How to get a job writing novelizations of movies?

AFAIK, the studio/moviemakers go to the author, rather than the other way around. The novelization usually coincides with the movie's release, after all, so you'd need to be in on the game long before you saw the thing in theaters. You'll likely have to be an established Name, in other words, in order to be contacted. And you'd definitely want an agent, and/or a lawyer, 'cause nobody can skin you like Hollywood. But I'm not a professional.

Terry Brooks talked about two movie novelization experiences in his book Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life... one of which he described as the worst mistake he ever made in his life. Both times, IIRC, his agent was contacted, and passed the offer on to him to accept or reject.

You start by being a successful novelist in that genre. They aren't going to hand novelization to someone without a proven track record.

Novelizations and writing in other people's franchises is for some people dreamwork which allows them to have considerable incomes, while doing what they love--writing fiction. A great many people feel much better when they are given a set of existing places and characters and are told to work with that. The majority of such people are scriptwriters for existing franchises, but some are novelists. And why not? The best-known examples--R.A. Salvatore; Kevin J Anderson; Brandon Sanderson; and a great many others whose careers really took off when they started writing Star Wars or Conan fiction or the like. Robert Jordan wrote eight Conan novels, before proceeding to do the Wheel of Time...

As Brightdreamer and Jamesritchie have said, you need to have at least one book out which didn't tank, and an agent, whom you've told that you are wide open to any franchise novelization offers.

The other, DIY route would be something like this.
First, you find existing windows of opportunities and make a plan: "In August 2014 they'll be accepting new comic book franchise ideas at this indie publisher, in December 2014 they'll be accepting Firefly fiction for a week, and in January 2015 there's a novelization of SuperMario contest" and the like.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/youngreaderssubmissions
http://www.stargatenovels.com/submissions.shtml
http://www.blacklibrary.com/Getting-Started/FAQ-Working-For-Black-Library.html#guidelines
http://www.darkhorse.com/Company/Submissions


Check out also the BBC's criteria to write them a screenplay or a novelization. The great sci-fi comic magazine 2000AD accept ideas for their "future shock" section, where they incubate future comic book writers. There are also other comic book companies which accept story ideas.

...If you poke around, you can find other opportunities to do with videgames, roleplaying games, and tv shows and stuff. You'll end up with a list of a dozen opportunities with specific criteria and a timeline. Once one of those happens--even just as script accepted by the BBC or a rt shostory in a comic book magazine--this should raise your stock considerably. People will pay attention and not dismiss you as yet another crank. One success, no matter how small in itself, will open ten more doors.

One of those doors could be an agent, but if not, you can continue the DIY way.

The next level could include B film companies like The Assylum, and on the other hand--instantly recognizable brand names who are over the hill and churn out 3-4 direct-to-DVD films a year--Steve Segal, Van Damme, Lundgren, etc. Once you have something to show from elsewhere (say a radio play by the BBC, or a Wizards of Dragonforce boardgame novel), and have written the first few very convincing chapters based on a new Segal DVD adventure--you can probably come to some sort of agreement with the film company.

And once you actually have a Segal film or a StarGate or some legit game novelization on your resume--now an agent will far more likely say "yes, of course, a pleasure to work with you!" (although this should happen way back after the first Dragonwhores of Gzbl'k novelization), when you look for representation from a serious agency, and will have a far easier job of finding you increasingly glamorous novelization opportunities to do with today's hits.

Or, you can remain a writer who chronicles the adventures of Segal and Van Damme and the like, and that would be awesome too. Year after year more of the industry will know whom to turn to if they need a fast and quality novelization of Drag me to Hell 4, for example. Just like many people prefer to have an existing framework in which to create their fiction, many people also prefer a stable mid-level gig (in a sense, the vast majority do, hence "the middle class"), instead of struggling at the stratospheric levels where you win it all and lose it all... A question of temperament and preference.

Interesting article today in the Detroit Free Press about thriller author Karen Dionne who was hired (and yes, they approached her) to do a novel tie-in for the TV show The Killing. The show was canceled and revived TWICE while she was working on the novel--I can't imagine that anxiety. Gives some insights into the process, too.

Sometimes book packagers farm out TV tie ins and other licensed work. You'll find some of them with guidelines online.

I believe this is considered a ghost-writing gig? Maybe look into how to get into that business.

I've followed a lot of writers who ended up doing these at some point, and they all were approached by their agents, who were approached by the publisher, who either asked if any of their clients would be interested and if so what have they done in that genre, or who asked the agent specifically if so-and-so had any interest in writing a novelization.

In a couple of cases, the authors had told their agents that they'd be interested if the opportunity ever arose. In others, the project and the writer's genre matched so well the agent asked anyway.

If I didn't have connections and inroads with an agent, publisher or media franchise at the executive level, I would give up on that dream. I personally know of one exception, but the show was long-cancelled, they only did 3 books before they stopped the tie-in novels, and the writer had written tons of well-respected fan fiction for the show as well as practically hounded the company to let her write a book for the show. And by hounded I mean she kept contacting them, kept giving them detailed outlines, samples and examples of what she would do if they let her, and didn't give up for a couple of years. I think this is quite an exception, though.

I've been thinking about this recently, myself. As I've been re-watching GLEE, I've been thinking about the possibility of novelizations, and perhaps writing them. (It would be interesting -- maybe even the possibility of continuing on with the original story line, that was changed after Cory Monteith's death.

Thanks for the good info!

As others have already said, you need to be an established, known, successful writer to be asked to do this work.

dondomat said:

Novelizations and writing in other people's franchises is for some people dreamwork which allows them to have considerable incomes, while doing what they love--writing fiction.

