In our series of
self-publishing
interviews, we are talking today to David Schaub who is a writer and Academy Award ® nominated Animation Supervisor
working in the film industry for more than 25 years. In 2019 he produced
and directed the audio adaptation of SPIRITS OF THE WESTERN WILD. He
also developed STORY COMPASS® smartphone app for screenwriters
(www.moviemethods.com) in 2017. Schaub received Oscar nomination for animation in Tim Burton’s ALICE
IN WONDERLAND (Disney), along with nominations for BAFTA Award, Saturn
Award and Critic’s Choice Award, and won the Golden Satellite Award for
Best Visual Effects for his team’s work on the film. HEAD ANIMATION on Sony Picture’s SURFS UP – recognized with two Annie
Awards among its ten nominations including Academy Award nomination and
four Visual Effects Society (VES) award nominations. ANIMATION DIRECTOR on AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 (2014), CHRONICLES OF
NARNIA (Disney), I AM LEGEND (Warner Bros.) and LEAD ANIMATOR on STUART
LITTLE 1 & 2, EVOLUTION, CAST AWAY, GODZILLA, PATCH ADAMS and more. ANIMATION DIRECTOR – Universal’s award-winning JURASSIC WORLD
EXPEDITION (2019) VR EXPERIENCE. Exploring cinematic potential of
virtual reality.
You self-published your latest book, SPIRITS OF THE WESTERN WILD. Would you please tell us why you chose the self-publishing route?
Take us through the
process. You had an idea for your book, you wrote it, then you decided to find
a publisher. What were your experiences with that? Or did you decide to
self-publish without looking any farther?
What different online
stores carry your book?
The eBook version is on Amazon as a Kindle release, with audiobook available on both Amazon and Audible. Interesting that Audible and Amazon are supposedly one and the same now, but you’d never know it! Audible reviews are not posted on Amazon, and vice versa, leaving it to the reviewer to decide where they would like to post – and it’s one or the other. It looks like people are purchasing our audiobook through Audible, so that’s where you’ll find our reviews with little to no representation on Amazon. Very odd that the platforms are not connected so that reviews migrate to both. Come on, Amazon!
Authors who go the traditional route have an edge over self-published authors in regards to distribution to bookstores. How did you handle that as a self-published author?
On the other hand,
self-published authors have the edge over traditional books in the regards that
the author has all the control. I’d like to begin with your cover. Did you make
it or did you have someone else design it? If you had someone else, can you
tell us who it is?
So where do you see self-published authors making the biggest mistakes
overall?
What do you believe the
biggest advantages are when self-publishing?
The biggest advantage is that you can just do it! No need for bending to the whims of a publisher. No need for permission or approval! How liberating is that?!
What was the hardest challenge for you to self-publish your book?
For this project, the audio production and publishing on Audible was the real challenge – because that is the real “product,” in my mind. The task of producing the audio drama was more than I bargained for, and tapped into all the skills I had acquired while working in the production world. Honestly, I thought that getting the performances out of the actors would be the toughest challenge, but that was easy compared to the layered music and sound effects that had to be woven into the tapestry.
And what
was the publishing process like at Audible?
They say self-publishers
are control freaks. Do you think there is a lot of truth in that?
Did you get someone to
format your book for you or did you do that?
What steps are you taking
to promote it?
Do you have any advice
you’d like to share with other self-published authors?
You self-published your latest book, SPIRITS OF THE WESTERN WILD. Would you please tell us why you chose the self-publishing route?
I should start by
saying that there was never really an intention of publishing a book, per
se. This project was written as a
screenplay together with my story partner Roger Vizard, and destined to make
its rounds through the studio pitching circuit (circus) as these things do. I felt a special affinity for this project,
and liked the idea of shepherding this one through on my own to see if I could
create a groundswell with a real audience before looping it back through the
studio system. With regard to
self-publishing, I truly did not know what to expect. I had no snapshot of what “success” looked
like in the self-publishing world, so I went about it blissfully ignorant with
no expectations!
I honestly can’t
think of a more non-traditional route. When Roger moved onto
another animation gig, I decided to keep chipping away at the next steps toward
production. I had the crazy idea of
producing it as an audiobook to make it super-easy for studio execs to absorb
on their commute. No reading required --
just straight-up entertainment for the listener.
