If a Book gets made into a film, does the Author get paid?

Do authers get piad if thier book is made into a film.

If so how much?

 

it probaly be negoshiated just like other authors,they may want a chunk of the productes ect.

 

The short answer is, yes they get paid.

How much (and for estates of deceased authors, I believe) is negoitated...

 

I believe it depends on how much they take. If it is loosely following, they might not.

 

Money kills art.

But it thrives off it.

 

Yeah, JK Rowling, not only gets money from her Harry Potter books, but just think of the money she is getting from the movies. How much I dunno, it would depend on how well the films do and what the contract with the publisher details.

 

Whoever owns the copyright, along with whatever gets negotiated in the royalties and rights agreements determines the pay.

For example, with franchise books, I think the authors sign over all the rights, but with their own original books, they own the rights.

 

Stackpole's website can give you an indicator on that, if I recall seeing something about author payments in there.

 

I believe it is called a "royalty"

Everytime a certian object appears on screen, such as the mcdonald arches, or if a certian word is said or mentioned, SOMEONE is getting a royalty for it.

 

Any writer worth their salt would hang on to the movie rights when they sell the book to a publisher. If they sell all rights, they don't get anything for movie versions.

 

It depends on their contract and how much they sell the rights for. Some authors will make a lot, or a little. I'm not entirely sure about the exact details. Ask an author.

 

>>Do authers get piad if thier book is made into a film.

If so how much? <<

Depends on the author, depends on the book, depends on the deal, depends on the rights they have.

1) If you're working for hire on an established porperty, you will have signed away your rights. Why? Condition of getting the work. OTOH, it's not very likely an NJO book. for example, will get made into a movie. Not impossible; simply unlikely. However, if it did, the PROBABILITY is that none of the authors particpate financially. Why? Because coprught and trademark it owned by GL (or one of his companies). If it is an ORIGINAL creation, there are other variables at work but the USUAL answer is that -- yes, you would make some money. You make money by selling the RIGHTS to another company in return for cash and/or other considerations, such as percentages as negotiated. The latter comes closer to the concept of ROYALTY.
For example, I created Aayla Secura for the comics BUT it was work for hire and so GL owns the character lock, stock, and barrel. I make nothing outside of my original fee. I knew that going in.

2) The deal you make depends on what rights you own and depends on the medium. In comics, the publisher is going to have a share and maybe the lion's share of the rights. In straight prose, less likely the publisher has anything but publishing rights. It's not unusual for a movie companny to buy up ALL other rights so they control the property and how its used. Again, this depends on the author.
Ms. Rowling was able to get a much better deal because she made no movie deal until AFTER Harry Potter was already a sensation. If she had sold the rights BEFORE the first book came out (not an uncommon situation) she would've had MUCH less control and far less money.


Keep in mind that the cornerstone of GL's empire is not simply SW but the fact that, at the time, he was able to retain the COMMERCIAL RIGHTS to the property because, at the time, no one thought there would be any value to it. No one did toys, games, what have you as tie-ins to movies before SW. Not really.

Also, the deal you make may also be tied to how good of an agent you have. And you MUST have an agent unless you have great skills yourself in this area.

Sorry to be so long winded but I thought it was an interesting question that i might be able to shed some light on. I'm curious -- why did you ask in the first place?

All the best

John Ostrander

 

I am sure of that, I think if you are going to make a movie off a book you had best get the author on the set, they did that with Jurassic Park. Of course the movie will always alter the book for time, no one wants to see a four hour movie, or at least most don't, I wouldn't mind if it were a good movie at that.

If the author is dead then I would think someone in the family gets profit like a wife or son or an organization like an institute. If the author is not on the set then get an expert on the book.

 

Ask Stan Lee.....He doesn't seem to think his mere penance of 10 million was enough when the (undeserving) actors got more, and it's his creation, really......

 

Mr Ostrander, you weren't long winded. It's an interesting topic. I, for one, am always interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes of products we see and buy. You never know one day when you might be doing such stuff yourself, after all.

 

NERAK
>> I think if you are going to make a movie off a book you had best get the author on the set, they did that with Jurassic Park. Of course the movie will always alter the book for time, no one wants to see a four hour movie, or at least most don't, I wouldn't mind if it were a good movie at that.

