[ SECRET POST #3203 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3203 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 062 secrets from Secret Submission Post #458.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. http://i.imgur.com/9TCZa6Y.png

[sarillia]

Is there some reason you couldn't just refuse to sell the rights if someone made an offer?

[(Anonymous)]

If your book gets published, you can decide not to give permission for it to get adapted. Simple as that. Just say no.

[(Anonymous)]

I sort of know how you feel. I've had the same thoughts when contemplating writing and what it it's a success. Not just about the film, just about the pressure of becoming well known.

I think you should go for it though. Truth is that those who do well are often ambitious and want the attention that some of us would hate. But there are incredibly successful writers who don't really appear that often in other media, even someone like Stephen King or Dan Brown, you can keep a low profile.

[(Anonymous)]

Echoing everyone else: Just don't sell the rights. It's your book and you have control over what happens to it. There is no rule stating that you must sell the rights to Hollyweird if you don't want to.

[(Anonymous)]

As mentioned, you can refuse. You should know that they will be throwing HUGE money at you and prepare yourself. Worst case scenario, you can at least negotiate for a significant position in the creation of the movie, for better or worse.

Two authors who have gone opposite ends of this spectrum are Tamora Pierce and Meg Cabot. The former has said that they keep giving her bizarre terms that involve her not being allowed to write about her own characters for a time. The latter, when asked why she let such a different movie to be made than her book, basically said, "I wanted to buy another house". I've got respect for them both.

[(Anonymous)]

Just say 'no'.

[(Anonymous)]

Whaaaaat. Do you know nothing or are you just yanking our chains?

[bio_obscura]

Uh, it's not like they can do that without your permission? Unless it's 100 years into the future and the rights have lapsed. And who knows what movies will look like then.

[elaminator]

Yea, that's what I was thinking. Unless OP is worried about their 'legacy' after they're gone, and what might happen to the rights in the far future then I don't understand the hesitation.

Even in that case...geez, that's a long, long time, and there's nothing to do about it. Might as well enjoy the here and now; if OP has a chance at success I think they should go for it.

[(Anonymous)]

I have so many similar "what-if" fears, and I've only just begun my book. I have to constantly tell my brain to slow the hell down.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm guessing you're not quite familiar with how publishing rights work, but even if you got published and became a megahit bestseller, Hollywood can't just make a movie out of it without your permission. Movie rights are separate from publishing rights. If Hollywood wants movie rights to your work, they have to buy it from you and you can say no.

I mean you should totally live your life how you want, but if this is really the only thing keeping you from submitting your manuscript to a publisher and it's not just a very understandable fear of rejection using this whole "oh noes Hollywood movie" scenario as a flimsy excuse to not try, then it shouldn't really be an obstacle. But if it's just fear of rejection, then you're going to have to find a better excuse.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

You got it with the first line. I thought the publishing company had those rights. Like, once they published the story, they had the movie rights too.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Nope, not necessarily. I guess it's possible for that to happen if you signed with a really unscrupulous company and didn't read your contract carefully but even that's a very far fetched scenario. There are many different subsets of rights you have as the author, and as the author, you have the legal power to decide what to do with them. Your publishing company would want certain rights, of course-- usually something like the exclusive right to publish that particular work, in certain areas of the world, for a certain length of time. They might want the rights to electronic publication of that work as well. Movie rights are generally not included because they wouldn't want to pay you for something that might never happen, see what I mean?

But it all varies depending on the contract, and contracts are negotiable. That's what agents do, and if you're concerned about getting ripped off, finding a reputable agent is a good first step.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah. My third book comes out in January and so far no surprise Hollywood movies, so...find a better excuse.

[(Anonymous)]

While I can appreciate your anxiety, this does strike me as rather like refusing to get a job at McDonalds because you're worried you might get promoted and rise up the corporate ladder and become the CEO and become a millionaire and buy a mansion and marry a supermodel and then one day someone might slip and drown in your Olympic-sized swimming pool while you're having a wild party with your favorite celebrities, and you couldn't bear to have that death on your conscience. In other words, you're kind of looking waaaaay too far ahead and making a lot of really optimistic assumptions to get to this worst case.

[(Anonymous)]

NA Love the way you phrased this, you a writer yourself?

[(Anonymous)]

This comment is everything I wanted to say, but said wittier.

Well, okay, no, one more thing: Just how immensely A) financially privileged and B) hipper-then-thou are you that you think it would be a bad thing to have a production company buy the rights to your movie? The majority of authors dream about that possibility. And I'm not talking about cheesy, pulpy serial paperback authors. I'm talking about cool, intelligent, skilled authors. Because the majority of the time, they end up making more money off the movie rights and off of sales resulting from movie hype than they make off of the rest of their books' sales combined.

[(Anonymous)]

LOL, great example. But seriously, it does sound like an excuse. OP, even if your fear was likely to happen, so what if your book got made into a movie? Are you worried it'd be terrible? Because that happens all the time and I promise you, authors survive it. There isn't even any real backlash for the author because most people understand that the movie adaptation is something completely different from the book and out of the author's control.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, you sound pretty full of yourself. What makes you so all-fired sure that your book is destined to become a beloved bestseller with millions of fans clamoring for a major motion picture and producers slavering to buy the rights, ruining your artistic vision in the process?

Statistically, it's far more likely that you've written something completely forgettable that'll be dropped and lost in the vast ocean of published material out there.