“Books to Films”

By Alex Ceppi

June 6th, 2017

The Book business is a tough one. I’m sure most of you have heard that – kind of like Hollywood but with a much smaller profit margin. I know… I know what you’re thinking – why even do it, right?

 

Well, I’d say that if you’re a true writer, the idea of crafting the perfect American novel should at least intrigue some of you. I admit I have thought about it… hell, I just attended the Book Expo America in NYC and was fascinated by it – mostly because I met incredibly courageous writers who keep a day job only so they can go home and pour their souls like blood on a page. I admire that. The passion. The clarity. The simplicity of it… “You write therefore you exist”.

 

I know the long hours, the sheer volume of work, and the small profit margins – and they are very small – scare the hell out of you; but look at it this way, a good story as a treatment or a script is way harder to sell all by itself than with a published book behind it. Wait… was that a little light bulb going off inside your head just now?  I hope so, because this is exactly why my latest project gained traction and we are in the process of getting it packaged for a TV series as we speak.

 

Clearly our hero had a story before he wrote the book; but it wasn’t until he did that people started to notice. Why? Because now there is a built-in audience to the story – or at least the perception of one. I know… I know what you’re thinking… this is crazy! And it is. I’m not saying you’re wrong; I’m saying, “consider it”, because if the story is good but a bit niche-ish this might be the surest and quickest way to go about getting it made.

 

Look, I just finished a 55-page treatment for a psycho-thriller I know will work on film, but I also know it will be a hard sell without a fully executed script. This leaves me with two options: 1-Write the script and try to sell it the conventional way or 2 – Write the book and piggyback the sale of the story with the marketing of the book. See, books can be your story’s amplifiers, which brings me to the next point – why not flip the whole “book to films” model into… “Scripts to books to films”. In other words create a business model where you, as a writer, are always thinking of your story as a film and write it so it translates well visually into a novel. This will make the book even more appealing to the studio execs and increase your chances to sell your story.

 

There are a myriad of ways to go about selling a good story; but if you think yours might be a bit less commercial than most you might want to partner up with a small publisher, take the reins of your own destiny into your own hands and kick the process in the butt.

 

Anyway, these are my thoughts for the week. I hope they’re helpful to you.
See you next week;