2008 Article Excerpt:

While Guide to Literary Agents is best known for its large and detailed list of literary agencies, every edition has plenty of informational articles and interviews designed to help writers perfect their craft and contact agents wisely. The 2008 edition is no different, with more than 80 pages of articles addressing numerous writing and publishing topics

"Agent Advice" is a series of quick interviews with literary and script agents who talk with Guide to Literary Agents about their thoughts on writing, publishing, and just about anything else.

This installment features agent Ken Sherman, founder of Ken Sherman & Associates in Beverly Hills. Sherman handles screenplays, books and life rights. GLA had the opportunity to talk with Ken for the 2008 Guide to Literary Agents. Part of the book's lengthy interview with Ken is posted here:

GLA: When a writer is composing his first screenplay, should he aim to write something perceived as trendy, marketable or salable? Or should he just write the best he can, even if the script will likely be unproducable?

KS: What I’m looking for, and what every producer, studio, network and agent I know is looking for, is a killer writing sample—meaning something that we can send out in one day to 30 producers and have them say, “This may not be exactly the story I’m looking for, but I need to know this writer.” And hopefully, each one of them will call me back and say, “We want the story. We want to option the material or purchase it outright.” But most important is that they want to know the writer and meet with the writer and talk about other projects because the writer has a unique voice.

GLA: In addition to working with television writers, screenwriters and book writers, you also deal with buying and selling life rights. How does that work?

KS: Here’s an example: I was sitting in my office one day and a TV/movie producer I know called me. He said, “I’ve spoken to a lady and the fireman who saved her life during the Oklahoma City bombing. Would you mind handling the life rights—the option and purchase price and contract for them?” I then negotiated for both (individuals). Their life rights were optioned and then the purchase price for the exclusive use of their stories for the TV movie Oklahoma City: A Survivor’s Story was exercised.

GLA: If a writer wishes to see his idea on the big screen, is it more practical to write a good book and get it optioned into a film, rather than try to sell an original screenplay?

KS: It depends in which form the author writes best. If the writer is a great screenwriter, I would hope they’d attack the story and characters as a screenplay, because, traditionally, screenplays take less time to write. I want to preface this by saying that there are no rules or answers to any of these questions. What I’m suggesting today are just a few ideas of a few ways things can happen for individuals—but everybody needs to find their own way in their own time. One prominent client wrote eight screenplays before things finally clicked.

GLA: Do you pay any attention to what studios are buying?

KS: I don’t worry too much about that. I prefer to try and find really first-rate material that stands on it own. And even though it may be a genre that’s a bit out of favor at the moment—maybe something that was hot three or five years ago for some reason—we can reignite interest with a solid screenplay or book. One thing I’ve noticed is that many executives in this business are very happy not to take a risk on anything. They’re very happy to go along with what other people say, which is why sometimes you can get an auction going with multiple bids on the same project. You say, “Well so-and-so just made an offer on it,” or “Such-and-such studio wants it.” And they think that if another studio wants it, it must be something good. Of course it is…

GLA: Kind of like the business phrase “Don’t sell the steak. Sell the sizzle”?

KS: Sometimes you can sell the sizzle, but more importantly, the material really has to stand on its own. Because don’t forget that even with a TV movie, a producer or writer is with the project for a good six months to a year, if not more. A producer needs the passion to stay with the project and to be able to sell it, because they’re constantly selling and reselling the material to new people who join the project.

GLA: Let’s say someone writes a great script. You read it and love it. Before you sign a contract, is it important that the writer has other screenplays waiting in the wings?

KS: That’s ideal. Again, as I’ve said before, I’m looking for that killer writing sample: a screenplay I can send to anybody anywhere anytime and have them sit up and say, “Wow, this is a serious and professional writer.” And more often than not, I won’t take on clients without knowing that there are three or four or five good pitches behind them if they’re to go into a meeting, and ideally another one or two screenplays that are polished and ready to be sent out.

Ken Sherman, a Los Angeles native and University of California-Berkeley psychology graduate, started his career in film and television as a reader for Columbia Pictures. After less than a year reading screenplays, he interviewed at the William Morris Agency and was accepted into a training program the next day. Thus began his foray into the world of agenting.

Sherman’s agency opened in 1989, and currently handles approximately 35 clients; he makes contact with most of his new writers through referrals, and he handles just about every topic you can think of in nonfiction, fiction and scripts.

Ken Sherman

While you're sitting at home, writing your soon-to-be-bestselling novel, you may find yourself daydreaming - envisioning your story on the big screen. But the unfortunate truth is that extremely few books ever make it through the Hollywood labyrinth to production.

At BookExpo America, I saw a panel of agents and film producers discuss why some books get made into movies but most don't. Participating panelists included Joel Gotler of IPG Literary Management, Brendan Deneen of the Weinstein Company, Luke Janklow of Janklow & Nesbit, and Legendary Pictures producer Alysia Cotter. Here are some tidbits from the session:

• "Packaging" is key. When a film studio options a book project and temporarily owns the book's film rights, they try to get a screenwriter attached to pen a script. With that script, they try to entice a big-name director and stars. When everyone is attached, they present the package to production companies and try to get it made.
• Having big names attached to a project can be a blessing and a curse. Stars make demands and want input, endangering a project.
• Everyone in Hollywood is a master of deferring responsibility.
• According to Janklow, a book must sell for studios to be interested. Deneen disagreed, saying studios often gobble up brand new work that hasn't had a chance to succeed or fail at the bookstores.
• It's a frontlist world, and there is a "prejudice" against older work that never got made.
• The odds of a book getting made into a film are very, very low - "200 to 1 on a good day," says Gotler.
• According to Janklow, only 5% of movies that get produced are based off good books in the marketplace.
• Hollywood does not look favorably upon authors adapting their own work for the screen - mostly because the author can't properly step away from the material and cut content (or "take a machete to it," as Janklow says).
• The key to a good package is a terrific screenplay based off the book. Everything starts with that.
• If a book is more about characters than the plot, it has a better chance of coming alive on TV rather than film.
• Many authors make great money but never see their books come to life on screen. Hollywood companies will continue to buy temporary rights to the book ("options"), paying $10,000-100,000 each time, but a production never occurs.

 Luke Janklow of Janklow & Nesbit, and Legendary Pictures producer Alysia Cotter.