Up From The Depths

Oh. Hi there.

Pardon the dust. Yeah, I know it looks like I haven’t done anything in ages. Didn’t I tell you? We moved. All of this. It’s over on my own site now.

Yeah, I had stuff spread out all over the web and it was causing some headaches. Plus, y’know, certain people reminding us all that it only takes one idiot with more money than sense to crash an online company. Better to have everything somewhere a little more under my own control.

Don’t worry. None of this is going away. I’m just here now to lock down the comments, put the chairs up, maybe throw a sheet over the jukebox. Maybe one over the good couch, too, yeah? Anyway, if you linked to anything here somehow... it’ll still be here. No worries.

But it’s all over there, too. All folded into the Ranty Writing Blog. And some new stuff, too. It’ll be just like it used to—me pontificating on about this or that, you tossing out suggestions, and that one guy angrily insisting none of this is right. But now conveniently all in one place.

Anyway, you should swing by and check it out.

But now, if you’ll pardon me, I need to get this sheet over the jukebox.

Hope to see you over there.

Some Upcoming Things of Note...

           Hey, so... next week I start touring up and down California, plus a little trip out to the east coast for New York Comic Con.  If I’m going to be near you, please stop by and say hello—there’s still time to reserve a copy of Paradox Bound at your local book store.

            And if I’m not going to be near you... well, most of those stores listed above take orders and ship. Some of them even ship internationally!  Give them a call, request something for enscribbling, and you can still have a personalized copy in your hands in just a few days.

            And there’ll still be blog posts next week.  They just might be a little shorter, that’s all.

            Hope to see you soon.

Black Friday: This Time... It’s Personal

I hope everyone reading this enjoyed your Thanksgiving meal yesterday, traditional or non-.  I’m still feeling a bit bloated. And if you didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, well, I hope it was still a great day for you.  Maybe you at least had a day off.

But now, as I have on past Black Fridays, I’d like to take a moment or three to discuss some personal history and make an offer to a few of you who might need it.

When I chose to become a full time writer almost a decade ago, I knew it meant some changes for me.  I’d been working in the film industry for most of my adult life, and even as a non-union worker I was getting solid, decent wages, which let me live comfortably.  Not fantastic, but I was on the lower side of middle class.  The decision to write full time would mean a notable pay cut, and I accepted that I would be living tight for a while.  

It only took a year and a half for the usual unavoidable expenses to pile up.  Car repairs, a very sick cat, prices went up on a lot of things, and on top of all that I got a 20%  pay cut at the magazine I was writing for at the time. In the space of about a year I went from “living tight” to “way under the poverty line.”  And it doesn’t take a lot of math to see the poverty line in this country is much, much lower than it should be.  My bank accounts were constantly empty (sometimes overdrawn when things didn’t process in the right order—which meant fees), my credit cards were maxed out (which was a trigger to the credit card company to raise all my interest rates), and I spent too much time figuring out how each 20%-lower freelancer check could be spread across three or four bills.

My girlfriend and I went through three solid years like that, always stressed, always sick with despair, always waiting for the unavoidable, inevitable expense that’d mean the end.  We just had nothing left.  We didn’t even turn the heat on for the last two winters.  There are folks who like to howl about “handouts,” “entitlements,” or “nanny states,” but at the end of the day most poor people are in a very bad place, looking for help, and they’re just trying desperately to survive with a small degree of dignity.

Big shock, the holiday season is miserable for poor people.  It’s just more anxiety.   I hated the holidays.  We could’t afford to give out candy so no Halloween.  Thanksgiving was a few cans from the 99 Cent Store.  And Christmas was just awful.  We usually couldn’t even afford cards, let alone presents.  Nothing for my girlfriend or my mom and dad, nothing for my brother, sister in law, niece or nephew.  Nothing for my friends.  Being poor at the holidays is like when you forget to get anything for that one person at the office party and you kind of squirm for an hour or so.  Except you feel like that for every hour of every day for the whole season.

