So You Want to be in Show Business: A Hollywood Agent Shares the Secrets of Getting Ahead Without Getting Ripped Off
by Steve Stevens Sr.

Times have changed and so has show business. It is no longer enough for the beginning actor to be in the right place at the right time hoping to be “discovered.” Gone are the days of sneaking onto the lot of a production company, dropping in on casting directors, or having lunch at the studio commissary to rub elbows with the famous and powerful.

“It’s not at all like the days when I was a teenage actor,” Steve Stevens Sr. says. “At age 13, I was spotted by a for-real fin de siccle German director who pulled me aside as I swaggered through the lot and gave me a speaking part in Frank Wisbar’s Fireside Theater, TV’s first anthology show.”

Seeing the need for a more professional and planned approach, Stevens decided to write So You Want to be in Show Business: A Hollywood Agent Shares the Secrets of Getting Ahead Without Getting Ripped Off. Written from this agent’s point of view and based on his 50 years in Hollywood, Stevens has provided the perfect handbook for anyone who wants to make it in Tinseltown.

The first talent the up-and-comer must develop is the ability to distinguish between the rip-off artists and legitimate opportunities. Crucial information found in Stevens’s book includes:

• Information about how casting directors think
  
• Getting head-shot photos that work
  
• Writing resumes that sell
  
• Finding the right agent
  
• How to read the trade papers
  
• Understanding showcases and workshops
  
• Meeting with casting directors
  
• What the Screen Actors Guild is all about

Steve Stevens, Sr. writes from his 50 years of experience in Hollywood as an actor, producer, casting director, and SAG-franchised talent agent. His office is in Sherman Oaks, California.

Review from Back Stage West - May 19, 2005

Steve Stevens Sr. is a very interesting guy. After 50 years all over the business, including stints as a co-star with Annette Funicello in one of her series within The Mickey Mouse Club program, casting films for George C. Scott, and representing countless actors as a licensed and franchised talent agent, he knows a thing or two about Hollywood and its dreams and nightmares.

There is something meaty to the advice he gives. Unlike some "how to" authors, Stevens speaks from experience. This isn't a textbook: It doesn't cover every base or present quick bullet points or step-by-step guidelines. Instead it's a chance to hear an experienced showbiz veteran hold forth and tell a few tales. Much of his advice is straightforward: Stevens imparts do's and don't's of getting started in Hollywood and landing an agent, as well as getting work in the greater U.S.A. He presents simple and refreshingly direct explanations of historically controversial issues such as FICOR, the status one takes by declining to join a union, and why actors can't get breakdowns. He even features pet peeves, including a section with examples of terrible letters from actors seeking representation, which is a hoot. His old-school demeanor and easy style give his discourse on these topics distinct flavor and charm.

Stevens, who spent his pre-acting youth hawking newspapers on the corner of Hollywood and Vine, has an obvious love for the business. Although some of his examples might seem out-of-date, the heart of his message remains pertinent and personal. Toward the book's end, he delves into the pull of the acting profession, and he cautions that aspiring actors should not "imagine what it will be like when you're a star, move to L.A., call yourself an actor, and then wait and hope for something to happen." Instead these prospective actors should search for balance and a way to make life work. He writes: "If you are spending today as a sacrifice to an imagined future happiness, you are setting yourself up for a big disappointment... What you need to do is create a life that makes you happy." Stevens is a living example of someone who took on Hollywood and did just that.

--Jackie Apodaca

WHAT EXPERTS SAY ABOUT STEVENS' BOOK:

"This book... has page after page filled with great suggestions and straight talk that I haven't read in any other acting career-building book. If an actor buys just one book, this should be the one."
--Lawrence Parke, Acting World Books

"A must read for any beginning actor."
--Lorna Johnson, Casting Director

"This is an invaluable book to anyone trying to start and maintain a career in acting."
--Dava Waite, Casting Director

PERSONALLY AUTOGRAPHED BOOK: