Press Kit
I have written a book about a Chinese filmmaker who has never had a book written about him before despite the fact that he has been making films for over forty years, and has worked with some high-profile movie stars. Below is an example of what I have sent to literary agents. Most agents have different submission requirements, so not everything was said in one e-mail. Also, it helps to diversify what you’re saying (e.g. less words, more words) because it stops them from accusing you of saying the exact same thing to other agents. Furthermore, changing how you word things not only allows you to experiment but it stops e-mail servers from automatically identifying you as a spammer. Anyway, here is what I usually mentioned in my query to a literary agent…
Elevator pitch: The most accomplished film-maker that you’ve never heard about.
Alternate logline: The story of a man who only became a film director to pay for his wife’s labour fee.
Pitched in a paragraph: Wong Jing has directed over a hundred films, and broken the local box office record on two occasions. He has directed every major star of Hong Kong cinema except Bruce Lee.
Unique selling points: Nobody has written a book about him before, not even after his Chinese-only memoir was published in 2011. By that point, it had been thirty years since the release of his first film. What also makes my book stand out is the convenience for the reader in knowing when each chapter takes place as the chapter titles automatically inform you of the years.
Themes: Ethics, artistic compromises, financial development, fickle tastes, collateral damage, rivalry, vengeance, coded language, numerology and superstition.
Why you? Why now?: I am the best author to write a book about him because I am his biggest fan, and I have been studiously learning about him since 2001 - when I first began using the internet. Next year, Wong Jing will be turning 70. He claimed that, following his retirement, he will write a more candid book that is an exposé.
Blurb: Wong Jing is Hong Kong’s most profitable and diverse filmmaker. He has directed seven Chinese film stars who have been in American films: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Gong Li and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Some of the filmmakers who have been influenced by Wong Jing are Quentin Tarantino, Ang Lee, Joss Whedon, Jackie Chan, the Wachowskis and John Woo. Wong Jing is the best example of a director whose success was to do with working with the Chinese mafia, who are also known as the Triads. The Hong Kong film industry is a criminal enterprise from top to bottom, so Wong Jing has not only reaped the rewards but suffered some beatings along the way.
Book history: I have been working on my biography since 2013, and the word-count became so inflated that I had to remove so many sections which then became the focus of articles posted on my Substack and WordPress blogs - each one called Pop Cult Master. Most of the pages that I removed were as much to do with myself being a film critic as a film historian. This means that the finished work is more fact-based instead of opinion-driven. What’s impressive is that if you combined the word-counts of my outtakes articles, they could form another book altogether. It’s taken myself so long to reach the querying stage because I was hoping that Wong Jing would become famous by making a Hollywood film or I would have achieved some success as a novelist. I even attempted to write a novel for him to adapt as a Hollywood film but to no avail.
Target audience: I anticipate my audience to be people who are fans of the filmmakers that have taken ideas from Wong Jing’s films. Besides the directors I’ve already mentioned, other people include Mel Gibson, Doug Liman, Brian De Palma, Tom Cruise, Michael Biehn, Joel Schumacher, and Bruce Willis.
Similar books: My biography would be comparable to an autobiography like Jackie Chan’s Never Grow Up because of the narrative structure. My book is also comparable to Bey Logan’s Hong Kong Action Cinema in how it serves as an introduction for outsiders. With my focus on the Triad culture, my book could also be compared to Martin Booth’s The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads. A happy medium would be Hong Kong Babylon by Fredric Dannen and Barry Long. Outside of Hong Kong films, other books worthy of comparison would be Gianni Russo’s Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob, Danny Trejo’s Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, and Ice-T’s Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption - from South Central to Hollywood.
Obscure author trivia: When studying Media, I earned a certificate called Advanced Media Handling Programme. This was awarded by a TV company called Propeller TV, which is now a Chinese corporation.
Marketing gimmick: Because Wong Jing has made so many different kinds of films, worked with many recognizable stars, and has influenced so many people, it makes sense for my book to form the basis of either a TV or film documentary. He has made so many films, you could make a miniseries based on him. Otherwise, I am prepared to advertise my book on forums, social media sites, dating apps and even pop culture sites like Reddit.
One page synopsis: In 1980, Wong Jing’s wife, Eliza, is about to give birth, but Wong doesn’t have the money to pay for her labour fee. A Shaw Brothers production manager named Lawrence Wong tells him that a film based on a TV series would be a hit. Lawrence recommends Wong Jing to Shaw Brothers producer Mona Fong, who offers him a contract. From 1981 to 1983, Wong Jing becomes friends with actors Wong Yue and Alexander Fu Sheng. Things change for the worst when the latter dies in a car crash. From 1983 to 1988, Wong Jing is engaged if not embroiled in a rivalry with director Sammo Hung. In 1989, Wong Jing gives up when he decides to think outside the box. He is rewarded with the landmark box office success of God of Gamblers. His second daughter was born during the making of the film. By this point, he is no longer working for Shaw Brothers. Instead, he is working for a producer named Jimmy Heung — one of Hong Kong’s most powerful gangsters. Jimmy belongs to a Triad organization called Sun Yee On.
Both Jimmy and Jing achieve spectacular commercial success but their bond is strained when it comes to the casting of their favourite actresses. This results in Wong Jing being beaten by some thugs during the making of a Jet Li film called Kung Fu Cult Master. The relationship is fractured when Jimmy is investigated for tax evasion in 1993 — the same year that marked Wong Jing’s busiest year as a director as he has nine films released. Despite the record breaking success of God of Gamblers Returns in 1995, Wong Jing makes a series of flops which eventually leads to himself leaving Hong Kong for Mainland China where he establishes himself as a bigger box office draw. Wong Jing thinks that there is racial tension between the Chinese in Hong Kong and Mainland China, but he is optimistic about his future. Despite his numerous liaisons, Wong Jing is still with his wife, Eliza. He is proud of his two daughters.
That just about covers it. Unlike submitting novels to literary agencies, wanting to submit a non-fiction book is different because most agents don’t expect you to have written the entire manuscript. They expect you to only have a proposal, especially if they have a desire to collaborate alongside an editor. My book about Wong Jing needed to be written rather than just pitched because nobody in the West has ever written a book about him before. As such, this was truly uncharted territory instead of a well-worn path like, say, writing a book about Bruce Lee. Additionally, I had to see how much of Wong Jing’s out-of-print 2011 memoir could be used without infringing his copyright. I’m not saying that my manuscript is set in stone, just that I’ve done the lion’s share of the work so that the editor or agent can find ways to build on the foundation instead of being at lost for words as to what to do.
One more thing to note is that many literary agents use a site called Query Manager. Besides the fact that what you’re submitting is essentially going to be the foundation of a press kit, what’s worth pointing out about the site’s querying process is that there’s a difference between how things are listed for the author and how things are listed for the agent. From the author’s perspective, the order is biography, query, sample, pitch, target audience and similar books. For the agent, however, the pecking order is query, pitch, sample, similar books, target audience and biography.
