Is this the best time ever?

Mumut said:

The first book in my trilogy, 'The Guardian of the Gate', was released in Canada three weeks ago and now, for the first time, it is in e-book form. And what a debut! In that short time it has rocketed to #9 in Fictionwise, #2 in both ebookwise and readerwise and is labelled 'top rated' by palm ebook store.

Is this the best time for me to contact agents with the scrip I've written based on that story? And should I pay the few dollars to have it listed so more agents can see it than I would ever be able to locate?

I'd hate to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance. Your advice would be gratefully received.

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The first thing that you need to sell is the *movie rights.*

You've got a reasonably successful property. That's the selling point. If you can't make a sale off of that, you're not going to be able to make a sale off of the script.

I wouldn't recommend having anything "listed" -- services like that just add to the white noise.

Presumably, you've got a publisher and you're making that publisher some money so it's likely that he's in a good mood. Maybe you can ask him to recommend an agent to help you sell the movie rights.

Because that's the first step - to send the book around and get it covered to try to sell the movie rights.

If the book gets optioned and there's some interest in moving ahead with it, then you can float the possibility of having somebody take a look at your script.

But first things have to come first. If, even with the book at it's hottest, nobody's interested in the rights to the book, it isn't likely that anybody is going to be interested in any script based on it.

NMS

Mumut said:

The first book in my trilogy, 'The Guardian of the Gate', was released in Canada three weeks ago and now, for the first time, it is in e-book form. And what a debut! In that short time it has rocketed to #9 in Fictionwise, #2 in both ebookwise and readerwise and is labelled 'top rated' by palm ebook store.

Is this the best time for me to contact agents with the scrip I've written based on that story? And should I pay the few dollars to have it listed so more agents can see it than I would ever be able to locate?

I'd hate to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance. Your advice would be gratefully received.

Click to expand...

Was it also released on paper? I'm not sure how much of a cloud ebooks have, but I do know that paper sales will attract more attention. Don't pay more to have it "listed so more agents can see and locate it". Agents (regardless of their specified field) aren't going to look around the web to find a property, they've got too much submissions. Instead get your agent involved in selling the movie rights (or get them to get in touch with a subrights agent). If you don't have an agent, then try contacting some.

Personally, I don't believe you need to rush this. Even if the rights were sold right this instant, the film wouldn't be out for another 12-24 months when the attention the book has got would be significantly less. Focus on getting sales and you'll be able to pitch this around based on the sales long after the interest has disappeared.