Skip Press has sold radio, TV, and feature film scripts, served as the Hollywood
correspondent for Boys Life magazine (American Boy Scouts), was a staff writer for
Algo’s Factory (United Paramount Network), had dozens of young adult novels and
nonfiction book series published, sold an online Webshow, and taught an online
screenwriting course for almost a decade that was eventually available in 1,500
schools. He edited a Hollywood entertainment magazine, produced and directed stage
plays to rave reviews in the Los Angeles Times, made instructional videos, and won a
Silver Medal at the New York International Film Festival. His young adult You Solve It
Mystery novels were developed for a TV series twice and in 2019 will be rewritten and
reissued, with a new fourth installment.
As a journalist, he has been published for over three decades, writing for national and
international publications as diverse as Grit and Reader’s Digest. Online, he wrote
extensively on Hollywood and Scientology for The Morton Report, founded by best-
selling author Andrew Morton.
Press has published almost 50 books, including four editions of the Writer's Guide to
Hollywood, four editions of the Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting (including one in
Russian). His most recent books include the autobiography of a music legend - This Is
My Song: A Memoir by Patti Page with Skip Press (2017 ebook following the hardback
in 2009). His How To Write What You Want & Sell What You Write, based on his first
writing class at UCLA Extension Writers Program (the largest of its kind in the world),
has been selling steadily for 25 years; the fourth edition from Fall River Press appeared
in July 2011.
Many books he ghost-wrote and edited have hit #1 in their category on Amazon, such
as the Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing & Design by Flint Dille and John Zuur
Platten (Top Twelve video game business power players according to Variety
magazine), which became the "bible" of the video game industry (Press sold the book
and edited it). From the Great Wall to Wall Street by Wei Yen, extensively edited by
Press, was an immediate best-seller when published in 2017.
In 1989, after being chosen to play singer/songwriter Harry "Taxi" Chapin in a biopic,
only to see the project fall apart, Press concentrated on a new marriage and family and
began teaching while also being a “Mr. Mom.” He estimates having taught over 25,000
people how to write screenplays and with his books and courses has helped
approximately 100,000 learn to write books, novels, screenplays, and more.
Press has appeared for almost two decades on radio and television and Internet
broadcasts and has spoken at writers' events and conferences in Hollywood and across
the U.S. He helped start the Hollywood Film Festival (which became the Hollywood Film
Awards), has been a member of numerous national writing organizations, and appeared
in seven "Who's Who" books.
His son Haley is a writer/producer in his 20s with on-air appearances on the
OneAmerica Network in California and shows like "Brain Storm"; for The Weather
Channel. Haley's first documentary Branded won a regional Emmy. Press's daughter
Holly, currently working toward a law degree, is also a writer.
In 2008, Press’s Wall Street novel Street Guys (written with a former Lehman VP) was
about to be picked up for a TV series by the Fox TV studio, only to be abandoned with
the crash of the stock market. In 2009, he sold a project to Dark Horse Entertainment
for Sara Karloff and the Boris Karloff estate – the reissue of her father’s “Boris Karloff
Presents” comics. In 2010, he consulted on and set up a writer/director’s first feature
film. In 2012, he turned back to writing screenplays with some paid assignments. In
2013, for Motovideo in Santa Barbara, California he scripted a four-hour cutting-edge
video app about weight loss.
In 2014, Press signed on with a company in Irvine, CA to work in Public Relations and
created a large 25th anniversary memorial book. In 2016, he worked on a video for the
international Patient Safety Movement. In 2017 while on staff with the Irvine company,
he took on part-time projects including scripting a four-hour webinar for
Path2HappiSuccess, a California startup that vastly improves efficiency in selecting the
best college major and career.
In 2018, he hopes to complete his memoir, which includes an expose history of
Scientology and its Celebrity Centre, with many other nutty Hollywood tales, all wrapped
around a love story that will amaze the world.