The Story of How it Happened for Us
We know exactly how the book deal came about…but first, let’s back up a step…
Big News
Dying to do Letterman has received a book deal. Steve Mazan, subject of the documentary, is the author, and it will be available in October from HCI, Inc — the original publishers of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.
Trailer for the Book
One of the first things we had to do was create a video for the book (look for an upcoming post about the process of shooting it on the Sony NEX-5.)
Luckily, we were able to pull from both the movie itself, our festival screenings, and past videos for inspiration:
Inspirational Storytelling
Many of you have seen or met Steve…so you know what a great storyteller he is, and of course, you already know what an inspirational life he’s lead.
The book is a re-telling of his five year journey to live his Letterman dream, and goes into detail about how he turned bad news into great success, and how it affected his life, relationships, family, and dream to perform on Letterman.
Great Publisher
We’re so proud that “Dying to do Letterman — Turning Someday into Today” is being published by HCI, Inc. — the original publishers of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series. Clearly, they know an inspirational story when the see it — and we’re so happy they’ve tapped Steve to write his book.
Also true: the book editor was so inspired after reading the first draft, she quit her job to chase her own dream! (Not just a joke in the video!)
Clearly, Steve’s writing has great effect on people.
How it Happened…
We believe the book deal is a direct result of word of mouth, generated by social media. And by social…we mean “social.” You know by now we (the two of us, Steve, his wife Denise, and our friends) haven’t been shy about telling everyone we know about Steve’s story and the movie.
And we do mean everyone.
Email blasts, tweets, Facebook posts…hopefully not to the point of being obnoxious, but certainly at the high end of “persistence.”
Someone who knew Steve happened to be doing stand-up comedy at an event where the owner of HCI Books, Inc. was speaking. Having heard (on several occasions) about Steve’s story, he decided to tell the man.
Now we have a book deal.
How to Get the Book?
Pre-orders are available right now at BN.com and Amazon.com.
If you’d like an autographed first edition of the book, swing by the announcement on our Kickstarter page where we have a package that includes
- an autographed book (personalized to you by Steve)
- a DVD of the movie
- a tee-shirt
- CD of all the jokes Steve sent to Letterman while trying to get on the show
- and an “I’m Dying To…” button hand written by Steve.
BTW, if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to check out our Indie Oscar® Campaign. Thanks!