Now, these days I’m in a better position, and I owe a huge part of that to all of you.  And if I can help some of you avoid feeling that low and miserable this holiday season... well, I’d like to do it.

If you’re in that same kind of bad financial place right now, where you can’t afford to give gifts to your family or friends, shoot me a note at PeterClines101@yahoo.com.  I’ve got a dozen or so random books saved away that I’ll autograph to whoever you want and mail out to you.  I’ll even throw in wrapping paper if you need it.  It’s not much, but it’ll be a present you can give someone so you don’t need to feel low.  You can request a specific book, but I can’t promise anything.  I’ll send them out for as long as the books last.

Again, this is only for those of you who need some help and can’t afford to buy gifts for others. The people who are pulling unemployment, cutting back on everything, and feeling like crap because they can’t afford gifts for family or friends.  It’s not so you can recommend someone who’d like a free book.

I’m also doing this on the honor system, so if you’re only trying to save yourself some shopping money or score an autographed book, I won’t be able to stop you.  Just know that you’re a horrible person and you’re taking a potential bright moment away from someone who could use a boost this holiday season.  And you’ll probably burn in the pits of hell before Krampus feeds you to a squale.

Happy Holidays.

Random Halloween LEGO projects...

In every generation there is a Chosen One.
She alone will stand against the vampires,
the demons, and the forces of darkness...

How to Succeed at Facebook Without Really Trying

          So, now a more positive spin on social networking.  All of this is me going off observations of my own page and also the old Creative Screenwriting page that I ran for a little over a year.  It’s what I’ve been doing for a while now and it seems to work well for me so far.

1) Be casual. 

            The more forced and regimented a page seems, the less people will enjoy it.  Facebook is all about casual connections and interactions, and people aren’t going to be impressed by the hard sell.  Try to sound more honest and sincere and less “fact-checked and approved by the legal team.”  I’m not saying ignore the legal team or common sense, just try to sound like you could.  No one likes the hard sell on Facebook.

            I’d guess at least half the posts on my fan page have nothing to do with my books or me as an author.  Maybe as little as a third. They’re just about other stuff I honestly find interesting and like talking about.  Other books, movies, television, LEGOS, etc.  A tiny bit of politics, but not much and nothing too divisive...

2) Post something every day

            May seem kind of obvious, but...  Considering that Facebook’s algorithms already affect the number of people who see each post, only posting two or three times a week doesn’t improve my odds.  Sunday’s pretty much the only day I take off (not for religious reasons—I’m just a lazy person at heart who likes having time off). 

            I also try to be careful when I post during the day.  Most people are using their computers right before or right after work (sit down, turn on computer, check Facebook before diving in—wrap stuff up at the office a little early, kill time on Facebook before leaving), so I try to time posts accordingly so they’ll be near the top of people’s home/ newsfeeds.  I tend to aim for EST or PST.

            Don’t have anything to post?  Well, there’s a chance to talk about other stuff, like I mentioned above.

3) Don’t make more than two or three posts a day. 

            I keep it at two and do three sparingly (maybe once a week).  Going for more than this on Facebook becomes spammy in people’s newsfeeds and they’ll block or ignore you.  Neither does any good.  No one likes the hard sell.  It’s not what Facebook’s about.

            This goes for Notes and Links, too.  Just don’t put up more than three things per day.  More posts also means it’s less likely people will like or comment on said post, so more posts actually means less chance of getting the posts seen (see below).

4) Likes, comments, and shares.   Posts, links, pictures.

            This is the big one.  The more likes/comments/shares on something, the more it shows up in people’s newsfeeds.  The more newsfeeds it shows up in, the more people find their way to the site, which makes it show up in more newsfeeds (and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and...).  This is one of Facebook’s little hidden algorithms (quality of posts over quantity of posts). 

