How a Web Presence Landed My Book in Hollywood

How many of us can say because of our web presence our book landed in Hollywood? I have a special guest today who can surely say that! Tony Eldridge is here today to tell us just how that happened. Thanks, Tony!

How A Web Presence Landed My Book In Hollywood

For many authors, it’s a dream to get their novel into the hands of a major Hollywood producer who wants to turn it into a movie. When I published my book, The Samson Effect, that’s exactly what happened to me, and I owe it to having a web presence with my book.

The Samson Effect is an action adventure novel about a biblical archeologist and a biblical linguist who are searching for the secret to the historical Samson’s strength. New York Times bestselling author, Clive Cussler, calls The Samson Effect a “first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure.” I was excited to get the endorsement from one of my favorite authors, but it was an unexpected e-mail I got that opened my book’s future to a path I had never anticipated.

You see, I built a web site for my book and I found a way to get it into the hands of online reviewers and even a major metropolitan newspaper’s book reviewer, and because I spent the time to make sure my book was all over the internet, it helped me get that unexpected e-mail.

The e-mail was from someone claiming to be a Hollywood producer who stumbled across my website and asked me if I would send him a chapter of my book. The reason he stumbled across the site: his name was the same as mine—Tony Eldridge. He said he started getting congratulatory messages from people on his new novel, but he hadn’t written a novel. A quick search on the net led him to my book.

I sent him a copy of chapter one, but I really didn’t expect much. After all, being a film producer is a lot like being an author. All you need to do it get a business card with the title “Producer” printed on it and you are in business. However, I couldn’t resist doing a little research on this guy and after finding out that my namesake has worked with HBO, A-list actors and premier executive producers on major films, I started to get a little nervous. This guy was the real deal and I just happened to stumble upon him—or rather, he stumbled across me to be more accurate.

For the next two days I was sitting on pins and needles. A few days earlier, my biggest concern was, “Where am I going to promote my book next?” What happened over the next few days was a whirlwind. He asked for the entire manuscript and soon after that, he offered a contract to acquire the rights to the book.

How did this happen? Not because I pitched my book to Hollywood. It happened because I had a web presence and worked it to make sure the search engines were fed (keyword rich websites and blogs, multiple online reviews, and friends to help spread the news about the book). Your book marketing activities can help you achieve your focus, but they can also help unknown opportunities find you. What it means to authors is that they need to spend the time building a strong internet presence. You never know what will happen if you do.

Here is the full press release about the deal if you are interested in reading more. It starts off, “Los Angeles film producer, Tony Eldridge, acquires the film rights for the action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect. The author and producer connect in a way that even Hollywood could not script.”

Tony Eldridge is the author of the award winning action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect, which Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the creator of Marketing Tips for Authors, a site that publishes free tips and videos to help authors learn marketing techniques for their books. You can read the serial release of The Samson Effect at http://samsoneffect.marketingtipsforauthors.com/