Self-funding the film wasn’t an option, but since I was
looking for something to direct, I figured I could certainly produce an audio
drama! It was also a great opportunity
to demonstrate my directing chops with actors, bringing it to life in a way
that the written page alone could never achieve.
The music tracks are licensed
for the project, but still required retiming, retuning and recomposing instrumentation
tracks to fit (back to my musical roots). And where the perfect track could not be found
(or derived), I would whip out the slide guitar to execute those bottleneck
transitions myself. Call it a “movie for your ears.” The task was more than I bargained for,
but I’m happy to say that the movie is all there… minus the visuals. Just a minor detail that we’ll get to later!
The eBook version is on Amazon as a Kindle release, with audiobook available on both Amazon and Audible. Interesting that Audible and Amazon are supposedly one and the same now, but you’d never know it! Audible reviews are not posted on Amazon, and vice versa, leaving it to the reviewer to decide where they would like to post – and it’s one or the other. It looks like people are purchasing our audiobook through Audible, so that’s where you’ll find our reviews with little to no representation on Amazon. Very odd that the platforms are not connected so that reviews migrate to both. Come on, Amazon!
Authors who go the traditional route have an edge over self-published authors in regards to distribution to bookstores. How did you handle that as a self-published author?
Given the nature of the work, we never considered publishing traditionally
because that was not the end game. Our
goal is to ultimately make the film, and of course we need to retain the rights
for that. The self-publishing option is just a new angle for us to get this
title out to a real audience, generate interest, and collect organic reviews. Basically, we are pursuing our own groundswell
that we can leverage when circling back through the studios.
The cover artwork
was a collaboration between Roger and myself.
I did the layout, and Roger fleshed out the line drawings of the
characters. Then I picked it up again to do final painting and rendering.
I think the cover is a really important element for the
marketing of a book, especially since people absolutely judge books by their covers. And movies are judged by their posters and
one-sheets. That’s why we produced a
“movie-poster” for our screenplay long before talks of a movie deal or a
production plan of any sort.
The poster spells out everything you need to know about the
characters, spirit and tone of the film.
I’m a huge fan of the Drew Struzan movie-poster art. While our poster doesn’t even touch on his
artistic brilliance, the layout is certainly composed like a classic Struzan
movie poster.
Having the poster on display also makes it seem “real”
somehow. And in a studio pitch, it’s
really easy for execs to envision what the final product could be. Conveniently, it’s also the same aspect ratio
as a book cover, and easily adapted to a square format (like a CD) for the
audiobook.
I’m certainly not the wise-old sage on this one. Publishing this project has been a major
learning process, and I certainly made plenty of mistakes along the way. In hindsight, I would have jumped onto the
social media channels much sooner. I
realize now that you don’t need to wait until your book is done before starting
your promotional push. If
you have a following, then you can definitely build anticipation for your
upcoming release. And when it is ready
to go, it’s a simple matter of unleashing it on your loyal band of followers. They will happily devour what they have been
eagerly anticipating. Seems like a
no-brainer now!
The biggest advantage is that you can just do it! No need for bending to the whims of a publisher. No need for permission or approval! How liberating is that?!
What was the hardest challenge for you to self-publish your book?
For this project, the audio production and publishing on Audible was the real challenge – because that is the real “product,” in my mind. The task of producing the audio drama was more than I bargained for, and tapped into all the skills I had acquired while working in the production world. Honestly, I thought that getting the performances out of the actors would be the toughest challenge, but that was easy compared to the layered music and sound effects that had to be woven into the tapestry.
Did you have a
composer for all the music?
The music tracks are licensed
for the project through different sources.
But of course, once you find the right tracks, they never quite work out
of the box. Everything is in different
keys and tempos, so mixing and matching to create a cohesive whole simply
doesn’t work.
Everything needs to be re-tuned
and retimed so that multiple tracks could be mixed and edited as one larger
composition. That’s where my musical
background came in handy, and I was able to compose extra little bits that link
tracks together more fluidly. And where
the perfect track couldn’t be found, I would pull out the slide-guitar to
execute those bottleneck transitions to help tie everything together.
But yes... the hope is that it
sounds like the music was custom-composed to fit the beats of the story.
What about the
sound effects?
