Turning a book into a movie is probably the dream of just about every author, but the vast majority of authors never take any actual steps toward that goal. They’ll hear “Your book would make a great movie” and other statements from friends, family and readers but, with a sigh, the author will generally think it’s some sort of pipedream. After all, where does an author even start if he wants to see his book on the big screen? Well, it all starts with preparation…
The first step in the book to screen process usually consists of creating a Coverage, a tool used to assess the viability of your book as a film or TV show. MindStir Media, my publishing company, offers this service and all others mentioned in this post. An entertainment professional will evaluate the plot, character development and the overall story as it relates to adapting the book to screen. That’s the Coverage in a nutshell.
The next step is the Treatment writing. The Treatment basically outlines the entire screenplay. The writer will create the logline, character descriptions, and the plot summary. This Treatment is used as reference during the screenplay writing process…
During this third step, the writer will write the screenplay. Screenplays are normally between 90-120 pages. 100 pages is the sweet spot.
But what do you do after all the work has been done in creating the Coverage, Treatment and then the Screenplay? You can’t just let it sit on your hard drive. It needs to be pitched. Most book to film companies I see out there don’t bother with this step — they leave it up to the author entirely. But, with MindStir Media, the materials can be pitched to producers and film studios via a professional query letter and screenplay/Treatment submission.