Contracts and incometor or agent to dismiss any novel that does not have obvious inter-
national appeal.
Fortunately, genre authors can often find information about over-
seas genre publishers in their trade publications. One can go direct-
ly to them and bypass the Frankfurt madness. It is worth a try, any-
way.
Movie/TV. "Your book would make a great movie!" I wish I could
take every novelist's friend or family member who ever said that,
arrange them in a line, and give them each a good smack.
Most people have no idea what makes a novel attractive to
Hollywood. Heck, even most movie insiders cannot tell you!
Despite that, fiction authors can work themselves into a frenzy when
seized by the suggestion that there are big bucks waiting for them
in Tinseltown.
When an author is in such a state, it is no use pointing out that
few novels are optioned and even fewer make it to the screen. That
only whets their appetite. The only thing that will satisfy them is
getting their novel on Steven Spielberg's desk or into the hands of
Whoopie or Winona or whomever.
The situation is only made worse by the periodic book-buying
binges that seem to grip studio executives. One such period was the
late seventies, when it seemed for a time that any book that wasn't
nailed down was sold. The Island by Peter Benchley sold for $2.1 mil-
lion. Thy Neighbor's Wr/e, Gay Talese's tour of American sexual behav-
ior, sold for $2.5 million. {Thy Neighbor's Wife was never made, and The
Island was a box-office bomb.) Then, just as suddenly as it began, the
buying binge was over. "Pimple movies" became the ticket, and for
years afterward anything not geared for teenagers was impossible.
So what does make a novel a hot item in Hollywood? To under-
stand that, one has got to look beyond the obvious. Every novel
seems to unspool like a movie in its author's head, but what pri-
marily causes moviegoers to buy tickets is a star. Stars are funda-
mental to movie economics, and stars must be fitted into roles.
Needless to say, not every novel protagonist translates into an
interesting and actable role. Larger-than-life characters, flawed
heroes, and unusual real people types (like Forrest Gump) are often
the most appealing to actors.