Although eBooks were once thought of as just a passing fad, today there’s nothing that has created more controversy and praise in book publishing. Even other industries are beginning to take notice of the format’s possibilities, looking to it as an opportunity to expand their brands and profits.
One such visionary is CSI creator Anthony Zuiker. His latest book, Dark Prophecy: Level 26, is his second foray into what he is calling the digi-novel — a fusion of interactive and traditional reading. By allowing readers to follow the tome’s plot through film, social media, mobile apps, and the traditional printed page, Zuiker hopes to reach the “ultra level of convergence in entertainment.” Here, the creator of the biggest franchise in television history and former Las Vegas tram operator explains how and why he did it.
What gave you the idea to expand your brand from television to novels?
During the writer’s strike, we had some downtime. I always loved the publishing business and so I decided to create Dark Prophecy as a digi-novel. I’ve been so infatuated with technology and I want to incorporate publishing, motion pictures and the social communities wrapped into one experience in terms of the ultra level of convergence in entertainment. So, with the digi-novel there are a couple of things I wanted to accomplish: 1) to be able to read a book cover-to-cover to maintain the traditional experience; 2) With every 25 pages that you read, you would have an option to log into a website, enter a code, and watch a piece of the motion picture footage to sort of bridge you from one chapter to another. There’s about 20 of those in book one; and 3) When it was over with, you’d be able to join the Level26.com social community to have direct access to Anthony Zuiker and have extra content in blogs, profile pages and etc. for levels of engagement.
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Your first digi-novel in this trilogy was Dark Origins. How well did that do and what did you learn from the experience?
We made some mistakes for Book One because it was so new, we were trailblazing. We had a very masculine graphic novel cover, which didn’t help things. We had the first bridge more like a snuff film, which is much too dark and had a lot of sexual deviance in the book, which was not really up the alley of my CSI audience. And we began to sit back and go, “Let’s try to right these wrongs because we really want to figure out what the rhythm is for the digi-novel experience.” We also made it inept for the iTouch and iPhone, and I feel like when you have to put down a book you’re reading to log in, enter a code and watch the bridge, that’s somewhat of a clumsy experience. I didn’t want to take the book out of the reader’s hands.
So, how is this new eBook a different experience than the first?
With Dark Prophecy, we decided to make some major changes to try to figure out the rhythm of the digi-novel that I created in that it has a much more commercial cover, [and] the merit of it is much more protagonist-based — it’s really the coming out party for my hero, Steve Dark, who is a special part of the CSI group, which deals with the world’s worst crimes. We shot a one-hour motion picture that can be watched and enjoyed separately from the book so they didn’t fight each other in the narrative. And we’re able to have CSI, for the TV show, extract a villain from Book One and put that villain in the television episode and have the storyline continue in Dark Prophecy which drops the same day. So, it’s like the ultimate cross platform of the television/publishing experience.
How did you crack Hollywood’s notoriously closed doors without any family or personal connections?
Well, this is true. I’m an only child, so I have no known ties with Hollywood. They say all great things happen by accident. I was writing monologues for a friend in college for forensic speech. He in turn took those and auditioned in Hollywood trying to be an actor. And when Jenny Delaney, who was a literary agent at William Morris, happened to ask, “Who wrote those monologues?” he said, “a friend of mine, Anthony.” She called me up and said, “If you can write me a screenplay, I’ll represent you,” which in my naive opinion meant that if I wrote something she could sell it. I wrote a movie called The Runner, which she ultimately did not represent but it did circle around town. It caught the eyes of my manager, Margaret Riley, and I signed with CAA based on one script. There is no one way into the business. There are tons of spotters out here who are looking for fresh material, fresh faces.
What was your career path like from screenwriter to creator of your own series?
Well, my manager had the smarts to convince me to take lesser money on a smaller project because she said if I did a horror sequel, I’d end up being out of the business in three years. You can’t really expect to spread your wings as a literary giant if you’re doing cheesy horror films. Fast forward to 18 months later and [the smaller project] never got made, but it did end up on the desk of Jerry Bruckheimer. As timing would have it, he was trying to start his television company. He liked the writing. He liked the voice. He called me in. I pitched him CSI, and we’ve turned out as the biggest franchise in TV history.
You have expanded CSI to include Miami and New York. What other spinoffs can we expect?
There’s no spinoff plan right now. You know, there was a rumor about the movie but again, it’s very complicated. However, my company sold a bodyguard show about Kimberly Penn, the famous female bodyguard for Shaquille O’Neal, Bill Gates, and Mick Jagger. Then, we’re working with CBS on four or five more great shows. So, I’m sort of doing double-duty as a developer of our company on top of the fact that I’m on CSI full-time, while launching a book, a father of three and a husband and talking with you. It’s kind of my complicated lifestyle.
You famously worked a day job as a tram operator in a Las Vegas casino before creating CSI. What advice do you have for aspiring writers who are juggling a day job while pursuing their dreams?
You have to find a way into the castle. You know, I think that when I drove a tram back and forth, there was a part of me that was angry, part of me that was frustrated, part of me that was thinking, “What did I do in my life to deserve all this?” There I was working for $8 an hour and I had two college degrees and worked in a tram. There’s so many talented people out there that can do what I have done on CSI, if given the opportunity. There are spotters in this town that are looking for fresh faces, the fresh producer, you know, the unique story teller. So, pursue the dream and stay the course, ’cause once you give up, it’s over.
What is your writing process like?
It’s a lonely process. In terms of me writing a pilot, it’s me sometimes sitting in a deli pathetically from 9 to 4 ordering a ton of coffee so they don’t kick me out of there, and you know, taking 10-minute breaks every four hours. You know, I laugh ’cause I see myself and my sweats with cold coffee and ice cold eggs at the Broadway Deli in Santa Monica, trying to figure out what the next scene is going to be. It’s really a non-glamorous lonely Hollywood scenario, but that’s just how it is.
What do you think about the claim that shows like CSI negatively affect the real life police process?
Have we done things in the show before that let out the police secrets? Yeah, sure. But for the most part the show becomes bigger than us, and I can’t even tell you the ratio of people that have gone on to graduate with PhD’s and graduate study degrees in criminal justice and criminal science. I have been asked about what the perfect crime is and I have a couple of ideas but they’re not really sound because it’s just really and virtually impossible to get away with anything.
Anthony Zuiker’s Tips for Aspiring TV Writers
1. Have some level of talent.
2. Be able to sell your vision verbally through pitching before you get to the written word.
3. Know how to execute your ideas.
4. Go to New York and Los Angeles to get in front of the decision makers. You have to then try to convince them that your piece of material can be profitable and is worth fighting for.
5. Do your research. There’s plenty of story points that bailed me out because of research. I’m not that creative to make things up, so thorough research and creative leads are pretty much the bread and butter of how I have survived in the business, besides having a unique voice.
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Jeff Rivera is the author of Forever My Lady (Grand Central) and a GalleyCat contributor.
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