Production companies always look to books as a source of material for films and television shows. When you look at the history of the Oscars, about half of all Best Picture–winning movies have been based on books. We’ve seen a lot of growth in publishing in the young adult market and children's book markets, and Hollywood has turned to young adult and children’s books to find a lot of great projects.
One of the key terms in Hollywood is world building. Hollywood execs are always looking for new and unique worlds. They want to feel that they are investing a hundred million dollars in something that’s going to translate onto the big screen, so the project has to feel big. When you look at recent projects like Hunger Games and Maze Runner, you’ll see that they usually have a new mythologies and new and unique worlds, vistas that we’ve never really explored before. These are the kinds of books that get a lot of attention.
Casting is another important element. One of the problems we run into a lot is how to cast a young adult book when a lot of the actors or actresses who might be right for a role may be too old by the time the movie is actually filmed. A project like Wake by Lisa McMann is going to be contingent on getting the right teen star at the right time in his or her career. So casting is really important.
And then of course there’s the great idea. Hollywood is very concept driven. Traditionally, fiction publishing has been voice driven. Editors were always looking to find the next great voice. But with digital publishing and the pressures on the book industry today, concepts are driving more and more of the decisions in the publishing community. Marketing executives are chiming in with equal if not greater say than editorial. Publisher’s Marketplace has dozens of books right now listed as sold to publishers with extremely catchy one-line loglines. That’s because we’re in a business where you usually only have thirty seconds to look at something, and if you have a great concept, that’s going to compel people to dig deeper.
It’s also true in Hollywood, just as it is in publishing, that it’s important for investors to know that the author is well connected and will be able to promote the book. Authors have to know how to promote themselves in a digital world. The publishers’ marketing budgets have been cut, so authors have to make up for that themselves. You have to be a really great self-promoter as an author, and you have to think of yourself—as corny as it may sound—as a potential brand name. Dr. Seuss is known for being Dr. Seuss. He wrote tons of great books, but his name means something above and beyond his body of work. And I think more and more, the author has become the brand. That’s the key: how to manage that brand.