            In this algorithm, it goes Likes < Comments < Shares.  So anything you post, make a point of liking it yourself.  If you’ve got extra information, add it as a comment rather than an extra-long post.  If you have two pages to post it on—or a page and a business profile (for example “Bob Smith” and “Bob Smith’s Author Page”)—post it to the main one and share it to the other.

            The same holds for links<posts<pictures.  For example, if I just want to say something today, post a semi-relevant picture and make your post the caption.  A picture with lots of shares is the most visible thing on Facebook.

            Worth noting that Facebook’s recently (as I write this) tweaked things to really push down the visibility of Amazon links and other “buy this” posts.  Really of links in general. So keep that in mind.

            Anyway, this leads nicely into two connected tips...

5) Ask questions. 

            Asking prompts people to answer questions, which means I'm getting likes/ comments (see above).  If you check out my fan page, I “crowdsource” answers about geeky things a lot.  A while back I asked everyone on the page a Transformers toy question.  Dozens of people leaped forward to answer, and their answers spawned more comments and likes.  Every Saturday morning I ask a “What’s your favorite...” question about something that's crossed my mind and it always gets a hundred or so responses.  This is also a great way to post things on the occasional week when you’ve got no relevant material to post about.

            Again, though, don’t go crazy.  I’ve seen pages that phrase every single post as a question

6) Answer questions. 

            I cannot stress how important this is.  Because of Facebook’s casual nature (much like the whole internet), people expect answers.  Nothing aggravates them more than to feel like comments or questions are going down a black hole.  That lack of response is what builds anger and resentment, which lead to the dark side.

            Note that I don’t need to know the answer to do this.  Just acknowledge the question and tell whoever it is that I'll try to find an answer for them.  You’d be amazed how much goodwill can build just off that.  Look over my fan page and see how many people became happy just because I said “I’ll look into that for you” or something along those lines.  And, yes, you'll be biting your tongue on a few of them to keep giving the answers they deserve.

            And, again, answers and responses are all more comments, which push posts higher in the newsfeed.

7) Keep it clean. 

            This refers to language and contoversial topics, but also to the page itself.  Don’t let lots of other people clutter your page with their unwanted/inappropriate posts and spam.  Don’t be scared to delete stuff, but make sure it’s delete-worthy.  Leaving up negative comments makes you look big and able to handle criticism.  Addressing said comments (see above), makes you look even better.  And—again—makes you show up on more newsfeeds.

8) Do NOT Pay For Ads or Followers

            Facebook is more like a high school cafeteria. The unpopular girl can say something twenty times and no one hears her. The head cheerleader can say something once and everyone in the room knows what she said. It really is a popularity contest.
            Facebook ads are doing the cheerleader's math homework in exchange for sitting at the popular table. I'll be on top for half an hour and then everyone will forget me again.

            Worse yet—it’s been pretty much proven that, when I pay for likes/ads, almost all the responses I get are from clickfarms in developing countries (yes, even when I pay Facebook for it).  And these “fake” likes will actually mess up the algorithms on my page and cause me to become less visible. Seriously. It’s because they don’t interact with my posts (they’re just clickfarms) so they cause that branching effect (point #4, above) to collapse.  The more fake likes on the page, the less my stuff is actually seen.

            And that’s it.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an easy formula for boosting your page’s visibility, which then leads to more likes, which leads to more visibility.  My fan page averages about four or five new fans a day, my average post is seen by about half my fans (usually 2500+ people) and I haven’t paid Facebook a cent to boost posts or any of that.  It takes time, but it builds a much more solid following.

My Social Networking Tip

            I’ve seen a lot of people talking about this sort of thing lately.  Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Tumblr, Instagram—all the various forms of social media.  Tons of writers want to know how to make it work for them.  What’s the real trick to turning tweets into sales?  How do I make my blog pay for itself?

            Well, it’s pretty easy.

            Allow me to explain...

            You’ve probably heard people talk about networking. Regular networking.  You know, the thing where I know George and he knows Phoebe and she knows that other George and suddenly wham I’m writing a Star Wars movie.  Because it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Right?

