How to Sell Your Life Story with Phyllis Pierce

Hollywood does not only buy from celebrities and bestsellers. It buys from people nobody has heard of.

Phyllis Pierce, a veteran film and television producer, gives a fast-paced behind-the-scenes account of how real-life stories become books, television movies, documentaries, streaming projects and feature films. The starting premise is the one most people get wrong: that some of the most compelling films begin with ordinary people, unpublished manuscripts, buried family histories and true stories with real emotional stakes. Drawing on her own experience taking true stories from concept to book deal to screen adaptation, Pierce explains how Hollywood evaluates material and what makes a story commercially viable, which is not always the same as what makes it good. Useful whether you are an aspiring writer, a published author, or simply somebody sitting on a remarkable story.

Good to know. Free, and registration is required.

Where to go. The Meeting Room at the library, 25 Main Street.