By Callie Oettinger | Published: December 31, 2010
Steve’s blog was created to serve as a vehicle for sharing his video series “It’s the Tribes, Stupid.” His goal was to share information about a common thread that had presented itself
throughout his years of research. He wasn’t interested in financial gains or promoting his books through this outreach, so we focused on sharing rather than selling. The lessons we learned led us to where we are with the blog and outreach today.
How We’ve Shared (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: December 29, 2010
Did you ever see the movie Wag the Dog, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Deniro, directed by Barry Levinson and written by Hilary Henkin and David Mamet?
Dustin Hoffman as Robert Evans ... er, Stanley Motss ... in Wag The Dog.
The film is about a lot of things, but at its core it’s a portrait of a Hollywood producer. The character of Stanley Motss, played by Dustin Hoffman, is, by all accounts, a spot-on portrayal of Robert Evans (who produced The Godfather and Chinatown, among many others.)
What does a producer do? Nobody knows. Even in the movie biz, no one appreciates the producer’s art. “Did you know,” Dustin Hoffman complains at one point in the story, “that there’s no Oscar for producing?” There’s Best Picture, he says, but not Best Producer. Because nobody knows what a producer does.
What a producer does is make things happen. What a producer does is save the day. (more…)
By Callie Oettinger | Published: December 24, 2010
[This Friday's "What It Takes" is the first from my publicist Callie Oettinger. I'm sure the first thing most readers will think is, 'Does a writer really need a publicist? How can you afford it? Isn't that over the top?' I first worked with Callie on a job-by-job basis. Her forte is the military; she's based in Washington, D.C., and has done outreach for a number of successful military writers. She helped me on the launch of The Afghan Campaign. Her work has been invaluable.
But what really got us working together full-time is this blog. "Writing Wednesdays" was Callie's idea. Without her, it wouldn't exist or it would have pooped out months ago. In fact, the blog itself was Callie's idea. She cracked the whip over me to make me do it. But let me let her tell it. Callie, over to you . . .] (more…)
