The career novelist

Contracts and income

After that? Well, some movies turn into hits. Some gross hun-
dreds of millions of dollars. Authors of underlying novels are enti-
tled to a share of the movie's net profits, but studio accounting is so
creative that even the highest-grossing movies never—and I mean
never—show a "profit." To obtain their due compensation, most
novelists must threaten to sue. Paramount has been threatened and
sued more than once recently.
On top of that, ideas are routinely stolen in Hollywood. Your
manuscript might be stolen, read, passed around, and turned down
before your Hollywood agent ever lays eyes on it. Hollywood is also
filled with sharks and phonies. The industry has seduced novelists
for decades, and ruined many of them. Glamorous, isn't it?
Welcome to the wonderful world of filmmaking. Don't you wish you
had stayed home in bed?
No, probably not.