Frequently Asked Questions

Turning a book into a screenplay or TV show requires a lot of time regarding decision making skills and writing skill required by the hired TV or Film writer.  Many of today's self-published or published books can pretty much do what ever they want and do not have any time constraints and strict structures to follow, which is the opposite of Film and TV writing.  What happens in one's mind is free, whereas what happens on the screen costs millions, so every second counts. The cost  to hire a writer to turn a book into a TV show or Film is also costly because they would have to take all that's written in the book and condense it while also applying all the rules of TV and film writing to the story. A book can happen over a few years or go on for decades where as an entire story for a movie or TV show can only be either 120 pages or 60 pages long.  Those pages also only consist of action and dialogue and can only be about 4-6 pages long. This is not even to mention the plot driven singular story line that is required, the main character arcs, the theme and the genre requirements as well . So as you can see, many things would have to change to get a book to work as a story that can be told on the screen in order to make them cost effective, and easily marketed to general audience. 

The project is yours once it is completely which means you will have to be completely responsible for the marketing of your own completed project . NOTE: Suzanne does not market any scripts for any of her clients. Suzanne is only the hired writer in exchange for a fee and does not provide any help other than with the writing and development process,  Once the project is completed the client will then register the script or TV bible with the Writer's Guild of America in their own name and also register it with US Copywriter Office in Washington DC.  The next step would be to get it reviewed by industry professionals to make sure it is ready to be read by industry producers and readers. There are many websites and different ways to market a new project so you would have to do some research on-line in order to educate yourself about this marketing process works as well as determine which marketing tools will work best for your specific type of story.idea and or script. Many producers are now on-line looking for new projects but will only read scripts that have good reviews or won contests.  This is because too many writers do not have the stories, talent or skill to write professional project, yet want to be part of the TV and Film world.  So only the projects that get good reviews or win contests tend to get their attention.  The other option is to post your project on websites that help promote new scripts, but again, you will have to do your on-line homework to figure out which strategies and websites can help you with your particularly marketing needs. 

Suzanne only accepts projects that have a  strong message and/or entertainment purpose.  Ask yourself, what does the audience learn or come away with after watching my movie or TV show?  Do they learn anything about this world, these characters or this story?  Or does it have a strong negative and dark content with no real meaning or purpose after you spend time watching it?  These are typically considered exploration films or projects, such as horror, porn, torture, excessive sex or violence and other sensational elements with no real  purpose or message behind it, other than to shock or disturb the audience. These are typically the kind of stories and projects that Suzanne does not accept or work on.   

True stories like books very hard to tell as movies or TV Series.  Unlike books, TV and film scripts have extremely strict writing rules which never fit into life or true stories.  This is because life is messy, makes no real sense (genre) and goes on for decades, where as TV shows and movies has to have a complete story told within an hour or two -- in FILM time. This is why very few personal stories get made as films or TV shows and tend to be only focused on famous people who already have some audience interest behind their lives.  You will see these stories always say BASED ON A TRUE STORY rather than just like the real true story.  This is again, because most of the story has to be thrown out or reworked entirely in order to fit into a TV or film script.  Most all of these rules have to do with the massive cost it take to make a film and TV series which costs millions of dollars to make as well as requires a specific genre in order to market it to a specific audience.   True stories rarely meet these kinds of requirements which means that much of the story gets lost or cut to the bone in order to make it work for a Film or TV audience.. 

All sci-fiction, super-natural or period scripts require research to get these type of stories done.  Depending on the work you are creating, added thinking and logic would have to be worked out to make these stories believable on the page.  As a writer, I do not provide research for any projects I work on, so all research would have to be provided to me by the client.  This research would have to be gathered and condensed before emailing it to me to review before the project is accepted.  Depending on how complicated the story is, the writer has to then determine how much of this research material would be required to execute that final writing of the first script.  There would also be an additional fee paid to  review and digest all the material to determine how of the material should be used and what should be eliminated.  Again, all this takes time and is not something that I provide in my current fees.  Any such unusual stories or projects will have added costs and concerns before being accepted. .