so well. Because it totally deserves to.
Heh. You don’t really need me to shill for you on your own site, do you, Blake? But I like that my enthusiasm for it doesn’t slack off: it tells me that what you have to say isn’t a flash-in-the-pan. It’s the real deal.
Keep it up!
Then there was this: “I was in the meeting and the executive turned to me and said ‘I think the hero needs a bigger Save the Cat! moment…’â€
This just proves the point that whoever paints the best picture wins. Even if an executive doesn’t agree with you on certain concepts, he will use your metaphor — Save the Cat — to make his point.
The picture on the cover of your book (a metaphor) has framed the debate.