Sarah Foulke: Author in Indianapolis, IN, USA.

Has anyone here written a novel, and then had success selling the rights to it to be adapted to a television or film screenplay?

Introducing myself... I just found Stage 32 about a month ago, through an author friend. It's exciting to be in a group with so many other creative individuals!

I am a novelist. I primarily write women's contemporary fiction and have one 5-part series completed and published, and am working on my second series currently (book 1 is published, book 2 will hopefully be published this summer). I have also written a 2-part sci-fi series and two stand-alone fiction novels.

I would love to see my books get on TV or film. I've been told my sci-fi series would make a great film. And my women's contemporary fiction series are akin to what you'd find on the Hallmark channel, for example. Fun, light, relatable. Though how to take the next step is beyond me at the moment. I'm more than open for any feedback or advice on that!

Hopefully I'll get to further meet many of you here on this platform!

-Sarah Noel

Hi, Everyone! I'm Debra Holland, a New York Times and USA Today bestselling fiction author. As Debra Holland, Ph.D, I also write nonfiction and am what's called a hybrid author--both traditionally and self-published (also called indie published.) In the last few years, I've been having fun with adapting some of my stories into pilots and features.

After ten years of writing fiction books and going through two agents in trying to become traditionally published, I received my first nonfiction traditional contract in 2010 for The Essential Guide to Grief and Grieving. While writing that book, some of my friends began self-publishing to immediate success, and I soon joined them.

2010-2013 was the Wild West of self-publishing with a lot of opportunities that we don't really have now. Although we do have a lot of different opportunities and, certainly, a plethora of publishing resources that weren't available when I started.

My self-publishing success led to Montlake Romance picking up my Montana Sky Series, which are heartwarming Western/prairie romances. Think Little House on the Prairie for grownups. With the help of an entertainment attorney, I negotiated the contract so that I could continue self-publishing smaller books or collections of short stories in the series, while Montlake had the "big" books.

Less successful, but still lucrative, is my fantasy romance series, The Gods' Dream Saga. I continue to write Montana Sky stories and some short nonfiction articles. I haven't counted lately, but I have about thirty-five books published.

Once I became indie published, I made it my goal to educate and encourage writers to self-publish, traveling to conferences and doing a lot of panels and talks. I'm one of the authors of The Naked Truth About Self-Publishing (which we have since taken down because some of the advice is outdated.)

Writing a book or books and publishing your book or finding a publisher is a different experience than writing screenplays and finding someone to produce them. Many writers are creative and persistent enough to do both, which is something I recommend to (hopefully) have several income streams.

So go ahead and ask me your questions about book writing or traditional/indie publishing. If I don't know the answer, I have a vast network of author friends and one of them is bound to know!

Hi Sarah. I'm RB, Founder and CEO of Stage 32. As a screenwriter, producer, actor and filmmaker, I know first-hand the challenges all creatives face finding work, landing representation, launching projects, securing funding and simply making the connections that will make a difference in their careers. That's why I created Stage 32. Since our launch in September of 2011, the community has grown to 1,000,000+ members representing every country on the planet making Stage 32 the social network uniquely populated with the most creative people on Earth.

This is a network for you, built by you. Like most things in life, the more you participate, the greater the rewards. We ask all new members to pay it forward by inviting 5 fellow creatives to the network and by spreading the word of Stage 32 through other social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The more creatives, the stronger the network. The stronger the network, the more opportunities.

Thanks for joining the movement and for being a part of this most talented and inspiring community. I very much look forward to your contributions.

Thanks, and have a creative day!

RB

Helpful information:

• To send invites to your fellow creatives, please click here.
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Hello Sarah -

Welcome to the community! I'm Amanda Toney, the Managing Director at Stage 32. Since 2013 I've been proud to oversee Stage 32's Next Level Education, which provides you the most up-to-date tools necessary to become a better creative.

Over the years Stage 32 has worked with over 500 industry executives and professionals to teach online webinars, classes and intensive labs exclusively for you - our Stage 32 community. We bring you instructors who have worked directly on some of your favorite films, TV shows or theater productions to teach you in-the-trenches information that you won't find anywhere else on producing, directing, financing, writing, packaging, acting and more.

Our Next Level Education has a 97% satisfaction rate and averages 4.5 out of 5 stars. Plus, we've had the honor to be called "LinkedIn meets Lynda.com for film, television and theater creatives" by Forbes Magazine.

I encourage you to take the next step to continue learning and expanding your career by clicking here, or clicking "education" on your top menu bar.

I'm grateful you've joined the Stage 32 community. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Amanda