25 Trends in Publishing: Screenplays

About the column: A handful of agents and interns who work with Cyle have learned the latest and (sometimes so, sometimes not so) greatest trends in publishing right now. Tune in each week to find out what’s trending, ranging from ABA to CBA, children’s to adult. The authors of these columns have included social media tags at the end to keep up with trends they are finding. They can also be found here. 

Trend #9 of 25: Screenplays

Contributor: Sarah Gorman

Who doesn’t want to write a movie? In this day and age, we are flooded with visual entertainment on all sides. While movies used to be contained to the silver screen, now many movies are going direct to our home flat screens via Netflix originals and other streaming mediums. We are truly in a revolutionary age for cinema, and for writers, that’s a golden opportunity.

Yes, we are talking about 25 publishing trends, and you might be wondering, what does screenwriting have to do with the publishing industry?

Bear with me.

While it’s not always a direction correlation, it is very clear that the publishing industry and the film industry bleed into one another. They influence each other, as popular books land movie adaptions and as popular movies influence popular genres. With Gen Z growing more and more visual in their tastes, books based on popular movie franchises are popping up to get kids into reading. With the superhero movie craze, graphic novels are becoming more of a market, and while the movie industry and the publishing industry are separate in many ways, they are inextricably linked in many others. I’d argue we’ll be seeing a cross over between the two types of entertainment more and more in the coming years.

It is very clear that the publishing industry and the film industry bleed into one another.

That said, what can you, as a novel writer, do about this boom in the movie industry? The simple answer is write a screenplay for your book! When your script is based on a published novel, it’s classified as “pre-existing IP (Intellectual Property)” in Hollywood. To have this pre-existing IP furthers your chances of getting your story made into a movie and it also helps Hollywood execs from stealing your idea. The movie industry is not a happy atmosphere for writers (television is far more welcoming,) and having pre-existing IP can protect both your story and you yourself as the writer.

The complicated answer is that screenwriting is a steep learning curve.

If you can learn it—and learn it well—you will be set apart from a lot of writers, as not many writers can wear the novelist hat and the screenwriter hat successfully and professionally. Screenwriting is a completely different discipline than novel writing, with a lot more “Don’ts” than “Do’s.” It also has a lot of industry secrets that you can only really learn by taking classes with industry professionals. It is therefore not only an investment of your time (reading screenplay after screenplay, researching the craft, reading books on it, practicing,) but also your money (buying Final Draft, paying for classes, possibly even moving to Los Angeles or traveling there frequently). It’s not a small undertaking, but if you can do it well, you might just see your book in print and on the silver screen.

And what writer doesn’t want that?

Sarah is a Jr. Agent and  award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and writing student, majoring in professional writing at Taylor University.

During her time at Taylor, she studied screenwriting in Los Angeles through the Los Angeles Film Studies Center and UCLA. There, she interned with Wind Dancer Films on their PBS Kids show Ready Jet Go!, and her aspirations include pursuing her MA in Screenwriting, writing for television, and publishing her novels.

Sarah hails from Chicagoland, home of superior pizza and terrible weather, and when not writing, she enjoys rollerblading, soccer, forensic science, and illustration. Check her out on her website, slgorman.com.