The one question that nobody asked here on the blog, but that I get quite a lot via email, is about turning my books into movies. It ranges from “Is there going to be a movie of this book?” to “You should totally turn this book into a movie. Why aren’t you?”
Today will be an answer in two parts.
Part the first: Will there be a movie?
At this time, there are no plans to make any of my books into movies or TV shows. Oh. My. Gods. was optioned for television for a couple of years, but the production company didn’t renew the option last time it came up, so right now none of my books are being considered for production.
Part the second: How a book becomes a movie.
If I could personally turn my books into movies, trust me, I would. I’d be out in Hollywood right now having casting calls and hiring screenwriters and attaching directors and whatnot. But that’s not how it works. It costs millions of dollars to produce a movie (even low budget indies cost hundreds of thousands) so it’s not at all feasible for an author to do that.
Basically, although there are always exceptions, the process goes like this:
In order for a book to become a movie, it first has to be optioned by a production company. This means they buy time (usually a year to 18 months) to think about turning the book into a movie. They talk about it, probably pitch it to stars to see if anyone would be interested in the roles, hire a screenwriter maybe. Anything short of actually filming.
There are huge contracts involved (usually hammered out at the option stage) that includes what percentage the author will get of the gross or net profits and where they get credit and consultation fees and a million other details. The contract stage with the Oh. My. Gods. option took several months. No joke.
If they decide to actually film the movie, then they have to buy the rights. This is for significantly more money than the option. Once they buy the rights, then they have the right to start filming.
That doesn’t mean they will start filming. I know tons of authors have sold their rights, only to have the project stall because someone got fired or someone with a very different vision for the production company got hired or the audience demand for that kind of movie changed or there was a blue moon on a Sunday (aka who knows why?).
Basically, a lot of stars and planets have to line up in just the right order on just the right day when everyone’s had their morning coffee in order for a book to turn into a movie.
So, no, at the moment, none of my books are being produced. But the stars could realign at any moment. We’ll just have to wait an see.
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