permission to write screenplay??

Depends on what rights you have got or if you have sold/given up those rights. Others with more knowledge will chip in soon!

Kevvers.

You'll have to look at your contract with your agent to see whether you've granted her all representative rights to the book including cinematic rights. Even a contract doesn't prevent you from converting the story to a screenplay. But it may technically, or at least morally, limit you from submitting the screenplay to other parties without her knowledge. Or it may not prevent you from submitting it elsewhere and yet you may still be obligated to share your fee with the agent, even if you sell it yourself as a screenplay. As I said, it should be spelled out in the contract. But if you trust your agent and have a good relationship, why not simply ask her what her interpretation is? If I was in your situation, I would. Hey, she may want to represent your screenplay as well. And if you want a long term relationship with your agent, it pays to be honest and forthcoming about these things.

Sage advice notwithstanding, the short answer is no, you don't need her permission. Write the adaptation by all means. The practice will do you good, if nothing else. Once it's finished, just tell her you have a screenplay available so she can take action or pass the news on to someone else.

This article from Michael Hauge's Screenplay Mastery site might interest you:
RULES FOR ADAPTATION
http://www.screenplaymastery.com/Rules.htm

-Derek

avid-dreamer said:

During our initial conversation I told her that I wanted to retain film rights and why. She said it was fine. The contract I signed for the agency does mention the agent representing media ect. She told me that they have a film agent there at the agency and we would have to wait to see how well my book does..but I listened to the advice of posters here who said that if I want to see "my work" on the screen I will have to write the screenplay myself. This is something I want to get into so why not start with a piece of work that I already know is salable. Also, I am not going to just sit on my butt and "wait" to see how well my book does - of course I will pour myself wholeheartedly into marketing it, but patience is not my best virtue. I would prefer to have options as well...and having a completed and polished screenplay in my hand would give me just that. So, I will email her today and ask her opinion.


Thanks again!!!

Click to expand...

It won't hurt you to write it, but you may run into certain problems if, by some chance, you sell the screenplay before the novel sells, because as a rule, when you sell a screenplay, the buyer will expect you to sell *all* rights in all media currently in existence or yet to be invented throughout the universe, in perpetuity (and I'm not exaggerating -- that's the language they use). If you have a novel already published, then *you* are the one that owns all the rights, unless you've foolishly given then to your publisher. Then what they buy from you are the adaptation rights (and probably some additional ancillary rights that your agent would know about) but you keep the underlying copyright, the right to write sequels to your book, etc.

If you haven't published your book, or at least have an offer at the time the screenplay sells, presuming it does, it will be very difficult for you to retain those rights. Their position is likely going to be -- you couldn't sell the book before -- what are you going to do, wait for us to make the movie and then sell it, as essentially a novelization of the movie we're going to make, and keep the rights for yourself?

They won't go for that.

So the book would have to sell first, or it likely will not sell at all, and if it doesn't sell, you will not be able to retain the underlying copyright.

NMS

Movie rights are negotiated separately.

The publisher does not automatically get movie rights. The novelist retains the movie rights. Talent agencies have big departments dedicated solely to selling books to Hollywood. These agencies represent the authors and not the publishers.

If the manuscript is fiction, then it is solely your right to determine whether or not you want to adapt it into a screenplay. Your agent has NO SAY in whether or not you can or cannot adapt.

However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't have the discussion with your agent to see if it is a good idea to adapt and what the pros and cons might be.

If the manuscript is based on other source material (like someone's life) then you would need to clear it with the person who served as the subject (if it wasn't discussed in your original negotiations). But, again, your agent has no power EVER in granting you permission to adapt your own work.

If you haven't written a script before, you might want to write an original script based on an original story first, so you get the feel for format, structure, etc. Then try to sell it so you get an idea for how that process differs from the novel market.

It's a different discipline and market than novel-writing, and you don't want your adaptation to end up unsalable in the movie industry because then even if you do sell the movie rights they may insist on hiring another writer to rewrite it until it's unrecognizable to you. Of course that can happen just between final draft of a script and final cut of the production too, but that's another story altogether. Plus I think if you want a novel to have a long life, it has a better chance by preceding the movie that's based on it than by being a novelization of an independent sparse-release flick (which is what unconnected first time screenwriters often land if they catch anything at all), as nmstevens said.

Just my 2 cents.