Keynote Conversation with Nicholas Sparks - Full Conversation
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00:00I would like to start off with asking how you connect with readers across different generations
00:05and demographics. Everyone remembers their first Nicholas Sparks. Mine was Walk to Remember in
00:10middle school and it ruined me. So I just wanted to ask you how you continue to do that and what
00:15ways you approach that. Yeah, there's a couple of ways. Number one, I'm very aware of my audience
00:22and I think that's probably the key thing. And I write kind of what I think or I hope
00:30my audience will like to read. I'll give you just a hard and fast rule that I have. Like
00:37if I have, with every new novel that I write, one of the first questions I ask myself is
00:44what are the ages of the characters who will fall in love? Okay? And I make that decision
00:52based upon what I haven't done recently. So for instance, I wrote a Walk to Remember
00:58and that was a teenage love story. And then a few years pass and I did characters in their
01:05thirties, their forties, their fifties and their sixties. I said, okay, now I have to do
01:11teenagers again. And I wrote the last song with Miley Cyrus and then another period of
01:17time, seven, eight years, whatever. I don't know how long then I need to do teenagers again.
01:21And so I did the wish. So, um, it's a simple fact in the publishing world that generally
01:27people like to read about people they relate to. And one of the things they relate to is
01:34the age of the characters. You know, teenagers don't always like to read about elderly people
01:39or people in their fifties or read about people who remind them of their parents. They like
01:43to read about teenagers. So the key is to, for me, that is a hard and fast rule. I vary
01:49the age of the, um, of the characters and then part two of my rule. And, um, I'm sure this
01:59will be of benefit to marketing, uh, people. Um, when I'm trying to conceive a story and characters
02:10and elements, plot elements within the story, I have, I try to have these meet three criteria,
02:20three criteria. I want it to be original. I want it to be interesting and I want it to be
02:29universal. Okay. So, um, it's very easy and most products, whether they're books or films,
02:41those elements will hit two of those three. You know, you can be interesting and original
02:49and come up with Hannibal Lecter very easily or an assassin or some crime. Uh, but they often fail
03:00on universality, i.e. can this happen to me? And the more a reader or a viewer feels like,
03:05hey, this can happen to me in the, in the kind of films that you want to not escape films or escape
03:14television. If you want to feel like it can happen to you, um, that universality is incredibly
03:19important and it's hard to be both universal. It can happen to anyone and, uh, original. I was
03:31talking backstage and I'll give you a hint. Um, this is just a quick story that'll illustrate that.
03:38So you have a couple, it's a Nicholas Sparks novel. They're beginning to move toward the point
03:43where they're going to fall in love. Okay. So I have to come up with something within the context
03:48of the novels I've written and what's on television and things you've seen in film that feels original.
03:56Okay. So I have him get in the car and he drives her to this location. She looks out the window
04:02beyond a chain link fence and she sees a bunch of headstones. She's like, did you bring me to a
04:10cemetery? This is kind of creepy. You know, some people would think this is creepy. And yes,
04:14it does feel creepy. He says, I don't know what this place is. So then he explains, and the story's
04:21taking place in Wilmington. And he explains that, uh, there was a cemetery in downtown Wilmington.
04:27It was in operation about 1840 to about 1940. Uh, it closed, uh, city continued building,
04:35just true story. They had to put up a road. So the road's going to go through the old cemetery.
04:41They moved none of the bodies. They just moved the headstones to this new location,
04:48kind of like the movie Poltergeist, right? It's a real place in Wilmington. It's a real place
04:53in Wilmington. So you go there, it's just headstones. There's no bodies. What is that?
05:00Right? So, okay. I find that interesting because has anyone ever seen that? Have you ever seen it in TV,
05:09in film? Not really. Uh, but is it universal? Yes. You read the book. I'll tell you the cemetery. You
05:15ever go to Wilmington, you can go there. So it's things like that. So that's an element within the story.
05:21It's the character within the story. And then it's the overall plot. They should all meet those three
05:26criteria. And that's how I try to connect. Uh, well, let's talk about how you're going
05:31to do that with your next project, which we're going to get remain up on the screen,
05:36the book cover. Uh, you're doing this with M night Shyamalan. I am, uh, both masters of twists,
05:43but I normally think of you in very different genres for those twists. So how did this partnership
05:47come about? And what are you looking to do with this? Are you trying to reach a different audience?