            Lots of gurus push networking.  It’s their go-to thing for success, because it's kind of a fail-safe thing to preach.  If you succeed, they were right.  If you fail, they were also right (you clearly didn’t network with the right people).

            And so a lot of beginning folks go out there and network.  And by “network,” I mean they stalk professional writers and agents and editors, both online and in the real world.  They bombard them with emails and messages and friend requests.  They follow them around at parties and conventions.

            The truth is, though, this isn’t how networking works.  It isn’t about people I’ve hunted down and cornered.  It’s about people who are friends and acquaintances—real friends and acquaintances.  You may have heard folks say that networking should be lateral, not upward, because friendship is lateral.
            As I’ve mentioned over on my ranty blog, this is why active networking doesn’t work.  If I become “friends” with someone just because I want something from them, they’re going to sense that.  It’s a forced relationship, and those are never good.

            Why do I bring up networking?

            Well, the same holds for social networking.  If I’m blogging or tweeting or running a fan page just to have a captive audience who’ll buy stuff from me... it’s not going to work. If I try to use social media as a billboard or a series of commercials... it won’t work.  I can't just stick up non-stop "buy my book, read my blog, look at this" because people don't respond to that.  People use social media to interact, and that's what all these systems are set up around. 

            Here’s a few other tips...

            First, if I have “a platform,” I’m kind of screwed.  No one wants to see my platform.  No one’s interested in it.  It’s a nonsense term made up by another idiot marketing guru, and it means I’m turning people into assets.  The simple fact that I think of it as “a platform” means I’m doing it wrong.  It makes it very clear how I view the people I interact with online.

            Second, social media has to be organic.  The whole system is based around this.  It can't be forced or rushed or bought.  I see so many folks get frustrated because they don't have a thousand rabid followers in their first three months.  I have a big Facebook following, but my fan page has been up for almost six years.  On the flipside I've barely been on Twitter for six months and right now one of my cats has twice as many followers as me.

            Third, remember how I just said it can’t be bought?  I was serious.  Paying for ads or exposure on social media is like doing the cheerleader or quarterback’s English homework so I can sit at the popular table during lunch.  I’m only there for a day or two, most people are going to tune me out, and then I’m back over in the corner with the drama club and that one kid who just runs in place during gym class, no matter what everyone else is doing.  Not only that, but there’ve been several studies by smart people that show paying for social media ads (especially on Facebook) accomplishes nothing and actually hurts me in the long run.

            This is only my opinion, but I think the best thing someone can do as an author on social media is to just be themselves.  Be honest.  Be fun.  Like stuff more than hating it.  Be positive more than negative.  If you look at my fan page or twitter feed, I'd guess 60-70% of the stuff I post has nothing to do with my books or me as an author.  It's mostly about me as a geek who likes a lot of fun stuff and likes sharing it with people. 

            If that isn't your thing... don't do social media.  Lots of successful authors don’t.  Because if I’m going to be on social media people expect me to be social, not to spend every minute hammering home a publicity/ marketing plan.  Really, that’s the kind of presence that hurts more than helps.  I've seen different authors try different methods (from starvation to... well, risqué), but this is more or less what it boils down to.  People are on social media to interact, not to receive advertising or canned updates.

            So, how do you turn tweets into sales?

            You don’t.

            It’s really that simple.

When Mifigs Dream at Halloween...

This. Learn This.

Because we all need more dancing Groot in our lives...

A few overdue shots from SDCC 2014

Hack writer posing in front
of Comic-Con banner

Cap's new wheels

Hanging out with Andy Weir (author of The Martian)
at the Random House party

A brief moment of ego at the Random House party

Texas Frightmare Weekend

A little late, but I wanted to share some of the fantastic costumes I saw two weekends back at Texas Frightmare.  Honestly, there were dozens more I wish I had pictures of, because even the hotel staff was getting into the spirit.

