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Rebel without a Deal [book]

sonnyboo

sonnyboo

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This is a book by a filmmaker I know, Vince Rocca, and his well earned info on making a feature film. There are several great pitfalls indie filmmakers can fall into that we can learn from in this book. It doesn't hurt to have several interviews with THE Kevin Smith in it too..

I give this the highest recommendation I can.

https://www.createspace.com/3498509
http://www.RebelWithoutADeal.com
 
Agreed, Vince is da bomb. His book is really good. He tells in detail how he met Kevin Smith in it, and how they became friends.
 
Wow! Mad love for me. I need to make sure you're all on my funeral e-vite. Hopefully that won't be for a long time tho, and hopefully by then it won't be tacky to evite people to a funeral.

Scoopicman said:
What a great title.
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My book was obviously inspired by Robert Rodriguez's book. Like his my book chronicles the making of my first movie Kisses and Caroms.

Rebel without a Deal takes you on my journey from the concept (including Dov's 2 day film school) all the way through completion (including final distribution with Warner Bros.) where it went on the gross over $1 million dollars.

The book contains detailed accounts of my interactions with every major distributor and the results of my submissions to every major film festival.

Most importantly and probably of most interest to inspiring filmmakers the book contains profit and loss statements, most notably the actual statements I received from the distributor. You get to not only experience how I made the movie in 5 days for $11,000, how I got it through post, how I met Kevin Smith, how I got to National Lampoon and Warner Bros, but ultimately how much I made on the movie.

These financials I expect will provide endless incite and help for anyone trying to budget a movie and discover its ROI potential.

Rebel without a Deal also contains detailed conversations with New York Times bestselling author and award-winning screenwriter/director Kevin Smith as he lends his take on my journey and shares his own experiences with his first movie, Clerks.

The book is available at Createspace & Amazon, on Kindle, Nook and in mid January it should be up on iBooks.

Rebel without a Deal's main website also contains the first 33 pages available to read for free.

If anyone has questions or comments I'll answer.
 
I look forward to reading this. Rebel Without a Crew was a great read as well. Hopefully you didn't have to go through months of painful clinical trials to get money for your film :D
 
Vince, when I said that is a great title, I also meant that it is very marketable and I can see you possibly selling the book in large numbers. Are you getting any chirps from distributors about getting this into Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.?
 
Scoopicman said:
Vince, when I said that is a great title, I also meant that it is very marketable and I can see you possibly selling the book in large numbers.
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Fingers crossed.

Scoopicman said:
Are you getting any chirps from distributors about getting this into Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.?
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Haven't pushed them. I've got it on B&N via epub for the Nook. It takes Amazon/CreateSpace about 6 weeks to propagate Baker & Taylor and Ingram with ISBN's.

I did have a candid conversation with a very big publisher, they suggested, since I knew my market, I should go self pub grab the cash, and hopefully do some decent sales to attract the attention of a larger pub who, like film dists, would then screw me out of royalties. But by that point I would have gotten my advance through the self pub sales.
 
Sonnyboo--

Can you tell us what the deal is with Createspace, and why you chose them?

Do they charge you upfront?

Do they put your work up on Amazon, or elsewhere?

What requirements are there?
 
polfilmblog said:
Can you tell us what the deal is with Createspace, and why you chose them?
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Not to barge in or anything, but I just published a book through CreateSpace (http://2001productions.com/ThreeWeeksWithTheGoonies.aspx).

The only required upfront charge was the writer's proof copy of my book, plus shipping. There is also an optional $39.00 "Pro" status fee, which lowers your per-book cost and raises your royalty percentage. If you think you'll sell a lot of books this is definitely worth paying. In my case, it more than paid for itself with my first order.

CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, so placement there is automatic, unless you opt out (which you can do if you want).

There are no particularly stringent requirements, other than the material must be properly formatted for the size of book you want to create. And they don't accept pornography.

Couple of downsides:

CreateSpace is strictly a printing service, so publicity is 100% your own responsibility. Other than the listing on Amazon, they won't promote your work for you.

Since they are a "print-on-demand" service, they use computer printers rather than offset printers. This is fine for text, but photos don't have the richness and depth that offset printers give you. The covers look great, though.

They also offer what they call the Expanded Distribution Network, which makes your book available at wholesale prices to the big boys - B&N, Wal-Mart, libraries, etc. On the surface this sounds like a great deal, but I read several posts on their forum from people who got screwed out of royalties that way. What happens is, you set your cover price and that's what Amazon charges for the book. When someone buys it off Amazon they pay you a royalty of, in my case, about 35%. Problem with the EDN is that online companies buy the book at wholesale prices, then turn around and sell it at a lower price than Amazon does. Through EDN your royalty is less than 10%. Anyone doing an online search for the book is most likely going to pay the lower price, in which case you're forfeiting 25% of your royalty. Of course, if B&N or Wal-Mart buy several thousand copies it's probably worth it. I personally opted out of EDN, though I'm free to change my mind anytime.
 
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Yay, guess what I just got gifted from a relative? Yes indeed, Vince's book. :)

I've read about 50 pages so far and it's a great read.
 
2001 Productions said:
Problem with the EDN is that online companies buy the book at wholesale prices, then turn around and sell it at a lower price than Amazon does. Through EDN your royalty is less than 10%. Anyone doing an online search for the book is most likely going to pay the lower price, in which case you're forfeiting 25% of your royalty. Of course, if B&N or Wal-Mart buy several thousand copies it's probably worth it. I personally opted out of EDN, though I'm free to change my mind anytime.
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One thing to think about is if Walmart sells the book, you will be getting about the same percentage that Stephen King would get w/ one of his books selling there.
 
Hey, congratulations! The book looks good. I'll consider downloading it on iBooks (my current fad of the week) when it's released there. I've got a stack of Christmas presents that I have to rad first, but it's great to see someone who genuinely speaks to us here on IT getting their book and film out there in the real world.

So great job and best of luck with getting some good sales figures!
 
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