Selling novel rights
I am a small publisher that specializes in republishing long out of print books, and I am trying to find out the best way to somehow bring these books to the attention of those who might want to turn them into movies.
I am not in the “biz”, but I was recently “cold-called” by one major producer to obtain the rights to one of my titles. Unfortunately, I do not hold the rights, but have been doing my best to be very helpful (i.e. kissing ass), in hopes that there or more titles of interest. Long story short, he found the book because it is one of his favorites, but does not seem to have an interest in any others.
I have a whole slew of similar titles that I think would make great movies, and I made my “nickel pitch” to the producer: they have Tom Clancy like plots, without Tom Clancy like advances; “Thanks, but I’ll get back to you.”
My specialty is that these books are still copyrighted, but people have given up on reprinting them because the rights-holders or heirs are too hard to find. In my case, I am able to find them and secure the rights.
What would be the best way of getting these books in front of the right people to see if they would like to option them? Also, if there is a proscribed process, what are some standard terms that are used in the business?
– Jamie
St. Pete, FL
Assuming you really have film/television rights to these books, and not just publishing rights, I think you may have stumbled onto a potentially lucrative situation. But it’s going to take a lot of work and patience on your end.
What you have is a form of intellectual property — the right to exploit specific literary material. It’s not tangible, but in many ways it’s the same as a piece of physical property. Your Tom Clancy-like book is the equivalent of a few acres of pristine beach property.
The problem is, Tom Clancy is like Malibu. People want property in Malibu, because they know where that is. Their friends have houses there. It has a reputation.
Your book is like an oceanfront property in South America. It might be fantastic, but people don’t know what to make of it. It has no reputation. All it has going for it is its view. So how do you sell it?
By finding someone looking to buy a property like Malibu, but much less expensive.
Who are these potential buyers? In television, I would target the production companies behind shows like Burn Notice, The Wire and The Shield. For features, I would go after directors’ production companies, particularly directors who haven’t had a big movie in a couple of years. And don’t forget screenwriters. If there’s a writer whose work you especially admire — one who is not me — contact them through their agency. It’s fairly common for established screenwriters to set up books at the studios, functioning as their own producers during the adaptation. (That was how BIG FISH got started.)
You could do worse than talking with an entertainment law firm — preferably with a Beverly Hills address. They’re the people who would ultimately make the deal, and would have a good sense of both the process and the opportunities. Depending on how many titles you have, it might be possible to sell (or option) the rights as a block to a producer.
The first step is making it easy to show what you’ve got. You’ll want a written synopsis of each of the books, along with blurbs and quotes. You’ll need both a web and print version. Pay someone good to design it: presentation counts. I’d include downloadable .pdfs of the first chapter for each, assuming they really are good books. And get consider getting a mailing address that isn’t St. Pete, Florida. (Or at least, don’t include the Florida address on any of your materials.)
And when you’ve done all this, be sure to write back in. I have a feeling many of the potential buyers for your books are readers of this blog. (Or more specifically, their assistants read this blog.)
Articles
August 13th, 2007 at 11:19 am
How cool is that. Maybe something good in there.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Jamie,
I worked in CAA’s book department here in LA, where we handled the film rights to novels (not publishing rights, just film rights). What you want to do is contact agents in the book departments at CAA, Endeavor, UTA, William Morris and ICM. They’ll shop your books to the studios and give you the credibility and access you need to make a sale. And they can help you attach a writer and/or director, which the studios often demand these days, especially for deep development situations like book adaptations.
Try the second tier agencies, too–Gersh, Paradigm and APA. If you need agent names, your lit agent pals will know the names of the book agents at all these companies, or you can contact the motion picture lit department coordinators at each agency–they’re just trainees; they’ll take your call and give you the info you need.
The agents in the book department at CAA, for example, are Robert Bookman (dept. head), Sally Willcox, Matthew Snyder, Shari Smiley, and Brian Siberell (TV/cable). CAA’s book department actually has its own coordinator–find out that person’s name and put in a cold call.
They’ll look at everything you’re interested in shopping to buyers, and decide what they want to represent. Michael Siegel is another high profile agent here in LA who represents the dramatic/film rights to a lot of authors, including Elmore Leonard and the Roald Dahl estate.
However, as a publisher, you wouldn’t typically control a novel’s film rights. As John said, mostly they’re held by the author. So when you speak to agents, be sure to have a clear intent and stake for yourself. Meaning you think selling the film rights to your books will sell more copies, or you’re getting a cut of the actual rights sale.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Pardon my ignorance, but why did you suggest getting a mail adress that wasn’t St. Pete? Does having a Hollywood address open up more posibilities? I ask this because I live in Mexico, and from what I understand, I’m basically screwed. Am I right?
August 13th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Ok, I get the hint, I’m watching Big Fish tomorrow.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Pedro, I think people will take you more seriously if you have an LA address.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Pedro,
John suggested getting a non-Florida address because the US entertainment biz nerve centers for movies and TV are in New York and Los Angeles.