05:51Are you both trying to reach a larger audience? Yeah, it was really interesting. It was an idea
05:54from, uh, my agent, Howie Sanders, who's in the back over there. I've worked with him 25 years
05:59and he's, he likes to do new things. He said, Hey, let's get you together with M night Shyamalan.
06:05And so nothing. Okay, sure. Why not? So a year passes or so. Didn't think a second again about it.
06:13He says, okay, you're going to have a meeting with night in a, in a month. Uh, you come up with an
06:18original story that you think will fit his audience and yours. I said, okay, and he's going to do the
06:25same thing. So we went up there, we met for a couple of hours. Uh, I told him my story. He told
06:31me his story in that very first meeting. We said, okay, let's do yours. We've decided to do night's
06:38idea. Okay. So we started hashing out ideas about this. Uh, at that time, I was only committed to a
06:44short story because I didn't know whether he was going to write and direct and produce or just
06:51produce. So if he's just going to produce, I'm just going to do a short story. A year passes that way.
06:57I think we met in May. I don't know the following, following year in August, he said, wow, I think
07:03this is going to be my next story. I'm going to write, direct and produce. And so I say, okay,
07:09well, I guess I'm going to write up a novel. Um, and he started with the screenplay. He wrote that
07:16in, started September or something like that, finished right around October 11th,
07:22sent me a copy of the script. It was very much the story that we had discussed. And so then beginning,
07:28that was October 11th, starting October 12th, I started writing the novel, uh, finished it January 29th.
07:36It's of course, different than the film there, but it's the same, same general story, but it's
07:41a different medium. So there are differences you have to do. Um, we have the cover that was just
07:47announced. As far as I know, the film starts filming sometime in June, I think in Rhode Island. And, um,
07:56the novel will come out October 7th and then the film will be released sometime in 2026, I'm guessing.
08:03And that's starring Jake Gyllenhaal. That is starring Jake, Jake Gyllenhaal and, uh, Phoebe
08:08Denever. Yeah. Uh, when you look at yourself and how you're trying to market yourself, um, just
08:15individually from your books, uh, we all know about your chicken salad recipe by now that went viral.
08:20Uh, and your collaboration with Splenda, uh, coming up, how does something like that come about? It's
08:26not planted. It's not something that you're just looking to do. It, it was just you making your chicken
08:31salad. Yeah, that was kind of funny. So the New York times is coming over. They're going to do
08:36the house. They're going to take, it was a house thing. They're looking at my nice house. Um,
08:43and so she gets there at like 10 o'clock and I'm finishing up making my chicken salad. And it was a
08:49huge batch because I have five children and I, some of them are married and people come over. So I made a
08:55huge double batch and she said, Oh, what's in it? And so I told her what's in it. And among other
09:02things in it are 16 packets of Splenda because it's a double batch people. And I use Duke's mayonnaise,
09:09not like a Hellman's cause and Duke's doesn't have any sugar and Hellman's does. So if you're using
09:15Hellman's, you're already getting sweetener. Anyway, for whatever reason,
09:19my house and 16 packets of Splenda is what I have. And of course I'm skewered on social media. Like
09:29this has to be the most disgusting chicken salad recipe on the planet. And it's not by the way,
09:37it's delicious by the way. It is, it is. I can confirm I made it in preparation for this.
09:43And it was a double batch. So when just, if you're using one rotisserie chicken, it's only eight packets,
09:48but okay. Anyway, instead of fighting it or ignoring all the vitriol on social media about
09:57what a horrific cook I must be. And I have no sense of flavor. I'm no class. We leaned into it. We said,
10:07yeah, this is my chicken salad and I'll put it up against anybody's. I made it on my book tours.
10:13We fed people. And sure enough, Splenda was thrilled. And so they're putting my chicken salad
10:19recipe on Splenda boxes this year. And on every packet of Splenda, I think sometime this fall,
10:25it's going to have sweet sayings from Nicholas Sparks, in addition to the Splenda recipe. And yes,
10:31it's very good. Look, you want to put sugar in it? Go ahead. I just don't really have sugar in my house.
10:36I saw you Splenda. And it's really, really good. I'll defend it. Darn it.
