If it works for film....

Just read a very interesting article on Anne Thompson's blog for Variety magazine. Today she writes about one of the speeches given at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which is just underway.

The speech was given by Endgame Entertainment chairman James Stern.

Here's an excerpt:

Thousands of films got made last year in a world that had room for just hundreds.

A friend describes this problem as a simple equation: Access to capital + low barriers to entry = glut of subprime movies. Subprime? Excess inventory? Sounds like we’re upside-down on the mortgage and it’s time to mail in the keys.

An astonishing 9,293 films were submitted to Sundance last year. Of those nearly 10,000, only 218 were screened. Of the lucky handful to get bought, so far only three have been released theatrically.

It’s pretty obvious: Indies are in a world of hurt.


Now, James is talking about independent films, of course. But hmmm...thinks I. Where else is this applicable?

The world of books and writing is going through a sea change. The delivery of information to the consumer is no longer as predictable as your daily paper. Heck, your daily paper is not as predictable as your daily paper! It's a little frightening to be a part of this change -- and pretty exciting, too. Who knows where the word will go next?

I'm a strong believer in story -- I guess I have to be. I've said in this space before that I believe books and the stories that fill them will survive. But I am as interested as the next reader to see what form we'll all be reading in ten years.

If you'd like to read the rest of James Stern's speech, you can find it HERE.

And while you're reading, I'll just sneak off to try and write a book as worthy of publication as I can make it!

~kc