How to Turn Your Book into a Movie or Adapt it for TV

Have you dreamed of seeing your book become a movie or a TV show? Even a nonfiction book has big potential when it comes to on screen adaptations. There's so many opportunities to take your book to screen, and if you're wondering how to do it, then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish, and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a powerful impact on your readers.

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And it will help you grow your brand, build your business, and make you money. And the best part, you get to keep all rights and royalties. The coolest part about keeping all rights and royalties is when you shop your book around in Hollywood or someone approaches you about turning your book into something else, you have full control and full benefit of the process. I really don't think I can overemphasize the importance of that fact because this is your intellectual property, and a lot of nonfiction authors give it up pretty fast. But this is your story, your expertise, your research, and your experience. And you really should own it and get as much financial benefit from that as possible. Now, when it comes to getting that book into the right hands to explore the potential for adapting it to screen, you might be wondering, what do you need to do if you really want to make it happen? Stalking Kathleen Kennedy, James Cameron or Jerry Bruckenheimer. Bruckenheimer, Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer, Bruckheimer. Stalking Kathleen Kennedy, James Cameron, or Jerry Bruckheimer is not gonna work. Nor wolf hanging out on red carpets and begging people to read your book. You need to know the lingo and set your book up for success. And that's where our new partners come in, and I'm so excited to introduce you to one of them. Please meet Tori Foster of Underground Jam. Tori has been writing and developing entertainment content for years for companies like Lionsgate, Warner Music, A and E, and many, many others. Tori is an industry veteran, and she's also extremely passionate about finding new voices and helping them succeed. And that's really how we met. She was curious about our authors and what books we had that might be great for adaptation. And in that conversation, we really clicked. So I've asked her to explain how to get your book set up for success in the adaptation process. And I asked her, what kind of books have you worked on adaptations for?

There's been a lot of autobiographies that have been really interesting. Social science, some history, definitely some fantasy in there. Recently I worked on a project that was based on a Book written by a neuroscientist. So, yeah, just really pretty wide range.

When you look at your book, you may not even realize that it's not just about blockbuster movies. Many kinds of books lend themselves to become material for reality TV shows based on a true story, TV series or movie documentaries, web series, and short films. So how do you know what's right for your book? And how do you set yourself up for success in this process?

The industry has a set of expectations and kind of an insider language. And as much as you can, meeting those expectations and exceeding them, and really speaking in a language that makes sense to the business people, that can make things happen for you and just really, really putting out the strengths of your project in a way that is entirely understandable to them and really says to them, hey, this is something you're going to be able to do something with. This is something that's going to get other people in your industry excited. This is going to be something that's going to electrify people at a very high level and then also the audience.

In my conversations with the team at Underground Jam, the one thing that really stood out to me was how important it is to know the language. There's a language in Hollywood that's spoken about the projects, and you really need to understand that. And you got to know what's hot at this moment. And the fact that certain people in the industry are actively looking for certain types of projects right now, Like a celebrity might really want to play a certain part, or certain direct directors may want to cover a certain hot topic right now. You got to know that. Really, in some ways, it feels to me like Hollywood is a secret society created to keep you out. And yet the people inside are hungry for new, interesting and appealing material. So they really need you as much as you need them. But you have to wrap it all up in a package so they can really see the value in what you're bringing to them. So obviously, the next thing you need to know is what does this process actually look like? So. So Tori goes into detail.

Let's say you have an autobiography and you want to take that, you want to make that into a movie. First, you know, it would be take your project and you can get it covered, which is just an analysis where you have someone from the industry read it, boil it down to what they understood and took away from it, basic synopsis, and then an analysis with some ideas for where this could fall in terms of different categories of genre, audience appeal, scope, budget level, that type of thing. So Then the next step probably would be to generate a treatment based on your material, which is basically a vision for what the project could be. It's a prose document, just a few pages. It's something that can be sent around and read really easily. And it's definitely something that should really show an exciting vision for what your project could be.

The really big thing I want you to understand is you can't just send your book around and think that it's going to land in the right hands and be turned into something that will be on the screen. That happens sometimes, but that's really luck. And most of us, we really just need to create our own luck. So here's the thing. Once you have the research and you have the treatment, you use that to shop it around and start the packaging of the project. And basically, if you're a Hollywood outsider like me, you're going to want to get that free first person on the project who's a go getter, who's on the inside, and we'll take it from there. Now figuring out who the go getter person is, that will drive your project forward is where the massive value of a company like Underground Jam comes in. Because they know who is looking for what, who will hustle and drive a project. And if they don't know who, they know who to ask. And that's why Book Launchers is partnering with them to help our clients who are interested in this process. Because without insiders directing you, your project might never ever land in the right hands. And the reality is, without that first, first person who pushes for your project in the first place, unless you plan to dedicate your life to this, your project's not likely to succeed. Now what the heck is packaging? Well, I got Tori to go into that a little bit.

Find a producer, find a director. After that, that's kind of usually how the order goes, but it can also be in reverse. Then from your producer and director, you might want to add some other valuable elements, like a really good post production house or special effects director or team. You know, it might be something where you want a specific art director, that type of thing. And then of course, there's huge value in the talent, the actors that you can attach. So there are certain actors who are deemed financeable in the film industry. It's usually a really short list. There's some actors that are financeable for different territories, parts of the world, that type of thing. And so you build that those attachments.

Packaging is pretty big. It's also where the script would get written. And then with that script in hand and some important attachments, the project can then be shopped for financing, locations, more talent, and then you build out from there to finally go to production. The most important thing here, I think, is this.

The idea is that it's not a solo effort. You really need champions and you need a great team. You need to assemble all the right elements to make a success.

Now, if you're feeling like there's no point, I live in Florida or Georgia or Montana or Canada and I'm just too far away. Tori wants you to remember that it's an industry made up of business people. They need your project, but you have to speak to them in a language they understand.

These business people really want to find projects that they can do something with that they can use to attract other partners, use to electrify the top talent and really do something special for the audience. So I think one of the things that's really important is to bring them something in a language they understand that meets their expectations. So you come in like an insider, you come in like a pro who's been doing this for years with a really polished treatment or just a great log line that gets them to ask for the script or the book. You really want to come in with something and then give them a sense that you've really thought about what kind of a film this could be or you know, what kind of a screen project this could be and who would it be for.

Now, I know you're wondering how to create a cover and what a treatment looks like. And if you're interested in seeing more videos on book to screen subject matter where we talk about all that, you make sure you smash that thumbs up button. Go ahead, because that tells me you want more content like this. And also make sure you subscribe to the channel and turn the notifications on so you catch the new videos when they come out. Have questions? I know when I first met Tori and her colleague from Underground Jam, I sure did. So if you have questions or you've taken any of the steps to have your book to screen, let's chat about it in the comments below. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet book launchers swag like our oh so softjournal and our hashtag no boring books mug. It's been so lovely hanging out with you today and it would be an absolute pleasure if we could continue our time together. Perhaps you're thinking you should create an audiobook before you pursue the screen. If that's you, this video is a good one for you. If that's not of interest, well, maybe you missed the first video I did with Tori. That one is right here. So please go ahead. I've got the coffee brewing for you. Choose your next video and we'll hang out some more.