Screenwriting : Waiting time for approval and rights by Lucija Steficic

Bok Lucija :)

Well, either the books goes to public domain or someone holds the rights. Now, these rights are often bought via deals. I'd say if ure serious on buying those you might consider hiring an attorney, get some deal done to offer...they'll see u mean business, take u more serious...asking only for approval might mean to them ure just trying to "borrow" their IP...

But I'd go with public domain :) Lotta great stories there too...

Can you try to see if they have an agent? (BTW, loved attending NEM in Dubrovnik, and was so impressed by the vibrant creative community in Croatia.) Can you contact someone at the publisher directly?

Also see if the publisher's have a twitter or Facebook to try to track down that way if it wasn't self published. Also google the author's name. I'd keep trying other ways. Don't wait!

Hi Lucia! Basically, you won’t get it for free. Even if they go along with that there is always a contract to be agreed upon for future sales or productions or whatever becomes of your idea. Before making them an offer or requesting a general meeting know first how different deals are done and have something to offer first before asking someone to do something for you. Good luck to you!

Thanks to everyone!

Hej Kiril, I'm not sure how to hire an attorney, 'cause I'm not in the US, but I will try to find more answers on it on the internet.

Dan and Rosemond - I Googled the name and all that I found was their own web page, where people can buy books or see what's going on. Also that contact form where I wrote who I am, why and all of it. There is still no answer.

Zlatan - Yes, I didn't mean for it to be free. Everyone should be paied. :)

To be honest, I don't have like 10K on me to buy it, but I thought If we can talk about it - books to series and shop it, author will be paid.

I will try again on Google, to see is there a way of contact, or someone who knows someone.. If they already sold it, maybe there is a chance to work on it. Let's see what happens. :)

Hi Lucija Steficic , I think there is a writer's association in Croatia, maybe they have some ideas. Yes, you can often acquire rights for no money upfront if you do sign an agreement. There is also a webinar here that might be helpful on acquiring rights for a film https://www.stage32.com/webinars/The-Quest-for-Copyright-How-to-Source-and-Acquire-Underlying-Intellectual-Property-for-Your-Film

Hi Rosemond Perdue , thank you for that. I asked few people, and got an email from one Croatian screenwriter - I will email him today, asking about writer's association.

I found a webinar about tv series too, will look into that. :)

Dan - thanks!

So, day before yesterday I found email from this author's agent and I wrote brief email who I am, why I'm contacting etc. The same text was send yet again on the web form. Maybe they will answer, I don't know.. Still no response.

Hi Lucija,

As I’m going through the literary journey myself- I know that Authors of books usually don’t make much money - so that person might be holding down a full time job and family responsibilities while writing. Authors usually just get submissions from the contact form on their site from bots and SEO spammers - so your message might be lost in a spam folder. See if you can find your author on social media and DM them. The next step would be the publisher or agent -(and it looks like you contacted the agent.)

Literary Agents are notoriously slow on response so don’t be afraid to contact again as a very friendly follow up.

Thought of one more thing > considering how much stuff comes to the inbox of literary agents (I hear they can get 200 query submissions a month) - maybe it would be better to find the literary agent on social media and contact them that way.

Wishing you much luck on your project!

I think if you haven't heard back in a couple of weeks either follow up with another email or a call. If you call and get a polite "wiat a bit longer", write an email to thank them for their time (and get in writing that you called) and then wait a week before following up again. This way you're not badgering them but also not leaving things too long.

Thank you. I just got answer. They are not interested in exploring any adaptations with me at this time.

At least an answer is an answer and you can move onto the next thing. In general it is good to keep a tracking sheet when making enquiries like this so you can see who you have reached out to, about what, when you first made contact, replies and dates to follow-up.

Yes! I was afraid of no answer at all. Even tho I can move, I'm a bit sad, yeah :/

I will make a tracking sheet, thank you.

Thanks to everyone in this thread. I'm grateful of how much you helped and the support you are giving. It's amazing.

