Conquering Hollywood

It’s been longer than I expected since the last post, but I’m thrilled to finally be able to share with you Gary W. Goldstein’s remarkable book Conquering Hollywood.

Gary is a Hollywood veteran, and at the top of his list of credits is Pretty Woman, which he produced almost 25 years ago.  He was a longtime manager of screenwriters, and his career-long (and probably life-long) focus has been how best to connect with people and how to help them connect with other people.

You can read on my website about the process Gary and I went through in developing this book, and he was very clear right from the beginning that this was a book focused on career, not craft, so if you’re looking for advice on how to write for film or television, you’ll have to choose from among the many volumes available on that topic.  

But if you’re looking for advice on how to succeed in writing for television or film, Conquering Hollywood is for you.  This is the down-to-earth, brass tacks kind of business advice so many of us wish we had had when we were starting out, whatever our careers. Gary somehow combines a primer in old-fashioned business courtesy with of-the-moment advice on managing social media activity and recognizing its impact on a career.  He walks his readers through the choices to be made, the focus and the discipline it takes to succeed in this competitive arena – and indeed in any career these days.

It’s available on Amazon in print, and for those of the eBook persuasion, there is also a Kindle version available with cool video inserts, so that qualifies it for ‘enhanced’ eBook status, I believe.  For those who love audio books, that’s also available, with Gary narrating each and every chapter.  I’m not really an audio book person, since I’m one of the lucky Angelenos who isn’t in the car very much, so I’ve only listened to the audio chapters in snippets.  But I can tell you that hearing Gary’s narration immediately snapped me back to the hours (and hours!) we spent sitting at the round table in my office as we finalized the text.  On tricky passages where we’d combined/cut/added/transmogrified, Gary’s last step before giving it his imprimatur was to read it aloud. His concern was always for clarity of communication, the practicability of his advice, and making sure that his readers were really receiving the benefit of his years of experience. I’m happy to tell you that integrity and concern shows on every page.

I highly recommend this book to any aspiring screenwriter, artist, or musician and the principles outlined in the book are perfectly applicable to aspirants in other walks of life.  If you do purchase Gary’s book, I’d love to hear from you.  And I’d love for you to leave a comment on the book’s Amazon page as well.  Thanks!