Beating the Buying Curve--In Fiction [Reprint]

Thought this was a unique outlook on determining what to write in order to sell.

When you write fiction to SELL, you don't need to know what is Currentlyselling on the bookshelves, you need to know what's GOING To Sell. Books take time to write, and even more time to get published; like a yearor more. By the time the novel appears on the bookshelf, the market (thebuying readers) may have already started looking for something else. To beatthe buying curve you need to plan ahead of the game. I do it by Cheating! -- But then, I do everything by cheating. (grin) A quick perusal of the top box office hits tells us point blank whatstories the general public liked Best.

TOP 10 AMERICAN FILMS of All Time
1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
5. The Ten Commandments (1956)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. Jaws (1975)
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9. The Exorcist (1973)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The TOP 10 AMERICAN FILMS for 2006
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Historical FantasyPG-13)
2. Night at the Museum (Suspense/Fantasy PG)
3. Cars (Contemporary Fantasy G)
4. X-Men: The Last Stand (Contemporary Fantasy PG-13)
5. The Da Vinci Code (Mystery/Suspense PG-13)
6. Superman Returns (Contemporary Fantasy PG-13)
7. Happy Feet (Fantasy - G)
8. Ice Age: The Meltdown (Historical Fantasy G)
9. Casino Royale (Action/Suspense PG-13)
10. The Pursuit of Happyness (True-Life/Inspirational PG-13)

The TOP 10 AMERICAN FILMS this past weekend
1. 300 (Historical Fantasy R)
2. Wild Hogs (Contemporary Adventure PG-13)
3. Bridge to Terabithia (Contemporary Fantasy PG)
4. GhostRider (Contemporary Fantasy PG-13)
5. Zodiac (Horror R)
6. The Number 23 (Horror R)
7. Norbit (Contemporary Romance PG-13)
8. Music & Lyrics (Contemporary Romance PG-13)
9. Breach (Contemporary Adventure PG13)
10. Amazing Grace (Contemporary Suspense PG)
(Note: I'm using American movies because I live in America and I am sellingto an American audience.)

-- Take all this information and ask yourself:What type of Characters were featured...? Themes..? Love / Revenge / Honor / Duty / Friendship / Trust / Faith / Loss?Setting..? Contemporary / Fantasy / Sci-fi / Historical?Endings..? Tragedy / Comedy / Attainment / Defeat?

Take all this information and ask yourself: -- "How can I add Sex to these stories?" WHY Movies? -- When designing a car, why stop to reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done all the research and done it better? Why work when you don't have to? Why struggle trying to find a good story, and interesting characters, when the data on what people already like is right there in front of us? When it comes to figuring out what is popular in a story, Hollywood has streamlined just about everything: plot, setting and character. A quick perusal of the top box office hits tells us point blank what stories thegeneral public liked Best.

"Wait a minute! Isn't that STEALING?" -- Not according to Broadway or Hollywood. Borrowing whole plots didn't stop WEST SIDE STORY the Broadway play, (adirect and unashamed 'Romeo & Juliet' rip-off,) from being a tremendous hit,or the Broadway play CAMELOT, (a rip off of TS Elliot's 'Once & FutureKing') or MY FAIR LADY, (a rip off of the Greek myth 'Pygmalion'.)Seriously, Hollywood ransacks and renovates all the time. There must be amillion and one Frankenstein, Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, and SherlockHolms adaptations. The movie "UNDERWORLD" was openly marketed as a gothic 'Romeo & Juliet'. STAR WARS is a carbon copy of Kurosawa's Samurai/Ninja movie 'The HiddenFortress'- including the comedic antics of two highly recognizable 'Laurel &Hardy' characters. (For goodness sake, they're Still in Japanese costumes!)

In case you haven't spotted it, Walt Disney ransacks and renovates EVERYBODY, and makes a ton of cash doing it too. Just about every single Walt Disney Adventure movie, from BEAUTY & THE BEAST to THE LION KING to HERCULES to MULAN to TARZAN was ransacked from elsewhere. TREASURE PLANET is a very unashamed rewrite of 'Treasure Island' - and one of my favorite movies.

The book market is no different. Think of all those vampire novels on theshelves... Can you say: 'Dracula'? Think of all those BDSM books... Can you say 'Story of O'? To be Perfectly Clear... -- I am NOT saying you should copy anyone else's work. I am merely suggesting a way to jump-start a story by modeling it after a story that's already been proven to work, through popularity, then make extensive changes to disguise the original source. As long as you shift genres, change the characters around a bit, and don'tuse any trademarked names or designations, you won't step on any copyrighted toes.It's not what you HAVE -- It's what you DO with it. -- When it comes to making Original Fiction, it's NOT how unique the plotis, it's Your VISION of that plot that makes it fresh and different!

* Alice in Wonderland + CyberPunk = THE MATRIX
* Treasure Island + James Bond = NATIONAL TREASURE
* Robinson Caruso + Space Aliens = ET
* Romeo & Juliet + the Old South = GONE WITH THE WIND

Hollywood ransacks and renovates, then mixes and matches whole plotlines all the time. Look at all those box-office smashes. What other proof do you need?

In Conclusion:If 'ransacking and renovating' is not something you want to do, GOOD! Less competition for me. If you think I'm a hack for doing so, that's okay too,but just so you know, I'm crying all the way to the bank - along with just about every top author in the writing biz, and in the movie biz.It all boils down to your personal choice:

* Do you really want to spend your whole life searching for, and perfecting, something Original?

* Or do you wanna make money? I don't know about you, but I need the cash. I don't have the time to waste'reinventing the wheel' when so many others have already spent their livesperfecting it. I have books to write and bills to pay.

Morgan Hawke