Authors Look to L.A. to Sell Film Rights

When Neal Stephenson’s novel “Zodiac” was sold to Warner Bros. recently ($370,000 up front plus another $370,000 if a movie is ever made from it), the transaction was handled not by Stephenson’s New York literary agent, Liz Darhansoff, but by Hollywood agent Lynn Pleshette. It’s common practice for an author’s publishing agent to have a working relationship with an agent or agency in Hollywood that’s in a better position to know the film market. If a sale is made, the two agents on opposite coasts share the 10% to 15% percent commission.

“It’s very difficult for New York agents to handle movie rights,” said New York agent Richard Curtiss. “We’re all capable of fielding a call and negotiating a respectable deal for for our client, but we don’t know about contacting producers.”

Hollywood agents who specialize in books (and who are also called literary agents) make it their job to know who’s looking for what at which studio, which stars are shopping for love stories or comedies, which industry executives read and what their taste is.

The larger bi-coastal talent agencies like ICM and William Morris, which represent authors equally to publishing houses and movie studios, have a built-in client list for the Hollywood market.

William Morris, for example, has nine agents in New York, representing a list of 500 authors that includes Tom Clancy, James Michener, Dominick Dunne and Susan Isaacs. New books by any of the 500 thought to have movie potential are automatically distributed in Hollywood by the West Coast branch of the agency and can even wind up in “package” deals with other William Morris talent attached.

The smaller, independent agencies, on the other hand, must compete to find and represent marketable movie books being published in New York.

Triad Artists, for example, which does not represent authors in New York, has nevertheless made movie sales in recent years for writers Tom Robbins, Lawrence Sanders, Howard Fast, David Morrell, and more than 100 others.

“Sometimes New York agents prefer to work with independent agents out here,” said independent Hollywood agent Joel Gotler, “because they feel their client might be less compromised than if a book is just one element in a package deal that a big agency is putting together.”