The Krampus Society,
a group of folks who are much nicer than they look

Six Shooter
from the Puppet Master movies

My second favorite Jigsaw of the weekend
(Lindsey in the hotel bar was amazing)

El Santo is secretly zombie author Bowie Ibarra
(no, really--I didn't believe it either)

Hands down, best costume I saw all weekend

Fantastic con, possibly even better than it was last year.  Met tons of fans, maybe even created a few new ones.  A good time was had by all.

Another small comic book rant...

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me what I read when I was nine, looking for ideas for her son.  And I said (among other things)...comic books.  I was a huge Marvel fan as a kid.  Spider-Man, Hulk, ROM, Micronauts, Shogun Warriors,Ghost Rider, some Iron Man.  Easy access to comic books was a huge part of the reason I was an avid reader then and why I’m a writer today.

But Marvel doesn’t put out stories aimed at that demographic anymore.  I follow a bunch of their writers and publicity folks, and I was stunned when one person asked about current/recent Captain America comics suitable for a ten year-old and was publicly told there weren’t any.  Which  strikes me as sad on numerous levels, because it means a lot of these creators are taking something they loved when they were young and making it into something kids can’t enjoy.

And it makes me wonder... how many of these kids (if any) will grow up loving those characters?  At least, in this format?

Bless Your Mechanical Heart

Evil Girlfriend Media just released their new anthology, Bless Your Mechanical Heart.  At it's simplest, it's a lot of bittersweet stories about robots from authors like Fiona Patton, Ken Scholes, Seanan McGuire (yeah, her! a.k.a. Mira Grant), and lots of other talented folks.


For some reason they also took a story from me, too.  It's a little thing called "The Apocrypha of Gamma-202," and it's about truth and religion and other dangerous ideas people (and robots) can have.  And they also asked me if I'd do a guest post for their blog about why I love robots.  And writing about robots.

On top of all that, they put together this little meme-ish image for the story that they've floated off around the web.  It's pretty fantastic, and it's so fitting I thought they might've had the photo taken just for this promo.

So check it out.  Bless Your Mechanical Heart.  It's robots and it's sad (which, as we all know, is happy for deep people).

Terminology

Last night I was directed to a blog post that said self-publishers should not be allowed to call themselves authors.  Fighting words, I know.  It was a ham-fisted, blanket statement,  and I think it’s pretty tough to say something that broad without getting some deserved backlash.  Plus, in all fairness, the person who wrote it had a bunch of issues when it came to their own writing ability.  Then again, said writer wasn’t insisting on being called an author anywhere that I saw...

I found myself kind of agreeing with the general idea, though, if not the way it was delivered.  “Author” used to be a term that meant something.  It implied a degree of prestige, that someone had worked at their chosen art for years and been rewarded with a title.

Nowadays, though... no work needed.  I can just demand that title for doing well... anything.  Or nothing.

Take the Baboon Fart Story book.  If you’re not familiar with it, the story goes something like this.  Chuck Wendig made an offhand comment a while back that these days someone can just print the word “fart” 100,000 times, slap a picture of a baboon on the cover, and have it up on Amazon within the hour.  So, this being the internet, someone did just that.  Baboon Fart Story, clearly stating it was just the word “fart” repeated 100,000 times and referencing Wendig, was for sale on Amazon for about a day before someone at the company realized it was a mockery of their whole business plan and it was pulled for content reasons.  I think their official excuse was “a less than satisfactory reading experience.”

So, question for the floor... should the person who slapped Baboon Fart Story together be considered an author?  Has he or she earned that title with that book?  It was 100,000 words.  It even sold a couple dozen copies (some of the equally humorous reviews on Amazon were verified purchases).

Baboon Fart Story.  Author or not?

Now, let me spare some of you a bit of time.  I’m sure someone’s leaping down to the comments right now to explain that Baboon Fart was just a joke.  A not-very elaborate joke to illustrate a point.  Heck, it was really just an exercise in cut-and-paste.

