From Indie book to TV Movie: The Three Questions I’m Asked the Most
In late 2018, as I wandered lost and alone on the streets of Uruguay during a temporary hiatus from my life in Alaska, my cell phone pinged. Someone had contacted me on my author website, wanting to know if my memoir’s dramatic rights had been optioned for film.“Probably just another scammer,” I told myself. Still, I was hopeful. I took a selfie in my new setting to commemorate the day, just in case.
It turns out, I was wrong. It was a legitimate inquiry.
Fast forward three years. Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters (She Writes Press, 2016) is indeed hitting the television screen with a working title Stolen Hearts: The Lizbeth Meredith Story, tentatively scheduled to air on Lifetime Television in March of 2022.
Here are a few things about the book to movie process I get asked the most from fellow writers, interested in their own books becoming movies. All answers are based on my limited experience, research, sprinkled with a dash of opinion.
Q: If I can get a book-to-movie option, how long will take to be on screen?
It depends. On occasion, a writer’s work is optioned (their story rented exclusively for a certain period by a production company) because a similar story is being filmed. The option on their book is meant to ensure that it doesn’t get swooped up and released at the same time of the original movie.
Most options don’t actually get produced for a variety of reasons, so any resources earned by optioning your book is considered a bonus. Free money.
But consider classic movies you love based on books. Many of them were made into movies years or decades after the original book was published. The Burning Bed. Little Women. The Wizard of Oz.
When you think about it, that’s pretty exciting. Your book is intellectual property that can earn reach and revenue fifty-plus years past your death, all the more reason to take the long view of marketing it.
Q: Why do movies vary so much from the books they’re based on? Translation: Why can’t my story stay exactly as I wrote it when it becomes a movie?
Movies are expensive. The cast, the crew, the production. All of it. It’s not unusual for remarkable stories to be bypassed if there are multiple characters or too many exotic locations or costumes. So sometimes characters are omitted, or two characters are combined.
Today’s television movie viewer is light on time and often multi-tasks as they watch, so cutting out lackluster scenes heavy on description or light on drama is needed to hold the viewer’s attention and make room for the advertisers
That can be especially tricky if you, like me, are writing memoir. Whether it’s related to your book or subsequent movie, you may find yourself apologizing to the real-life characters for how they did or did not appear in your story.
Q: Will having my book made into a movie make me rich?
I’m of two minds when I answer this most-asked question.
It’s common for us writers to hear from our early instructors, “Writing doesn’t make you rich, but it provides opportunities for other things.”
Aside from my own experience, I’ve spoken with a couple of authors whose books have become movies. They’ve agreed that having their books become movies provides some resources, lots of opportunities, and a chance to make new friends and memories and expand their platform.
During the book-to-movie process, I was beyond fortunate to be in the (virtual) company of truly kind writing and production staff. During a time of worldwide shutdowns on film productions, the production staff persisted in keeping hope alive and moving the needle to get funding and network interest to bring the movie to fruition.
Your work can have a life of its own in foreign, digital, film, or audio rights, to name a few. Perhaps, buzz about your book doesn’t happen the moment it publishes. But don’t give up. Learn to market it in the slivers of time you have while creating your next work and living your life.
Consider your journey as a writer right now, filled with the chance for community and connection and making an impact in the lives of people across the globe.
You don’t need to wait for the approval of a production company to be rich. You’re already there.
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Lizbeth Meredith is an award-winning author living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her memoir has been adapted as Stolen Hearts: The Lizbeth Meredith Story on Lifetime Television.
Lizbeth is also a speaker and online teacher who enjoys coaching and consulting part-time, a fun addition after three-decades career serving crime victims and offenders.
Follow Meredith on Twitter https://twitter.com/LizbethMeredith
Find out more about her on her website https://lameredith.com/
PIECES OF ME: RESCUING MY KIDNAPPED DAUGHTERS, Lizbeth Meredith
In 1994, Lizbeth Meredith said good-bye to her four- and six year-old daughters for a visit with their non-custodial father only to learn days later that they had been kidnapped and taken to their father’s home country of Greece.
Twenty-nine and just on the verge of making her dreams of financial independence for her and her daughters come true, Lizbeth now faced a $100,000 problem on a $10 an hour budget. For the next two years fueled by memories of her own childhood kidnapping Lizbeth traded in her small life for a life more public, traveling to the White House and Greece, and becoming a local media sensation in order to garner interest in her efforts. The generous community of Anchorage becomes Lizbeth’s makeshift family one that is replicated by a growing number of Greeks and expats overseas who help Lizbeth navigate the turbulent path leading back to her daughters.
―Kirkus Reviews
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips
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