The Business Side of Writing: Film and Television Rights

I am posting this from my hotel room in Toronto. Why am I in Toronto? I am here to visit the set of The Expanse, a new series by SyFy that is based on the books written by my friends, Ty and Daniel, better known by the pen name, James S.A. Corey. These aren’t the first or only friends I have who’ve landed television or film deals, but they do have the rare distinction of having their series in production. Why is that rare? Okay, let’s talk about film and television.

1. Hollywood buys a lot of intellectual property that it doesn’t use. Film and television can be very lucrative and this enables studios to buy options on rights that they end up not using. There’s actually a lot of warehousing of intellectual property, and quite a long gauntlet for it to run before it actually ends up a movie or television show. Given this, a lot of authors sell their film and television rights only to have them go unused. This means:

1) Never let a publisher take these rights without paying for them. It doesn’t matter that most books don’t get made into movies. Many authors make money from these rights anyway.

2) Never, ever sell these rights without a reversion clause. You want them back so that you can try to sell them again.

2. Hollywood producers make their products with huge sums of borrowed money. People love to complain about Hollywood and how it mangles perfectly good books. Imagine that you’ve been handed tens, or even hundreds of millions of dollars to make a film or television show. Tell me you wouldn’t get very nervous about having so much of other people’s money at stake. Hence Hollywood can be very conservative about its creative choices, often going for things that have worked in the past. The result is that you see a lot of the same formulas reused, and the adaptation may look nothing like the source material. This means:

1) When you sell your rights, you give up creative control. Let it go, as Queen Elsa would say. Don’t bash on Hollywood; recognize instead that you as a writer have a lot more freedom in your art and fewer people breathing down the back of your neck.

2) If you try to hang onto creative control, that can crater the deal. Hollywood execs don’t necessarily want to have to deal with an author who is used to making their creative work look exactly how they want.

3) James SA Corey is in a very weird situation. SyFy gave them a lot of creative control, down to approving the designs for space ships and writing episodes. We all stare at them, and they are the first to admit, this is not how it usually works.

3. Projects die off in process all the time. Of all the rights bought, only a few are developed, and of those few, even fewer make it all the way through production and distribution. The project can die at any stage if the execs feel it’s necessary to cut their losses. This means:

1) Get your money up front. People may love the idea of pocketing a share of profits, but profits are *extremely* rare. Don’t hold out hope that your adaptation will be one of the lucky few. Most films lose money.

2) Don’t celebrate until the release date or the air date of the pilot is set. Seriously, you run the risk of real heartbreak.

4. Make sure you have representation when you sell these rights. Authors get taken to the cleaners all the time. The two women who wrote How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days on Post-It notes for fun got only a visit to the set as compensation when the movie was made. It may seem arrogant to plan for success, but you need to plan for it as thoroughly as you plan for failure.

1) Your agent may not be equipped to deal with this well. It depends on their clientele. You’ll want to hire an entertainment lawyer, ideally one in the LA area who is familiar with these kinds of deals. Yes, they are very expensive, but not using one can be even more expensive.

2) Make sure you have some idea of how authors in similar situations were compensated. This includes not just money, but perks like getting flown out to the premiere. I knew an author who didn’t have this in his contract, and that’s just a bummer. Think of everything you might want.

Obviously, this is a huge topic, but the basics are pretty simple. Yay if you sell your rights. Make sure you get compensation. Don’t crack open the carbonated grape juice until you know the project will air. The Expanse seems to be coming along well with a lot of money invested in the set and a lot of episodes already shot. The ad campaign has begun, the first air date set. It looks like this may be one of the lucky ones! (Which means I really can’t talk much about what I see tomorrow. It’s all being kept hush-hush)