Would My Book Make A Good Movie?
Books and movies are two different languages. To compare the two is like comparing pottery and stained glass. –Russel Banks Probably half the movies made in Hollywood are adaptations of stories that originally appeared as novels, nonfiction books, comic books, graphic novels, short stories, plays, poems, or what have you. Hollywood studios and production companies aggressively scan major magazines and the lists of New York publishers looking for books and stories that would make good feature films or television shows. If Random House or Harper Collins or some other “major” house published your book, chances are that a professional “reader” has already read your book and written a short memo (called “coverage”) assessing its movie potential. (Scott the Reader and screenwriter, John August, both have entertaining descriptions of their careers as “readers” in Hollywood.) If your book was self-published, or published by a smaller press or University press, it’s less likely that a Hollywood “reader” has assessed its movie potential. Hollywood is usually interested in making “big,” popular, commercial movies with wide appeal, so they scan publishers’ lists looking for big, popular commercial books. If your book received unfavorable coverage, or if it was published by an obscure press, then […]