Entertainment biz gatekeepers are under constant assault from people outside the business, literally and figuratively, who are trying to break in, so we have to be selective about whom we respond to. We rely on our network of colleagues and associates as a filter, so if you’re serious about the business, it’s important you go through a channel that we accept as legitimate and reliable–meaning, someone or some company familiar to us, whom we know and talk to regularly, and/or whom we’ve been in business with before.
The alternative is to allow unmitigated access to every hopeful entrant. But if we did that, we’d never get any real business done because we’d have to spend our entire day sifting.
That said, you’re definitely not ’screwed’ just because you’re in Mexico. If you’re a screenwriter, there are tons of companies here in LA whose core business is discovering new writers. Benderspink, for example, is a very high profile company that’s made gobs of money (and movies) off people just like you. In fact, they allow writers to submit material through their website. There are a lot of management companies who do this–your task as a new writer is to find out who these companies are and hit them up.
Now is actually a great time to be an un-repped, un-sold, new writer, because there are so many companies here in LA looking for talent. The business generates a lot of ‘refugees’, so to speak–agency trainees who couldn’t get promoted, studio and production companie execs who couldn’t get their VP stripes. Many of these people go into business for themselves, call themselves managers, and hang their own shingles.
They’re not going to be able to represent David Koepp or John August, so they read everything they can get their hands on. They don’t have plush offices or assistants or sushi lunches, but they came up in the biz at major companies, they have relationships all over town, and they can break writers.
Aaron Kaplan and Sean Perrone, Foursight, JC Spink and Chris Bender, Magnet Management, and tons of people just working out of their apartments.
Many won’t give you a shot without a referral, but many will if they like your premise. So you gotta get out and attack. And make sure the scripts you’re showing are commercial–stuff the managers can sell to a buyer. Write big, juicy, simple, sexy ‘SPEC-Y’ (for lack of a better term) scripts–stuff these managers can literally photocopy and turn around and submit to studios and buyers.
Good luck and keep writing.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
I’m sure ‘New York’ and maybe even ‘Toronto’ will garner you some respect. Maybe not as much as an ‘LA’ address. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Still Stragos,
Well, the whole address issue isn’t quite that rigid. It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, and how strategic you are in trying to accomplish it.
For Jamie’s purposes, he won’t have to worry so much about being from Florida if he approaches the right people at the right companies. If he’s trying to call Jerry Bruckheimer and Brian Grazer directly, and hoping they or someone at their companies will read his books, yeah, his chances are slim to none.
But if he contacts the book department coordinator at CAA, gets some good coverage, and gets an agent to represent one of his titles, CAA happens to represent both Jerry Bruckheimer and Brian Grazer, and Jerry and Brian will actually be MAD if they DON’T get the book.
So it all depends on your purpose, approach, and your strategy.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Also, Pedro, Filmtracker.com will not only give you accurate, informed coverage of your script(s), but they also refer good/great material to a long list of agencies, management, and production companies. And as a result, they have a long list of success stories.
I actually think Filmtracker.com should, theoretically, be the end of the years-long waiting game that writers have to play in order to get discovered. Now, finally, all you have to do is have a great screenplay, and you should be able to get discovered, get hired, and get paid. All the Filmtracker readers are reliable, veterans, they’ve all worked for major, major companies, they all know what’s what in terms of the craft and business of screenwriting, and their list of discoveries proves it.
The WGA frowns on writers having to ‘pay to audition’, but I disagree. Evaluating screenplays isn’t like evaluating actors or directors, which only takes a few minutes to watch a reel. Evaluating a screenplay (reading it and writing coverage) takes a few hours. And since the WGA registers 30,000 to 40,000 or more screenplays a year, and since this is America, where everyone deserves a fair shot, it’s reasonable to ask writers to bear the cost of auditioning.
Better to pay a $100 or whatever and get your big break in a few weeks or months, rather than spend years on end with your fingers crossed, begging people to read your stuff.
Eric Roth claims to have written thirty screenplays before anything good happened to him. That’s a shame. No one as talented as he should have to wait that long to break in.
John, what do you think about writers paying to have their stuff evaluated at a company like Filmtracker.com, in hopes of getting a possible recommendation to agents, managers and producers out of it?
August 13th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Excuse me, sorry, not Filmtracker.com, ScriptShark.com. The site where you can get your script evaluated and referred to agents, managers and producers (if it’s good) is ScriptShark.com. My apologies.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
“Robert Bookman (dept. head)”
Hence the name….Nice!
August 13th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Adam,
Yeah, his nickname is actually ‘Bookie’.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I spent a couple of years in painstaking effort to trace the heirs of an autobiography - it is a story that could be adapted to make an absolutely incredible movie. (Not in an inspirational ‘Movie-of-the-Week’ way either .. in a kick-ass ‘Batman Begins’ meets ‘Indiana Jones’ kind of way)
The autobiography hasn’t been reprinted in decades - partly because the publishing company couldn’t find who owned the rights. (I know this because I talked to them)
I talked to the original writer’s agent, hired geneologists to track down copies of wills located in countries that I’d never heard of .. and finally traced the screenrights to an elderly woman living in a nursing home - who appears to be the grandniece of the author.
