INKWORKS’ Jackson Keeler On Selling Book Rights To The Film & TV Markets

Jackson Keeler is the Director of INKWORKS, a literary agency which specializes in selling book rights to the film industries. He shared his experiences on shepherding manuscripts through the process of development to bringing them to market with Creative Screenwriting Magazine.

How do you interact with the film and TV industries?

My background in the film business has given me a unique perspective in the publishing industry in that I am always on the lookout for manuscripts that translate well to film/TV. After I take on a new client, we will often complete 10-15 development/editorial drafts together before we go out to publishers.

Once the book is sold, I work with other literary agents and producers to try to package and bring it to market. Packaging is the process of attaching talent to a piece of intellectual property (IP) in order to make it more attractive to buyers. It is a big opportunity to build buzz around a project and increase the market value of it. Each situation is different but – more often than not – studios want a high-profile actor or filmmaker attachment. For feature films, that creator is usually a high-profile director. In TV, it is often a seasoned showrunner. 

More than ever, Hollywood is relying on established IP to keep up with the ever-growing demand for content. It’s a great time to be an author who writes commercial books, but it’s also more competitive. I was recently talking with an executive at WME who told me that his only job is to scout books for his company’s clients. Likewise, studios are now hiring entire literary departments dedicated to scouring for and acquiring literary IP. It used to be that companies would mostly contract these kinds of services out but, more recently, it has gotten to the point where buyers need extra readers with knowledge of the publishing industry, just to sift through the sheer volume of it all. 

So, while it’s a great feeling to climb the mountain with the author and find a home for their book on the publishing side, when you go to market for film, you are keenly aware of how saturated it is. There is too much to read and not enough time to read it and you must trust that you and the writer did a good enough job during the development phase and that this idea – an idea you placed a bet on more than a year ago – is still as relevant and fresh today as it was when you first took it on. 

What makes a book adaptable to these media?

Not all books are created equal in the way they lend themselves to adaptation. In my experience, only the most cinematic, timely, or high concept books make the cut. Contemporary writers like Blake Crouch, S.A. Cosby, Adrian McKinty, Gillian Flynn, Ernest Cline, Zakiya Dalila and so many others come to mind. I think what they all have in common, that is to say – the reason they land seven figure book and film deals – is because their work is cinematic, timely, and broadly accessible. No matter how big or intricate the premise or worldbuilding of the book may be, there is always an intimate and relatable human story at its center. 

Unfortunately, a lot of great screenplays are often overlooked unless they are a bankable four-quadrant movie, based on underlying IP, or both.  This is the catch 22 of the film industry that writers, producers and their reps know all too well. How do you get a great story told when the business is inherently risk averse? How do you cut through the algorithmic noise to convince studio execs – many of whom place an overemphasis on brand awareness and market research – to take a chance on an original script that doesn’t have either?  The answer, I believe, is to develop a great book with the end goal of adapting it for screen.

Screenplay structure’s emphasis on tightly-plotted narrative, compelling character arcs, and visual storytelling translates extremely well to commercial publishing and to film and TV execs who want to read a book and not have to squint to see the adaptation. Buyers increasingly want a ‘sure thing’ but everyone knows that’s impossible. The next best thing, however, is a published book with real sales figures, a built-in fanbase and a fully fleshed out marketing strategy. 

The idea that another company (in this case, a publisher) will split the burden and resources of building awareness for a story is an immensely attractive proposition for Hollywood buyers and one that gives established IP the advantage over spec scripts in the marketplace. In fact, buyers have gotten so comfortable operating in this space that many book-to-film deals are now completed before the ink on the publishing contract is even dry.

How do your authors typically interact with screenwriters?

Each project is different and can vary widely depending on the nature of the story and the producers and writers involved. The overall environment for authors in book-to-film deals have significantly improved and producers increasingly view authors as assets in the creative process.

One of my clients’, whose novel is being pursued by multiple film/TV producers, has been actively encouraged to take part in the writers’ room for this very reason. The story, an upmarket thriller in the vein of Miss Congeniality, takes places in the world of bodybuilding and is a sport she competed in for years. In a preliminary zoom call with a producer, he was so impressed with her wealth of knowledge and personal anecdotes on the subject that it would have been difficult to justify not including her in the adaptation. 

So, while it’s safe to say that writers these days have more agency and opportunity in the adaptation of their own work than ever before, this isn’t always the case. It seems the chances an author has of staying on a project is related to their storytelling chops or the expertise they bring to the table. With the proliferation of the number of films and shows being produced each year – and for increasingly inclusive and specified audiences – producers must assemble creative teams that guarantee the success of these productions and speak to the lived experience of these communities. It’s not enough to simply put talented writers in a room or on an adaptation if they don’t understand the world they are writing about. That is why an author’s lived experience is an invaluable tool for them as they navigate Hollywood, collaborate with screenwriters and help prove their value beyond the original work. The belief in an author’s inherent value to the adaptation is a core component of our ethos at INKWORKS and is a cause we are committed to fighting for on behalf of our clients.

As for me personally, I am one of the few people – besides the author – who is fortunate enough to have been involved in the project from the very early stages. By the time we go to market, if I have done my job correctly, I will have shepherded the manuscript through multiple development drafts  and secured a publishing and film sale. In this way, my contribution to the successful development, sale and marketing of my client’s work – in addition to my knowledge of the inner workings of the film business – enables me to be of value beyond the publishing phase as I continue to work on the project as a producer.

What are the key differences between shopping books and film and TV scripts?
 
My company is primarily focused on book-to-film so we rarely shop screenplays. From my experience, working in the Motion Picture Literary department at ICM, the process of selling is more or less the same. The agent ‘goes out on submission’ which is a fancy way of saying we call and email our industry connections in order to gauge what they are buying and if anything on our list makes sense for their company. From there, we send out a copy of the book for their review and hope they see it the same way we do. The entire process is a game of hurry up and wait.

The one advantage I do have in selling a book is that I will often have cover art, press, and reviews to include in my submission. Bestseller lists and positive reviews on websites like Goodreads and Amazon are also effective sales tools and invaluable to pitching the film or TV potential of a piece of IP  To me, there is no better compliment than hearing a book ‘reads like a movie’. 

Are book and film/TV rights sold to the same buyers?

IP is IP. Most of the executives I speak with don’t have specific mandates in terms of needing to buy books, screenplays, news articles or IP based on videogames. A great story is effective regardless of the medium it is told in and the buyers for these stories are more or less the same.

While certain companies may prefer the traditional book-to-film pipeline or have specific mandates in terms of genre, executives are becoming increasingly creative with how they source I.P. for their development slates. Ultimately, if a story is unique and there is a path forward for the adaptation, there will always be a buyer willing to take a chance on adapting it into a film or tv show. To illustrate that point, there was even a Seth Green show based on an NFT that was in development before the underlying I.P. was stolen in a hack. It’s a sad bit of irony considering the show can no longer go forward but something tells me that we have not seen the last of NFT’s and other forms of non-traditional media being sourced for film and TV. Great stories are everywhere, you just have to be willing to turn over every rock to find them. 

Do you or the book authors typically get involved in the adaptation process?

Each project is different and can vary widely depending on the nature of the story and the producers and writers involved. The overall environment for authors in book-to-film deals have significantly improved and producers increasingly view authors as assets in the creative process. It seems the chances an author has of staying on a project is related to their story telling chops or the expertise they bring to the table. That is why an author’s lived experience is an invaluable tool for them as they navigate Hollywood, collaborate with screenwriters, and help prove their value beyond the original work.