KYD Podcast: Reels, Rights & Reviews

It’s a few weeks post film festival here in Melbourne so we at Kill Your Darlings assume you’re over your film fatigue and are fit for another foray into the form. Or at least into the ways writers interact with films (apart from writing them).

In this episode, we speak to writer Anthony Morris who reviews for SBS Online, Empire Magazine, The Big Issue and Forte Magazine among others. He’s also the co-author of The Hot Guy. Then, it’s on to literary agent and consultant Alex Adsett, who pitches and negotiates film rights for the authors she represents.

You can stream the podcast above, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or through your favourite podcasting app.

TRANSCRIPT

Meaghan Dew (KYD): Welcome back to the Kill Your Darlings podcast. I’m Meaghan Dew, and this is our film episode for the year, where we look at a few ways writers and screen insect. Later we’ll speak to Anthony Morris, on film reviewing. But first up we have agent and consultant Alex Adsett, talking about screen rights. 

Alex Adsett: So I am a literary agent and a publishing consultant. I work for myself, I’ve got my own business up in Queensland, and as an agent, it’s a lot of reading manuscripts, it’s a lot of looking for the amazing manuscript that just wants to rock your world, and then making sure that manuscript gets to the right publisher. As a publishing consultant, I help authors who don’t have an agent negotiate their contracts, so that’s sort of my area of expertise.

KYD: So when it comes to putting those manuscripts in the hands of publishers, how does that work when it comes to film rights?

AA: Yeah, absolutely. So film rights, it’s…a lot of it is luck, basically, selling film rights – A producer going on holiday, picking up a book, loving it, and decided to make a movie. But then more and more there are opportunities for publishers and agents, and sometimes authors directly, to pitch directly to film producers. Which is, you know, obviously the focus of this podcast, because we’ve just had the Melbourne International Film Festival and for the last 10 or 12 years, they’ve been running the amazing Books to MIFF books to film pitching opportunities. So I do pitching there, and so through doing that I’ve built up contacts with film producers, which is amazing. So when I get a new book that I know a producer might be looking for, I can send it straight to them, and then as a consultant actually I’m really lucky, because I freelance for authors to help them negotiate contracts, in those really just like lightning-striking opportunities where a producer really does love a manuscript, or a book when it’s published, I can help the author, or a small publisher negotiate those deals. So I do a lot more of the negotiating of contracts than many other agents or publishers would do, because that’s my area. That’s not necessarily the pitching side of things, but that’s the negotiating the deal side of things.

KYD: When it comes to that pitching side of things, or to that reading the book the first time and thinking ‘this is one that I should be putting forward’, at which point do you feel that something might have potential for you to pitch at something like the MIFF industry events, or to one of those film industry people that you now have contacts with?

AA: It really depends, so it depends on my relationship with the producer, and… or the