Welcome to the Wattpad Block Party - Winter Edition IV!
Round SEVEN of this popular event is coming your way the entire month of February 2018 and it's going to be epic! The invites have started to roll out and everyone from your all time favorite W...
Once I decided on a producer, everything was set and we could party. Right?
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Wrong.
Contract negotiations.
I was sent an initial contract and I'm like, um, do I just sign it? I don't really know about any of this. No agent, remember? And at that time, I couldn't afford a full time attorney to look at this mess.
Thankfully, I reached out to a few entertainment attorney's and one agreed to represent me and act as my agent for the film. He took over negotiations and five months later (yes, I said five months), we had a contract he'd allow me to sign. He explained every aspect to me and answered all my questions. I'm thankful I found such a great lawyer.
So now we can party...no.
Next comes the pitching and financing stage. This is where the producer goes out and drums up interest in the project and tries to find investors or studios who are wiling to look at the project.
There was a lot of initial interest, but at the time, a lot of people passed over it saying it didn't fit what they were producing at the time. This sound familiar to you authors out there? How many of us have had rejection letters from agents saying our book didn't fit their list? Same thing in the movie industry, folks.
After the initial option period of one year had almost expired, we got a lead. Something really big that could finance the whole project, so we extended the option for six months. That didn't pan out. Turns out they didn't' have such a good reputation and we walked away from it. Do your due diligence before you get in bed with a company people. That's all I'm saying.
As that option was about to run out, another niblet came along and we extended it again. For the next year and half, every single time we talked about just walking away, something would nibble a little interest.
During all of this, my nerves started to fray. So many times, I was so close to giving up on it, as was Rami. Not because we didn't believe in it, but because it was just freaking hard. Uncertain. My stomach would be in knots every time I knew it was with a potential investor. And then when they said no? I wanted to sit in the corner and cry with a pint of ice cream because it just felt like all those times agents told me no when I sent out an MS for them to read. It's not an easy thing, people. It's actually devastating to hear a studio or finance partner denied you. It feels like they're telling you your book is crap even though it's not the case.
Another producer came on board, Sharyn. She loved the series as much as Rami and I did. She went to bat for it. They even got it into Dreamworks. Their contact there loved it, but said the studio wasn't doing book to film adaptations at that time. She did encourage them to try back later in hopes the studio might take on those types of projects at a later time. Even though they had nothing but good things to say, I was still a little heartbroken.
I was about to give up. As was Rami. We'd even talked about just letting the option expires as he'd done everything he knew how to do and we just weren't getting the results we wanted.
