Throughout an virtually two-decade writing profession, Rufi Thorpe had written three books. The third and most acclaimed one, “The Knockout Queen,” was optioned for the display in what she known as a “normal way,” by one firm attempting to make it right into a film.
Then she wrote her fourth novel, “Margo’s Got Money Troubles.” And the course of she’d gotten used to was thrown out the window: The novel blew up earlier than it was even on bookshelves, there was a crazed bidding struggle involving A24 and Elle Fanning, and fewer than two years after publishing, the adaptation is hitting Apple TV in April.
The overwhelming majority of authors nonetheless by no means get to go Hollywood. But what was as soon as a distant dream is now coming true for increasingly more authors, all up and down the ladder of literary fame and status.
With the streaming business ravenous for tales to inform, a author doesn’t have to have already constructed up a blockbuster e book franchise like “The Vampire Chronicles,” “Harry Potter” or “Twilight,” to see their work turn into an onscreen popular culture juggernaut.
It’s sufficient to have a distinct segment hit: Rachel Reid’s “Heated Rivalry” didn’t actually take off till a viral suggestion by a fellow romance creator; Julia Quinn’s “Bridgerton” collection was hailed in the romance world however comparatively unknown past; Mick Herron’s “Slow Horses” did so poorly in its preliminary publication that the writer turned down the subsequent e book. All have since turn into runaway hits for his or her respective streaming providers.
Book diversifications have turn into so necessary in Hollywood that Netflix, a perennial e book adapter, stated its book-to-screen content material discovered a spot in the streamer’s world Top 10 every week in 2025. For many streamers, diversifications have turn into pillars of content material, a lot in order that the platforms supply e book diversifications as one among their browsing categories.
Books have at all times been beneficial property in Hollywood, stated Rich Green, who heads book-to-film/TV growth at administration and manufacturing agency the Gotham Group. Decades in the past, he stated, his small checklist of e book shoppers have been what “kept my phone ringing.”
At that point, film studios each huge and small have been the major consumers. Streaming “dramatically” modified the panorama for e book diversifications, Green stated. Where studios could solely make a handful of flicks a 12 months, streamers have “infinite bandwidth” to create as a lot content material as they’ll for hungry customers scrolling via their televisions in any respect hours. With an elevated want for tales, each revealed books and upcoming releases current an infinite stream of concepts, Green stated.
“All of a sudden, you had the streamers coming to those who do what I do,” Green stated, “and optioning quite aggressively.”
That pattern, he stated, quadrupled his enterprise.
For authors, that may imply extra involvement in the adaptation course of. Thorpe holds an government producer credit score on “Margo,” a task that’s turning into extra frequent for authors of tailored works. “Hamnet” creator Maggie O’Farrell helped Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao adapt her novel for the display — a course of that she has said concerned prolonged Zoom calls and the alternate of voice notes.
Many authors are nonetheless completely satisfied to signal a contract and wash their fingers of the relaxation. But others can ask to keep up extra artistic management if , somewhat than the conventional apply of ceding it to the business.
“Hollywood is at a place where that request is no longer bothersome, intimidating, or — to the extreme — a deal-breaker,” Green stated.
After government producing the Netflix movie adaptation of her novel “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and its sequels, Jenny Han went on to be a showrunner for the hit collection “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” tailored by Amazon. That similar 12 months, she launched her personal manufacturing firm.
Sarah Dessen, the prolific YA novelist, has witnessed the business’s change firsthand. Back in 2003, her first two novels, “That Summer” and “Someone Like You,” have been smashed collectively into the movie, “How To Deal,” starring Mandy Moore. She by no means spoke to the screenwriter for that film, although she was despatched the script and requested for her opinion. She doesn’t suppose her enter would have made a distinction; there had already been so many eyes on the product, as is the norm when coping with Hollywood behemoths.
Cut to 2019, when Netflix optioned three of Dessen’s novels and produced the 2022 film “Along for the Ride.” Even with established stars hooked up, the total course of felt extra collaborative, she stated. Dessen developed a private relationship with the government producer, who’d been a fan of her books rising up. Later, director and screenwriter Sofia Alvarez spent an hour on the telephone with Dessen speaking about the e book. Once filming started, Dessen visited the set and Alvarez requested for her ideas about sure scenes.
“I do feel like they were a little bit more interested in my opinion and in what I thought about things,” Dessen stated.
