Maven Mapper's

I read an interesting article about a week ago in Forbes that I wanted to explore in more detail.  Jonnathan Lethem an author and would be movie writer, has been hoping to break his novels into Hollywood movies.

He has attained a modest level of success as a writer, but none of his movies have made it successfully into a movie yet.  He had one book optioned off, but it never made it to the big screen. 

So he is taking a new approach.  He is encouraging writers to steal is books and rewrite them for a movie.  He is looking for acknowledgment in return.

Books that are made into movies often times pay big dividends to the authors after the fact.  Its not the money they receive for the book up front from the movie studios, but the increase in sales of the original book after the movie comes out.

Movies like Forest Gump pushed sales of the book Forest Gump and its sequel into the stratosphere for Winston Groom.  The movie of course was very very different than the books.  The movie was like a Brady Bunch rendition of Jackass the Movie.  However, it sold lots of books for Winston Groom and put a great book into much wider circulation.

This model has legs in my opinion not just for authors but for other artists as well from clothing designers to musicians.  Movies are a way to market a product globally and if your product is a Coke, or a song, or a new fashion dress or even the story behind the movie, a Movie can push the envelope on your potential new market.