How to Make Your Novel into a Film

By Dr. Ken Atchity

You’ve written a novel and want to see it on the big or little screen. Here are nine suggestions about how to turn that dream into a reality:

1) Make your novel a bestseller. Do whatever is necessary to get it to appear on bestseller lists, especially The New York Times’.

2) Get your novel favorably reviewed by The New York Times or another major newspaper.

3) Make your novel an internet sensation, to draw the attention of “trackers” who look for new stories to turn into films.

4) Bring your novel to the attention of a major director, or a major star.

5) Find one of the top agents in Hollywood who handles books and convince him to represent your book to the film industry.

6) Write, or hire someone to write, a professional treatment of your novel, following the guidelines presented in my Writing Treatments That Sell.

7) Convince or pay a professional screenwriter to write a screenplay of your novel.

8) Get an agent or manager to request the screenplay, read it, and agree to represent it.

9) Find a financer to develop and finance the movie based on your novel, starting with the business plan, script, and budget and including securing equity to cover at least twenty-five percent of the film’s budget.