Click to expand...

Writing tie-ins is often done on a work-for-hire basis, which means the authors concerned get a flat fee, no subsequent royalties, and they give up copyright on the work too. It's not necessarily terribly lucrative.

Marlys said:

Interesting article today in the Detroit Free Press about thriller author Karen Dionne who was hired (and yes, they approached her) to do a novel tie-in for the TV show The Killing. The show was canceled and revived TWICE while she was working on the novel--I can't imagine that anxiety. Gives some insights into the process, too.

Click to expand...

David Hewson has written novelisations for The Killing: I didn't realise other writers also were involved.

dondomat said:

Check out also the BBC's criteria to write them a screenplay or a novelization. The great sci-fi comic magazine 2000AD accept ideas for their "future shock" section, where they incubate future comic book writers. There are also other comic book companies which accept story ideas.

...If you poke around, you can find other opportunities to do with videgames, roleplaying games, and tv shows and stuff. You'll end up with a list of a dozen opportunities with specific criteria and a timeline. Once one of those happens--even just as script accepted by the BBC or a rt shostory in a comic book magazine--this should raise your stock considerably. People will pay attention and not dismiss you as yet another crank. One success, no matter how small in itself, will open ten more doors.

One of those doors could be an agent, but if not, you can continue the DIY way.

The next level could include B film companies like The Assylum, and on the other hand--instantly recognizable brand names who are over the hill and churn out 3-4 direct-to-DVD films a year--Steve Segal, Van Damme, Lundgren, etc. Once you have something to show from elsewhere (say a radio play by the BBC, or a Wizards of Dragonforce boardgame novel), and have written the first few very convincing chapters based on a new Segal DVD adventure--you can probably come to some sort of agreement with the film company.

And once you actually have a Segal film or a StarGate or some legit game novelization on your resume--now an agent will far more likely say "yes, of course, a pleasure to work with you!" (although this should happen way back after the first Dragonwhores of Gzbl'k novelization), when you look for representation from a serious agency, and will have a far easier job of finding you increasingly glamorous novelization opportunities to do with today's hits.

Or, you can remain a writer who chronicles the adventures of Segal and Van Damme and the like, and that would be awesome too. Year after year more of the industry will know whom to turn to if they need a fast and quality novelization of Drag me to Hell 4, for example. Just like many people prefer to have an existing framework in which to create their fiction, many people also prefer a stable mid-level gig (in a sense, the vast majority do, hence "the middle class"), instead of struggling at the stratospheric levels where you win it all and lose it all... A question of temperament and preference.

Click to expand...

I think you misunderestimate the level of competition for several things here. There is no 'just' about getting BBC interest. Their development programs and contests (most of which are only open to residents of the UK, afaik) are insanely competitive.

Getting involved with a B-movie company is in not a next step from that.

Also, are those schlocky serial films even novelized?

I've wanted to write TV tie-ins for a while. Earlier this year, I got onto the website of Fandemonium, who produce Stargate titles, and read their submissions. While most are contracted through agents, the site did say it would accept proposals from published authors.

I wasn't sure if e-published counted, so I emailed a very polite query introducing myself and giving my publishing background. I now have an invitation to propose in my inbox.

So yeah, a backlist is definitely a good idea, after which I think you need the confidence to approach and simply ask. The worst they can say is 'no'.

Go get them, Misa!

cornflake said:

I think you misunderestimate the level of competition for several things here. There is no 'just' about getting BBC interest. Their development programs and contests (most of which are only open to residents of the UK, afaik) are insanely competitive.

Getting involved with a B-movie company is in not a next step from that.

Also, are those schlocky serial films even novelized?

Click to expand...

Every road to success is insanely competitive. Even barely making a publishable product is twenty times more difficult than it seems at the start of the journey, not to mention actually making it not only publishable but successful.

Working for schlocky films is certainly a step up from having one radio script for CV purposes accepted by the BBC, or by anyone else.

It's not a step up from working for the BBC, which is an entirely different thing.

Of course, having a script accepted by radio X can, in theory, be used as leverage to gradually start working for radio X, but that is not what I meant. "Go work for the BBC and then leave them to write novelizations of Alien Shark 3" is not a sentence that can be found in any of my posts.

As to whether one can create a niche for oneself novelizing Alien Shark 3 and the like, that's not for me to judge. We live in an increasingly fluid world, content sale and distribution-wise. "Do people do that?" is a valid question; my ramblings on the subject were "Maybe you could do that". Ideas that generate money and/or respectability are discussed and modified and implemented or shot down all the time.

Very good point about certain opportunities being available only to citizens/residents of certain countries. I've had to take publishers and agents of my lists back when I maintained such, for just this reason.

All sorts of places say yes to ideas, proposals, and often to some sort of submission. Actually buying it is something else entirely. My experience tells me that, far more often than not, such things are more for goodwill with fans who are writers, rather than actually looking for anything to buy.

I know one such place that is widely open to proposals, and even submissions, but they haven't actually bought anything out of their own circle in more than twenty years.

The best way into anyplace, they key that will open any door, is to write something that sells through normal channels. Build a name for yourself the old-fashioned way, which means writing something great, submitting it through the same process, and to the same places, we all do.

If you can't write something that will make anyplace let you in through the front door, it's extremely unlikely that they'll let you in through a window.

Kevin J Anderson was on Writing Excuses once and he write's Star Wars novels some times. He said that Agents usually contact people to write that sort of thing. I guess if you're very persuasive you can get someone to at least take the idea to whoever made the movie. But rights and everything, even within the film companies themselves, is really hard to get.