Yeah, I had no idea what a chore that would be! Honestly, I thought getting the performances
out of the actors would be the toughest challenge, but that was easy compared
to the layers of other sound that had to be crafted under the surface and woven
into the “breath-space” of the actors.
It’s a delicate dance to make
sure the music, foley and vocal performances don’t compete. There is a kind of rhythm to it all. Now that I point it out, you’ll definitely
see what I mean if you listen for it.
It’s like each scene is a “song” on the larger album.
The task was more than I
bargained for, but I’m happy to say the movie is all there... minus the
visuals. Just a minor detail, that
is!
Once the
audio was complete, I proceeded down the path of prepping final audio through
ACX (audiobook creation exchange). This is the gateway to
Audible/Amazon, and audio files need to be processed here first. I
have to say that the technical spec sheet from ACX was a little
overwhelming. Thankfully there are lots of resources at their site
to help you through, but don’t underestimate the technical challenge of meeting
their delivery requirements. Apparently, it can take several
submission rounds before getting a final approval. Since Audible
specializes primarily in spoken-word audiobooks, I thought that ours would be
particularly tricky with the wide dynamic-range of our audio experience; that
is with music and sound effects, screaming actors, etc. Surprisingly, the first
submission was approved! But I can assure you it was because I was
extra careful hitting their specs with the tools they provided.
We’re just looking for a job-well-done.
Face it… no one cares about your project as much as you do. We pour our passion into these works, and
would like to see our publishers, marketers, and everyone else in the loop
share and respect that passion.
I’ve been disappointed time and again by empty promises by well-meaning
marketers and spokespeople. Unless you
are paying these people a lot of money, you simply cannot expect the same level
of service that you are providing to yourself.
So as a result, yes… we are control freaks, because we have to be.
The book
came after the audio production was complete.
While I passed ACX’s technical inspection for the audio, Audible let me
know that our audiobook could not be published until there was a print (or
Kindle) version available on Amazon. Argh! So that put me
into another tailspin…
Remember
that this project was developed as a screenplay. Unfortunately, Kindle doesn’t offer a solution to display
screenplays in their native format, which is a strict standard by industry
definition. So I embarked on the task of trying to figure out a
suitable solution. I failed miserably at formatting it myself with
off-the-shelf with e-publishing tools, and subsequently hired two different
formatting “experts,” only to be gravely disappointed with both.
I finally stumbled onto a
service called Liberwriter (https://www.liberwriter.com/). I’ll endorse them here because they saved
my butt. Through Liberwriter I was able to achieve a suitable
alternative to CENTERED dialogue blocks, using specially INDENTED dialogue
blocks instead. You’ll find other formatting oddities along the way, but it’s
all in the interest of rendering a look that’s easy to read on Kindle and other
eReaders.
Actually,
now that it is released on Kindle, I’m happy that it is. Not only
can you follow along with the Audible version, but you also get a first-hand
account of how the audio adaptation evolved from the written
screenplay. It’s also a convenient way to share some of the artwork
that Roger and I have collaborated on along the way.
Right now we are on the PUYB Virtual Book Tour. It has been a great experience contributing to
the various blogs, and doing these interviews. It has been a cathartic experience, going back
and pondering all the steps and experiences along the way and sharing all the
lessons learned.
Other than that, I’m keeping the websites and social media channels
up-to-date:
Marketing and self-promotion is a
huge task, and one that we never considered during the creative development
process. We were just putting one foot
in front of the next, and certainly didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves while
focusing on writing. I think I would
reconsider that stance on the next round.
It certainly would have served us
well to keep the social media channels warm as we went.
On the flip side, I want to express
my gratitude to the blogspots like these who are interested in hosting our
stories, and helping us get the word out there!
Thank you SELF PUBLISHING SHOWCASE!
Take a step back,
and make sure your expectations are realistic.
As noted throughout this interview, I honestly didn’t know what to
expect or what I was getting into on the publishing front. But if you think writing is a challenge, just
wait until you get to the marketing part - especially if you haven’t prepared
for it! So while I was slow on the
social media uptake, I think we are caught up on our content now.
I started the Instagram feed to document the journey as we
keep kicking this project down the road toward making the film. That will be the next challenge:
I’m sure there will be lots of discoveries, insights and
takeaways on the bumpy road ahead.
Please follow us, and enjoy the ride!
If you would like to find out more about David Schaub and his books, take a look at his website.
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