To which I say, whoa!  Are we now putting definitions on what counts as a book?  On who gets to call themselves an author?

Of course we are.

As I’ve said many times over on my ranty blog, most of us know how to cook, but very few of us would consider ourselves chefs.  I make a fairly good almost-from-scratch pizza and decent stir-fried rice, but I’d never call myself a chef.  Someone would have to be arrogant as hell to insist we call them a chef because they poured orange juice and heated up waffles in the toaster.  Because we all understand that chef is a title which reflects a certain degree of experience and education past the commonly-known basics. 

Are there self-published writers who deserve to be called authors?  Absolutely and without question.  There are some phenomenally talented and practiced people who’ve chosen to go that route, and they’ve earned that title a hundred times over.  I’d argue the point with anyone who tried to say otherwise.

Does everyone who self-publishes immediately and automatically deserve the title of author?  No.  No, they do not.  Because being an author means something, and it’s more than “able to upload files.”  It implies someone doesn’t just have a base ability to write—or to cut and paste—but a certain level of experience and ability with words.  The exact definition is changing with some of these new paths, but it’s still there.  And it should be there. And we should all be happy it's there and strive to earn it.

Because if anyone can call themselves an author for doing anything, then the word is meaningless.  

Kaiju Rising

            Last year I was approached about writing a giant monster story for a Kickstarter project.  To be honest, I had a few reservations.  One was that I’ve always sucked at writing anything on demand.  Two is that I’d just watched another Kickstarter book... well, not implode...  It crumbled at an alarming rate, let’s say.

            But I did have most of a World War II-era giant monster novella I’d wanted to do something with.  And Nick, one of the guys behind Kaiju Rising assured me it was going to be done responsibly so that donors would feel like they were getting their money’s worth.

            And so... here’s the monstrous (seriously, it's huge) Kaiju Rising with my short story “The Banner of the Bent Cross.”  The ebook’s out now, paperback soon to follow.

            Enjoy.

First One's Free...

Here's a little sample of the Ex-Purgatory audiobook, read by Jay Snyder.



Pick up the whole thing over at Audible.com...

Gatekeepers

Actual entrance to Random House
(not shown: snipers)

One term floating around the internet a lot these days is “the gatekeepers.”  On the off chance you’re not familiar with it, it’s a handy, catch-all term some folks use for editors and agents, both in publishing and sometimes in Hollywood, too.  The idea is that these are the people who decide if a writer’s work should be published or produced.  The gatekeepers either let me in the world of big publishers or keep me out.

Naturally, of course, my work is genius and should be published.  But for some reason or another—usually because they’re idiots—those gatekeepers won’t let me past the entrance.  I say this because it’s a key point when talking about this subject.  A huge percentage of people who use the term gatekeepers—the vast majority, I’d say—are people who aren’t being allowed through those gates. 

So, in a very real way, “gatekeepers” is being used as an insult.  A slur.  It’s like that old joke about the difference between a nymph and a slut.  A nymph sleeps with everyone, a slut sleeps with everyone... except you.  So what’s the difference between an editor and a gatekeeper...?

Here’s the thing no one likes to admit about those gatekeepers. 

They aren’t just keeping me out.  They’re also keeping out all those other people whose work is complete crap.  Dull stories, predictable plots, flat characters, poor spelling... we can all agree that those people should be kept out.  We don’t want to deal with their crap.  No one does.

Again, none of that applies to me, naturally.  My work, as I mentioned, is genius.  And deserves to be published.

Y’see, once I stop thinking about me and insulting them, it’s pretty clear that what the gatekeepers are doing is vetting material.  They’re weeding out all the stuff that’s dull or predictable or would take far too much work to become a sellable product (this is a business, after all).

Now, a lot of those same folks who slam the gatekeepers also say the market will decide if something’s any good or not.  If a million people want to put their epic sci-fi/horror/fantasy/steampunk trilogies on Kindle, power to them.  And on one level I’m okay with that and I agree with it.