>>If the author is dead then I would think someone in the family gets profit like a wife or son or an organization like an institute. If the author is not on the set then get an expert on the book.<<

The REALITY is that Hollywood prefers dealing with DEAD authors because there are fewer hassles. The LAST thing they want is the author of the novel on the set. I once saw a list that purported to show the relative importance of people connected with a film. "Screenwriter" was listed just below "studio cat". It was a joke but. . . not really. And the creator of the original piece would be listed beneath "screenwriter". As far as movies are concerned, the "expert" who is on the set is the DIRECTOR. To be fair, they have to deal with a lot of people who DON'T understand that a different medium is going to require changes in the story, sometimes quite substantial ones, And I can think of many cases where the changes are actually improvements (yes, we can also all name the disasters as well). I know a guy named Max Allan Collins who wrote the graphic novel ROAD TO PERDITION. Well, he didn't write the screenplay (despite the fact that he has written and filmed his own screenplays) but he WAS asked to write the NOVELIZATION of the screenplay based on his graphic novel. When he tried to add some of the elements of the graphic novel into the novelization (historical details he knew), he was told to take them out. He could only put in what was in the screenplay even though he had written the source material. That's how it works, folks.

The fact of the matter is -- once you sell something to hollywood, they can do what they want with it unless there are provisions written into the contract (or you're someone like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King). And you just have to Deal With It.

John Ostrander

 

The lesson to learn everyone: Don't sell your creative rights - or at least minimize it.

 

What Darth Kevin said!

Same holds true in the music biz- all the really great bands, or at least the smart ones, own all their music- The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden, Yes- own their own songs and their labels simply distribute the albums.

JMS was the same way with Babylon 5, he wouldn't give in that much when the Warner Bros. suits kept trying to destroy his show.

I'd hate to be a Hollywood writer unless I worked for a smaller company or group where I was friends with or least knew really well everyone there. Al Jean, who is chief writer and executive producer for the Simpsons sounds like a great guy to work for. Plus he acknowleged today on NPR that the Fox execs leave him and the show alone.

Sliders is a perfect example of how a TV show can be ruined by too much studio interferrence. After the first season, the creator and chief writer quit. Same with the movie adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 'The Puppert Masters'. Imagine being told by a female exec that the main female character doesn't have to be a doctor or scientist or even smart, she just has to be the hero's girlfriend. (I have story somewhere written by the screenwriter for that film that outlines all the problems they had even getting it on to the screen).

But when you have a writer's strike, really bad things happen, like the death of excellent sitcoms like Taxi and WKRP- both killed by the 1981 writers strike. It wouldn't be so bad now, 20 less reality shows wouldn't be a great loss to civilization.

I would rather not be published than lose the rights to something I have created. Unless it's something like John said, I could deal with that. But if I lost control of my own creations, ugh, I'd rather not think about it.

 

I hate reality shows, I don't understand why people watch them. I watch Tv and read books to escape reality. In fact I have to much reality.

TV channels peeps like them because they don't have to hire writers or actors.

Besides for the Osborns, that guy is crazy and he kicks ass.

next best thing to a book being made into a film is a graphic Novel.

I was thinking about my story being a Graphic Novel but I'm thinking aheah I got to finsih it.

 

I really liked Sliders, and that show just got worse and worse every season.

 

Yeah it started to not make sense for a while.

They went through A to d skipping b and c. Some a big part of the story was missing. And sometimes they would just have a new cast member and a origanl was missing.

What ever happened to that other chick, the first one? Did she die?

 

I watched it pretty often for a while. After a few seasons (two or three) the Professor was the first to die, and Kari Wuher (well endowed new female cast member) replaced him as a 4th slider. She was from an alternate dimension's military. They started the whole Cromag subplot, the original girl (I forget her character, but the actress was Sabrina Lloyd) was captured and imprisoned by the Cromags off-camera between seasons, and it was "discovered" (retro-continuity) that Quinn was actually born in an alternate dimension, son of scientists from the Cromag hidden (even from the Cromags) home planet shared with normal humans with the secret technology to stop the Cromags from conquering other alternate dimensions. The original girl was a subplot related to looking to free her from Cromag slavery. Quinn was brought to our Earth to hide and grow up with his mirror parents. He also had a brother hidden on another planet which they then spent a few episodes looking for. Then the cast had two original members, Quinn and Remy, and two new members, Quinn's brother (in real life too) and the new girl played by Kari Wuher. Then in between seasons again, Quinn and his brother were killed while sliding or something like that, and Quinn's soul entered an alternate dimension version of himself that looked nothing like him. On this planet a new female scientist joined the sliders, and then Remy, the guy who got sucked in by accident in the first episode, becomes the sliders leader and the only original cast member.

Whew!

Basically, it just got really ugly, contrived and dumb at the end and deserved to be cancelled. Originally it was a cool concept but went downhill with the Cromag storyline and Quinn not really being from our Earth.

 

It's not that it was bad, it was just writen bad. And a little weak.

They tryed some plot twist, to replace cast. When QUin left thats when it went to hell.

 

By basing the entire plotline for the show on Quinn's character trying to get to the secret planet, they wrote themselves into a corner when the actor left the show. If they had stayed with the original concept of just trying to return to Earth Prime, they could have kept the show going in a less contrived way even with loss of cast members.

 

Ah, Sliders. Let the nostalgia begin . . .