Want Your Novel Adapted? Do THIS First.

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What does Hollywood actually look for when adapting a novel into a film or series?

In this episode of The Storyteller’s Mission, Zena Dell Lowe explains why so many writers misunderstand the adaptation process—and how those misunderstandings can derail opportunities before they ever begin. From publishing credibility to audience validation to financial risk, this episode pulls back the curtain on how decisions are really made behind the scenes.

Whether you’re an author exploring adaptation for the first time or a seasoned writer considering next steps, this episode clarifies what must come first—and what mistakes to avoid—before pursuing film or television adaptation.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] As a novelist, how do we go about connecting with people to do an adaptation? It's a great question. Very good. And the short answer to that is you want to get your novel published traditionally, not self-published because. Hollywood will be more likely to be interested in your novel if it has an audience.

[00:00:26] For example, this week, in fact, I had a meeting with a producer about the script that I had adapted for Eva Marie called Five Bride. And so Eva Marie, I mean, I didn't do it for Eva Marie. It happened to be her novel, and then I was hired by a production company to adapt her novel into a screenplay. And the problem is the production company that I was hired to write it for, they went under.

[00:00:52] And so the question was. Is it possible to get those rights back because the screenplay adaptation was really good. And is it possible to still get that made since they're not ever going to do anything with that? The company that hired me to write it, and so I was meeting with this other production guy to figure that sort of thing out, and one of the things he brought up is he said, well, how, he said it's, it will take money to get the rights back for this.

[00:01:17] Like even though the company's not there. There are people that, there's a legal department that you would still have to go through and you basically have to buy it back. And it depends on how much encumbrances there are. So the only thing that would make that worth it is was this a huge hit? Was there like a huge following?

[00:01:36] Do they have a whole bunch of people following this book? Demand? You know, is the audience there wanting more books to, you know, of this particular type or this, you know, these characters? Because if not. Then it makes it much more difficult to go through that process because you could just do a new project and there's already, and that that's just money kinda wasted.

[00:01:57] It doesn't even go into the production values or anything. So my point on that is that what Hollywood is really interested in is successful novels that already have a built in audience. And the more you have that, of course, the more they're going to be interested. Now, it could even just be a niche audience, but that's what they're looking for.

[00:02:16] And so that's why self-publishing. See, the thing is if it's self-published, that means you didn't go through the vetting process. Where somebody in authority actually said, you know, this would make a great book. We're going to go ahead and give you a publishing deal. Hollywood is terrified of being the only one that sees that project as having merit.

[00:02:39] So they want someone else in a position of authority to have signed off. It's less risk for them. So that's why you want to do traditional publishing, and then it needs to have some modicum of success before you would ever pursue having somebody else. Adapt it and also see the truth of the matter is ideally you wouldn't want to be the one paying for that adaptation.

[00:03:06] Ideally, you would want the production company to pay someone like me to adapt. Your film because, or to adapt your novel because otherwise you're paying out of pocket and then you still have to get a production company to be interested in it. So that means there's a way for you to pitch production companies, to get them to look at your novel, to see if they wanna do that.

[00:03:29] 'cause they're always looking for things. But the first step is has it been traditionally published and has it been successful in its market? So unless you have that, the chances of you having a novel that any production company is gonna wanna adapt. Is very low. Is there a certain age to the book that's been out that they won't touch?

[00:03:50] Like the book I'm looking at is, has been probably 20, 30 years ago. They don't care if it's successful. They don't care. It's all about proven track record. That's what they're looking for. Because nobody wants to take a risk. I mean, they're trying to mitigate risk. It makes sense. I mean, it's really expensive.

[00:04:07] By the way, this is one of my frustrations as a screenwriter. I have been paid. To write about 12 feature films. Not one of 'em has gotten made. That is so discouraging. And the thing is, it's not my fault that they haven't gotten made because I'm the screenwriter, I'm not the production company. It's just so hard to get a feature made.

[00:04:30] And so they go through the development process of having me write it, but then they still have to go raise the money. They still have to get it through. I mean, only about 500 films get made every year. That's not very many. And there's like 40,000 films that come in through agencies and then, or you know, scripts and then another, it's actually better odds than you'd think, but the point is it's just really hard.

[00:04:55] It's so expensive to get a, a movie made and it's even more expensive than ever. What do you think of these new viewer funded. Production companies like Angel Network and M Legend and and companies like that that are making movies. So it depends on who is. Part of it. Usually I wanna be charitable when I say this, usually they're making very expensive home videos that nobody's ever gonna watch.

[00:05:24] I mean, you know that. You know that so many of 'em, they're just not good quality and it's because they don't understand the artistry. This is something that is so frustrating to me. People that have these good intentions, they, they actually have money in that, say the Christian community. And people are like, yeah, let's make a Christian film.

[00:05:42] But then they don't go to the pros in the industry to see how they do it well, and so they make really crappy film. It's so infuriating because they could be hiring professionals who know what they're doing, who have a track record for good art, but it's like they think because God is in it, they don't have to do it, and then then it's just bad.

[00:06:04] It's bad. So it depends on who the people are. You know, angel has real people involved, artists. People who have trained as filmmakers and therefore they're able to do what they're doing. But a lot of the other projects. Fireproof. I mean, that was not good. It was terrible. Nefarious, is that right? The horror one?

[00:06:27] That was nefarious. Nefarious. It's terrible now, higher production qualities than we're used to, but it's not a good story. It's not a good film. There's so many plot holes. It was just not good. So I mean, I would rather see, well first of all, I'd rather see an R-rated truth than a G-rated lie. But we need to be good artists.

[00:06:45] We need to be good. And that's why I don't write for Christian type submarket. I try to write for secular, but it always has a Christian worldview, but it, I'm trying to write to a higher caliber of artistry. And that's what I think we're trying to do in my courses too. So it works when it works, when there's real artists there, but most of the time it doesn't work.

[00:07:07] Does that answer your question, bill? Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.