Books are having a moment on screen, and Amanda has thoughts — including that Greta Gerwig is going to direct her novel someday. Greta doesn't know this yet.

Hollywood has spent years refusing to greenlight anything without existing IP, which sounds like bad news until you realize that existing IP is exactly what a published book is. This episode is about why that matters for writers right now, and what it actually looks like when a book becomes a film.

In this episode:

• The Yesteryear deal: four studios bidding, 15 publishers competing, Anne Hathaway attached — and why that kind of buzz starts with the book
• What the self-described Book Whisperer of Hollywood says changed after Harry Potter and Twilight, including her advice to screenwriters to write the book first
• How options work, why most of them never become movies, and why that's not necessarily the tragedy it sounds like
• What you're actually giving up when you sign those rights over, and why having a good agent in the room matters more than people think
• Why the size of your fictional world determines whether it's a film or a TV series
• What Claire Cook said about showing up on the Must Love Dogs set to cheer, not to give notes — and why letting go of the book is part of the deal

The thing she keeps coming back to: AI can't write from the depths you can. Hollywood needs original stories. So does everyone else.

Perfect for: fiction writers who've pictured their book on a screen and wanted to know how that actually happens.

Find Amanda: @amandapolick | amandapolick.com