10:43And I know you've kind of hopped on that in, and that you have the same social media manager
10:47you've had for a long time. And she's done an amazing job on captivating these moments and
10:52keeping in touch with both your existing audience and a younger as they come up.
10:57So have you seen different ways that you're trying to do that and working with her on those?
11:00Oh, sure. You know, it's very interesting. The world has changed, right? We all know this, right?
11:05Film, streaming, well, China, China, you know, you used to market because it's
11:11second biggest movie market in the world, but now it's largely closed to US films.
11:16Death of network television, you have changes in the book world too. I think they're, I think one of
11:22the major retailers, Target or Walmart or somebody, they're getting rid of mass market paperbacks.
11:27There's only going to be trade paperbacks. So everything changes. And I think that's one
11:32thing that, that we all know in this world is that, you know, things, things change. And it's important to
11:39be aware that at any time change is coming. So I've been very fortunate that I work with, with,
11:44with her name is Q, right? I've worked with her since 2011. And, you know, they've had LA Times has
11:53written profiles on her. She was really one of the first people who really started doing social media
11:58marketing. This is back when I was doing a lot of films. And so I pretty much trust her to run, whether
12:06we're going to do a brand partnership with Splenda or things to keep the films or the novels alive,
12:13whether it's using photos from the movie sets in the past or wishing Miley Cyrus a happy birthday or,
12:21or whatever. She's really in, because I'm not her only client, she has a number of very prominent
12:27clients. She knows what works, how to post, when to post. And one of the great things about working with
12:37her is that she is such an expert at her craft. I, I, it's easy for me to sit back and say, okay,
12:47you take care of this, right? I can offer suggestions and this and that. Uh, I can veer certain directions,
12:55but she's really good at what she does. And, uh, that's, that's kind of been my key
13:02throughout every aspect of my business, especially anything when it comes to marketing,
13:06you know, do you go all in, do you do t-shirts with your books or is that too much? You know,
13:11she has a good instinct for all these things and, and, and working with excellent people,
13:17um, is the best way to ensure that marketing over time remains excellent. And there's a difference
13:27between, the simple fact of the matter is there's a bell curve of talent and I'm very fortunate she's in
13:34the upper end of, of, of that bell curve. She's in the upper 10%. I'm just fortunate. And then I like
13:41to think I'm smart enough to have, A, recognize that and then B, to give her the freedom to run with
13:47that, with her ideas. Uh, I just want to in closing to come back around to your most seminal works. Uh,
13:54as you continue to write more and more, how do you go back to those and decide when you want to, you know,
13:58walk to remember is being rebooted, uh, in an adaptation, how you decide when it's time for
14:03those and what the right fit is. Does this seem like a gimmick? When is it time? Yeah, it depends
14:09on the project. And, and again, kind of like how I picked the ages on my book, you know, for the next
14:15characters for my book. Um, like I will tell you in the next book I'm writing, not remain characters are
14:21in their twenties. You can guarantee that the book after that, they're not going to be in their twenties.
14:26They'll be thirties, forties, teens, fifties, sixties. I don't know yet. Um, that's the only thing
14:31you'll know for sure. Um, I think there was a time I stepped away from film because film was really
14:40changing very prominently. And I felt like I needed to see where things were going to land
14:47before we decided our next move. You know, I, I pulled away, there, there was a time in 2015,
14:5416 where the studios I was working with started moving toward more tentpole type projects and they
15:01were making fewer films and then streaming in 2015, 16 was really just Netflix and they were starting.
15:08So what do you do? Do you try to force the issue with studios that may be looking for something bigger
15:17or do you take a chance on early Netflix when they may not? So we felt at that time, it was just
15:23better to sit back and see the lay of the land, see what evolves. And through that process, of course,
15:33what we tried to do is to keep the brand alive by really pushing the films that have been made and
15:38moving them, let's say onto Netflix to stream or moving them, you know, in 2015, there were still cable
15:44channels, you know, A&E or discover where whatever we could get them on. So we worked really hard to
15:49keep that alive. Meanwhile, I'm putting out books to keep the name alive. And we're just kind of seeing
15:53what's happening in the visual world film television streaming. Well, thank you so much for your time
16:02today, Nicholas. Thank you. You're welcome.