Based on the answer you got, there's no way to know why they said "no", unless they told you. It could be the TV rights are not available for now (but might be in the future, so you could try again). It could be that they will only consider optioning the book to well known screenwriters or producers. It could be that because they never spoke with you, you had no opportunity to try to convince them. Or some other reason. If you haven't done this already, the best approach for optioning any book would be to first contact the publisher with a call-- or direct email to a specific person at the publisher's office-- just to find out if the film or TV rights to the book are available-- and to say not much else in that initial approach. Then, if they are, hire an entertainment attorney to enquire about optioning the TV/Film rights to the book. You will likely have to pay something to option the book (as well as paying your lawyer), the amount of which can vary enormously (from very little, to a small fortune) and, most likely, the author will want to speak with you directly to make the final decision if they are even considering saying "yes". Sometimes, especially with older books that are not much in demand for TV/film rights, approaching an author personally can get the ball rolling, with the deal (if any) being negotiated by agents or attorneys on behalf of the writers.. But an author or publisher would not give approval based on a written query (although they might give a quick "no"). Depending on how established you are as a writer for television, how much in demand the book is (or isn't) for its film or TV rights, and how much you can afford to pay for an option, this will determine how much "convincing" you will have to do. If the book is well known or a best-seller, it's very difficult for a screenwriter to get the rights and the cost would probably be very high. The film/TV rights to best-selling books are typically optioned long before the book is available to the public. Authors of books that aren't in much demand sometimes do make option deals with less-well-known screenwriters, and for only a small amount of money as an option fee, if they believe in the writer (or they are the only game in town:-).

Hi Staton,

The next time I find something as good as these books I will work on that. Thank you for taking the time to write up the whole process. Yes, I kinda jumped into it way too quickly, but at least it was fun. :)

You're very welcome. It's up to you of course, but I hope you won't give up on getting an option on that book if it's something you still want to do.

It's true that if a publisher controls the film/TV rights to a book, they are more likely to demand a higher film/TV option fee for a book than an (unrepresented) author might. But, even in that situation, the size of the option fee will likely depend on the fame of the author and the sales figures for the book, the age of the book, and whether there is currently any competition for the film/TV/theater rights. Ideally, this deal should be negotiated by a qualified agent or entertainment attorney on the screenwriter's behalf, since they can do it dispassionately and know what a fair option fee on the book would be. Step one is finding out with certainty whether the book's film/TV rights are available. If so, there's a lot of strategizing and emotional intelligence involved in pursuing the rights, and it's best to get the advice of an entertainment attorney. In cases in which the author or his agent handles film/TV rights for his book, the author or his estate will likely have final approval over who gets the film option. A screenwriter's passion for the book can sometimes outweigh other factors-- especially if there is little current demand for the film/TV rights to the book and the screenwriter has met with and impressed the author. Even if the book is currently under option, options generally expire within one year to eighteen months (often with an automatic right, but not an obligation, to renew the option one time). Typically, the author of the book has an agent, who may have been successful in retaining the film rights to the book for the author-- especially if that agent or their co-agent has the capacity to market film/TV rights. When trying to option film/TV rights to a book, most likely one will end up dealing either with the publisher, or an agent who represents the author or his estate.

Staton Rabin :) I written them back, saying that if anything changes I would like to know. If they want to tell me, ofc.

As I'm not in the US, I don't know if we have entertainment attorney, maybe we do, I will find out. Now I know for the next time - how to deal with it, ask, if nothing do something else.

I contacted the publisher directly, and found out rights to my "book of interest" had been returned to the family after a period of time. Unfortunately someone beat me to the punch and had already made a deal with the family once I had tracked them down. Sadness. (the author had passed)

If it's an option deal, unless the movie was actually made and the film/TV rights purchased outright, the option on the book will likely expire after a period of time, usually somewhere between six and eighteen months, with perhaps the right (but not the obligation) for the producer to renew once for the same period of time. If the book still interests you, you could find out when the option expires and try again. Most optioned projects do not get made, and the rights will automatically revert back to the author or his estate.

To Lucija (and all): Glad you're not giving up. It would be perfectly okay to have an entertainment attorney check in with them to find out when the option is due to expire, if they are willing to reveal this (option will expire unless the producer purchases the film//TV rights to the book outright, and/or the movie gets made) and to seek to option the rights for you if/when they are available. It's very unlikely they will contact you to let you know. I'm sure there are entertainment attorneys where you are, but which country to seek an entertainment lawyer in depends on which country's laws apply. The cost of optioning a book can vary tremendously. And entertainment lawyers are not inexpensive:-) But for anything involving a film/TV contract, a qualified entertainment attorney and/or literary agent is vital.

That is a great idea from Dan Guardino - It costs you nothing to reach out and ask if you can pitch your take on the project. Let them know you would be happy to take a week or so to come up with a take and then pitch for their consideration.

I also contacted a book publisher to relay a message to the author but had no luck.

Cara - is it made or you can as Dan an Staton said, contact them again? :)

Staton - I will try to find out about EA in my country and if they can contact in some way to get more answers beside the short answer I got.

I'm sorry to hear that, Allan, maybe try again? I had to sent my question 2 times - first on web form then the second on web form and agent email.

Mr. & Mrs. Wally Wu - Yes, I do have some of my one stuff, and some I'm thinking about. I loved this books and I can see them in series that would be great watching. :)