Screenwriting : To Tell or Not to Tell by Kendall Loyd

Kendall Loyd

To Tell or Not to Tell

Hey stage 32 community. I have a question for you guys. If you are throwing a pitch to an exec and you have a script based off a novel you wrote that's yours should you tell them that or not?

Mark Mccoy

Why not. Its about making a deal. And its good to have more than one pitch.

Fritz-Alain Moise

Yeah, you should tell them.

Jody Ellis

Why wouldn't you?

David Taylor

AND...Who owns the characters? Who gets what slice if subsequent rights are sold? (etc.)

Danny Manus

sure why not

Phillip E. Hardy, "The Real Deal"

Having a novel in addition to a script is a positive selling point. Particularly if the novel has sold some copies.

D Marcus

I would tell them.

Kendall Loyd

Thank you all for your feedback.

Pablo Ponce de Leon

Totally tell the exec

Jeanie Hobgood

I would make sure that you are upfront on any facts and copywrites you have with your material.

Linda Bradshaw-Rogers

You're a writer...why not? I see nothing but plus+++ for your skill.

Izzibella Beau

I was told by a film festival judge that if I tell a producer that my script is from my book to make sure I emphasize that it was published with a company and not out as an indie. I don't know, maybe she could be wrong, but what i got from the conversation that producers look down on books that are indie published maybe thinking they weren't good enough to get someone to publish them.

Michael Eddy

You throw a pitch in baseball. In movies, you make a pitch. Has your novel been published? By a publisher - or a vanity press? Either way - of course you mention the novel in the pitch. Better yet - since it's your novel - just go ahead and adapt it as a screenplay and pitch that. Or if you have an agent - have the agent send out the book to try to get interest in THAT from a potential producer/network/studio - get it optioned - and have them PAY YOU to adapt it into a screenplay.

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