Until I contacted her, she had no idea that she might have the rights to his writing. (In fact, she’s still rather vague on it - she doesn’t seem to understand that she can give permission to adapt a book that she hasn’t even heard of - let alone read!)
As far as I can tell with my limited resources, she is the full legal owner to all rights of the autobiography.
The problem (for me) is that she has no interest in giving permission to adapt it. Quite sensibly, she doesn’t trust someone who suddenly appears offering her money for something that she doesn’t think she owns!
The real tragedy is that if she dies, the copyright may be lost until it expires. That is because it won’t be mentioned in her will, and so if she wants her property sold and the money split between (say) the ‘Red Cross’ and ‘Save the Whales’ then the executor of the will would do that .. not knowing that there is another asset to be sold. I’d need a court order to force the Executor to sell it … which would be almost impossible, because it would be hard to PROVE that she owns it - and there is a possibility that it is worthless anyway.
Any tips on getting her to sell (or license) the rights, so the autobiography can been seen again? I’m not interested in ‘how to exploit a little old lady’ type advice - I’m happy to offer a fair price. (What ‘fair’ means for an autobiography that hasn’t seen the light of day for 30 years is another issue)
Thanks,
Mac.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Apologies - I didn’t leave contact details on my message above.
If anyone has any suggestions for me (and doesn’t want to clutter up John August’s blog by chatting about a side issue) feel free to email me: Mac.Harwood-at-gmail-dot-com
Thanks,
Mac.
August 13th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
so how can we get in touch with Jamie?
August 13th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Yeah, be kind to the assistants. We have more power than you know.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Anonymous - You have a whole ‘lotta inside info. Just who the hell are you? And don’t say anonymous ;=)
August 13th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Mac,
If you want to write the screenplay yourself, I would just go ahead and do it, and worry about the rights later on. If the book is THAT obscure and THAT long out of print, and the rights are THAT hard to track down, the likelihood is that the rights are going to remain available. Once your script is ready, you can show it to people and explain that, while you don’t control the script’s underlying rights, you know they’re available and you’re the only one who can point to where they lie.
Your other alternative is to just get a few grand together and option the book. If you’re just offering cash to the old lady, and there’s no other interest in the book, all she has to do is see if the check clears, so she’s not sticking her neck out. The lady will probably not ever really perk up without you holding an actual cashier’s check out to her–try it.
If you would accept just being a producer on the project, and if the book is as awesome as you say, your chances for setting it up are much improved because you can enlist the help of a big time producer who can get a studio to option the rights for much bigger money.
You could say outright to the big time producer that you want to write the screenplay, and the producer might back you up at the studio if you have a great sample. But you’ll accept producer credit instead if that won’t work.
DEMANDING to be the screenwriter, under threat of not divulging the rights holder, won’t work, however.
August 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Mac,
You could also try running the situation by a company like Benderspink and see what they say. They’re just a really open, eager company, they know great writers and great ideas come from all over, they have a long history of discovering writers, and their creative talents are matched by their business acumen.
If you can write and you have a great sample or two to prove it, and if the book is as awesome as you say, you might get some traction there, or at some other management companies. Magnet Management is another good one I can recommend, but there are dozens.
Hope this helps.
August 14th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
So what’s the deal with ScriptShark and FilmTracker? One is good and the other is a scam?
August 14th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Pedro,
Getting an L.A. address is no big deal. There are post office box addresses here that have street addresses (rather than P.O. Box addresses) so that people might think you live here. And through the U.S. Post Office you can have the mail forwarded to you in Mexico. Sometimes things are time sensitive (this is more the case the more established you get), but you can always say that you’re in Mexico “at the moment” but will be “back in L.A.” on such and such a date. Or whatever… Also, totally random, but if you live in Mexico City, don’t overlook the very hot writers and directors that have come out of Mexico in recent years and who still may have homes and/or offices in Mexico. I’m thinking Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzales Inarittu, and Guillermo Ariago (who I know has a production company - here in L.A., if I’m not mistaken).
Now, I’ll tell you, once you land an agent, he/she will urge you to move to L.A. At least that was my experience. I was living in New York at the time, so to the person who mentioned New York and Toronto as not bad addresses, I’d say true enough (they’re better than St. Pete), but it’s not the same.
August 15th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
I don’t mean to turn this into a forum or something like that, but I’d really like to thank everyone for their feedback, much appreciated.
February 27th, 2008 at 5:17 am
I’m a novelist who was just approached by a third party about acquiring the movie rights to one of my books.
I haven’t sold one before and am getting in touch with a film agent this week. On the off-chance this is read, any thoughts as to the range, median, mean dollar amounts paid for film rights to a book? i’d appreciate any on or offline advice.
thanks!