There are nonetheless many books which might be optioned and by no means truly made right into a collection or film. Even with the rise in diversifications, Dessen nonetheless known as them a “long shot,” an indication of how tough and extraordinary the course of stays. But the heightened demand has affected each a part of Hollywood.
Literary scouts, as soon as a luxurious solely main studios might afford, are actually employed by producers and different shoppers to assist sniff out the upcoming books that could be hiding a goldmine, à la “Heated Rivalry.” In the web age, meaning trying past upcoming or present novels from the huge publishing homes and into self-published tales and different unconventional publishing avenues.
“There’s so many more books,” one literary scout stated. “There’s so much more to wade through, because they’re coming from all directions.”
Celebrity e book golf equipment usually additionally attempt to funnel their high-profile picks into buzzy on-screen diversifications. Reese Witherspoon has been the most distinguished: See “Big Little Lies” and “Little Fires Everywhere,” each Reese’s Book Club picks that have been remodeled into streaming megahits, starring Witherspoon and produced by her personal manufacturing firm. (Just after manufacturing was introduced for “Little Fires Everywhere,” creator Celeste Ng known as superstar e book golf equipment “miracle workers.”)
Studio consumers used to just accept printed galleys or Advanced Reader Copies of novels; now, consumers wish to see manuscripts as early as doable, Green stated. He’ll usually take a manuscript to Hollywood at the similar time as the creator’s publishing agent pitches publishers.
Ten years in the past — earlier than scouts have been the norm — studios might need paid a fortune to yank a manuscript from the Hollywood market earlier than anybody else knew it existed, the literary scout stated. Now, brokers subject curiosity from typically dozens of potential consumers, and authors can decide the deal most interesting to them. It doesn’t at all times come all the way down to cash; typically, the successful bid has extra interesting stars hooked up, or different elements.
“There’s more people in on the action,” the literary scout stated.
Wooing the creator typically simply comes all the way down to chemistry, stated Marshall, the “Hamnet” producer.
“Do they trust you? I think that’s really key. Do you get along?” she stated. “For me, that’s really important, I think, that there’s a rapport between you and the novelist.”
Sometimes, these relationships can get sophisticated.
After Hulu handed on creating “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” creator Sarah J. Maas stated earlier this 12 months she now re-owns the rights to her work and nonetheless desires to make an on-screen adaptation.
“I look at any TV or movie adaptation as another facet of the worlds I’ve created,” she stated on the podcast “Call Her Daddy.” “It’s something I want to be in charge of.”
That negotiation of possession and management has led to different high-profile clashes. Min Jin Lee was initially set to be an government producer for the Apple TV adaptation of “Pachinko,” however she later dropped out of the manufacturing for causes she has declined to publicly disclose. (Lee wasn’t out there to be interviewed for this text.) Turkish creator Orhan Pamuk spent years suing a manufacturing firm that he felt had taken too many liberties for a tv adaptation of his bestseller “The Museum of Innocence.” He gained, and later labored with a special firm — requiring his sign-off on each web page of the script. The collection premiered on Netflix in February, to middling evaluations.
Not each creator is so involved by how their works are reimagined. Julia Quinn, creator of the “Bridgerton” collection, hadn’t even been purchasing the novels in Hollywood when she acquired a name from Shondaland in 2017. She gave up full artistic management from the begin, she stated. Hollywood diversifications of romance novels have been uncommon; diversifications of historic romance have been even rarer. Now, if one other deal got here ahead, Quinn stated she could “do it differently,” however at the time she knew the alternative was “once in a lifetime.”
Looking again, she stated, it’s “pretty obvious I made the right decision.”
Driven by the success of the Netflix present, e book gross sales for her novels have skyrocketed, Quinn stated. They’ve been revealed in new international locations, and she or he’s gone on e book excursions in locations she dreamed of as a baby.
And most notably, she’s been capable of ease the tempo of writing and publishing to strive new issues. She spent 18 months as an envoy for EveryLibrary combating e book bans and can also be on the board of world nonprofit Landesa, a feminist land rights group. She used to publish a e book a 12 months; now, her final novel was in 2023, a screen-to-page adaptation of “Queen Charlotte.” She nonetheless loves historic romance, Quinn stated, however the Netflix success has given her time to pursue different pursuits and avenues of storytelling.
“There’s just a lot more avenues for stories to be told,” Dessen stated. “It’s an embarrassment of riches.”