However...  What I find ironic is that then they talk about how they’ll find their way through those thousands and thousands of dull, flat, poorly written manuscripts.  They’ll check to see Amazon ratings.  They’ll see what bloggers have to say.  They’ll see what has the best reviews.

In other words, they’ll let someone else vet the material for them.  Someone else can sift through all the crap so those readers only need to see the good stuff.  The things that deserve to make money.

Thing is, if people really wanted a completely fair and equal marketplace, one with absolutely no gatekeepers, there would be no reviews.  No ratings.  No word of mouth.  No one would be allowed to influence whether or not a book gets seen.  We’d all just pick titles at random and hope for the best. 

And let's be honest--the best would be few and far between.  There’s a lot of awful material out there these days.  God-awful.  Probably three out of five, if I had to guess, because there are no restrictions or guidelines about who can reach the marketplace.  Maybe as high as four out of five.

I think we’re all glad when someone else is willing to take one for the team and weed those awful books out.  To vet the material for us.  To make sure some things get our attention and others don’t.

Thank goodness there are gatekeepers.

Happy Halloween

Not Dead Yet!

Hollywood Remakes

This isn't so much a rant about Hollywood remakes as it is about the recurring idea that sequels, remakes, and adaptations are some awful, overwhelming blight that's taken over Hollywood in the past few years.  Humphrey Bogart's version of The Maltese Falcon was a remake of an adaptation.  So was John Carpenter's The Thing.  Casino Royale was a remake, too.  Dracula is the most filmed fictional character in history.  Seriously.  How many remakes or adaptations are we talking about there?

Don't get me wrong--there are some God-awful remakes out there. Nightmarishly bad ones.  But there's a lot of God-awful original films, too.  And, hard as it may be to believe, they're the majority.

Hollywood studios released just shy of 200 films in 2011.  I believe the exact number is 194, but I might be off by two or three (that's based off Box Office Mojo's records, if you care).  This number does not include micro-releases that only played for a limited number of screenings or foreign films brought over by independent distributors.  If we were all inclusive, the number of films at the box office last year is closer to five hundred.

2011 had more sequels released than any other year to date.  There were 28--about one out of every seven films (14.2%) if we stick to that smaller number of studio releases.

If we're extremely generous with the term "remake" (counting, for example, Captain America: The First Avenger  as a remake of the low-budget 1990 film and Rise of the Planet of the Apes as a remake of the old Conquest of the Planet of the Apes) , 2011 had 13 remakes.  Not even one in ten of the smaller studio number (6.66%, actually).  And before anyone asks, there are overlaps between the remakes and sequels.

Which means, conservatively, that 80% of the films released in 2011 were original or based off new, never-before-filmed material.  Probably a little more than that.  Definitely more if we use all the numbers and not just the studio releases.  This isn't opinion, remember--these are cold, hard facts.  You can go to Boxoffice Mojo or The Numbers or even just IMDb, count up releases, and you'll get the same results.

I think what drives people nuts is that over the past ten years or so the average person has access to tons of news and information about the internal workings of Hollywood.  But the film industry is a very weird business.  There is nothing else like it and nothing to compare it to (from many, many folks, the closest comparison is life in the military).  Having access to all that internal information doesn't mean someone can understand Hollywood any more than having access to all the internal organs in someone's torso can make you a heart surgeon.

So, anyway, people hear about movies going into development, don't understand what that means, and assume these films are going to happen now.  In film terms, going into development means... nothing. Absolutely nothing. Dozens of remakes, reboots, sequels, and original scripts are considered for development every day because that's how development people keep their jobs. They get nine or ten projects "in the works" and about 95% of them fizzle out and die. Some of them are remakes, a bigger bunch of them are original. But the vast majority of them don't come out. This is business as usual. Disney has had all of their sixties and seventies live movies in development as remakes or reboots for over a decade now. We've seen one make it out-- Race To Witch Mountain. One in over ten years.

It's not really a problem.

Just saying...