entertainment industry coach question 750:I wrote & self published a book.I have been told it should be a Liftetime movie.how do I go about doing that

There are many ways to go about the process:

1. A literary agent can represent the project and take it to Lifetime

2. You can write a treatment and along with the book, pitch it to Lifetime

3. You can actually write the script and have it read by Lifetime

Sounds easy enough right? Except, that Lifetime won't read unsolicited material and unless you have an agent, or an entertainment attorney, there's "grass-roots" work that needs to be done.

My first question to you is: Is Lifetime the only network this book/movie is right for? If so, you're going to have to create relationships with people in development there, because they are literally the only people who would make your movie. Therefore, you may or may not want to spend the time going after an agent to rep the project.

It's difficult to answer this question more specifically, because I don't know your relationship to the industry (this question comes from Twitter). If you have no connections at all, I'd give you a very different answer than if I knew your self-published book had sold a million copies and you have interest from agents.

And then finally, there's a query letter that you can send. You can google how to write that, and research the right person to send it to at Lifetime. If they have an interest in the book and the synopsis of your story to be made into a screenplay, they'll ask for more.

question 204: How did you write your book? I want to write one.

Different people have different ways of writing books. It also depends on the type of book you want to write. My book, And...Action!, is educational, so it came very easily to me. I knew I wanted to write a book that kept the reader learning business tools, strategies and mindsets, while moving him/her forward over a year's time, so I:

1. Made it 52 chapters

2. Put the 52 topics in an order that set the reader up to succeed

3. Matched movies to the topics to use as metaphors and make the "work" more enjoyable

4. Asked for referrals to publishers

5. Was accepted by the first publisher who read my submission

Writing a fiction book is a whole different process. My advice is to go to a bookstore or library and research books on "how to write a book," if you need concrete instruction. Otherwise, my question for you is "what is your objective for writing the book?" If you want to get it published, you may want to write a book proposal first and test the waters. If you're going to self-publish, just write your book. Good luck!

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, the Greenlight Coach, visit www.thegreenlightcoachblog.com