An industry acquaintance recently asked me whether the screenplay I had just completed had also been written as a novel. It hadn't. Yet. The person felt that in today's market it might be a good idea to reverse engineer it into a book to ultimately increase the screenplay's marketability. Thoughts?...
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I would advise moving on to the next screenplay. As a novelist who has now turned my eye to screenwriting, I can attest that they are completely different animals. If you haven't written in a novel fo...
Expand commentI would advise moving on to the next screenplay. As a novelist who has now turned my eye to screenwriting, I can attest that they are completely different animals. If you haven't written in a novel format before, it would take a lot of learning, trial, and error to write a good one. And a bad one wouldn't do you any good.
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Depending on what you expect, it's either a waste of time or not.
If you think that the novel version will help sell the script? Waste of time.
Hollywood doesn't buy novels or comic books or any IP......
Expand commentDepending on what you expect, it's either a waste of time or not.
If you think that the novel version will help sell the script? Waste of time.
Hollywood doesn't buy novels or comic books or any IP... they buy the audience. If your book is a huge best seller and everyone has heard of it? They'll buy it. If it's a a mid-list book or lower? They don't care. The audience is too small.
But...
If you are just writing this book to write the book?
A book is a finished form. It doesn't require $107 million to make into something that an audience can buy tickets to. You can either find a publisher or self publish. People can buy it and read it. Then it's all up to the book - it might sell well, it might not.
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Yes, it's certainly possible. I have experience doing the whole writing screenplay to novel with a couple of screenwriters in the US. One of the screenplays was adapted from short screen play, to full...
Expand commentYes, it's certainly possible. I have experience doing the whole writing screenplay to novel with a couple of screenwriters in the US. One of the screenplays was adapted from short screen play, to full length novel, then back to a full piece screenplay. I've also done novel to screenplay, so I'm well versed in both. It's well worth having the screen play AND a novel to target all the creative markets in my opinion.
I think it's possible, but i guess you'll have to rewrite it from the start. A novel needs a different approach compared to a screenplay (in terms of storytelling). But it might be interesting.
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One of my screenplays won a competition that allowed me to re-write it as a novel, and honestly, I think it probably worked better that way. I've got another one - historical - that would probably do...
Expand commentOne of my screenplays won a competition that allowed me to re-write it as a novel, and honestly, I think it probably worked better that way. I've got another one - historical - that would probably do better, at least initially, as a graphic novel, as it takes place in WWI and would be crazy expensive to produce. I think it really depends on the story.