Let me make sure my hatpin is good and sharp, because it'll pop the bubble with as little pain as possible.
I'm going to assume you are aware that while there are large overlaps, the skill sets of writing a good screenplay and writing a good novel are separate. You'll probably be great at dialogue and might be weak in other areas like internal monologue, description of settings, or backstory.
The novel will need substantially more content if it's to reach minimal word count. Literary agent Jennifer Laughran, who represents only juvenile fiction, says realistic YA should run 35,000-75,000 words, with the ideal length 45,000-70,000 words. Fantasy YA should run longer. The entire content of most screenplays can be well covered by 20,000 words.
But let's say you're a talented writer and turn your script into an excellent read, because we don't know that you can't and we want to believe you will. Here is where the hat pin is necessary.
Self-publishing to good reviews is harder than you might think. Your friends, family, and online pals and acquaintances will account for under 50 sales, probably. Their five-star reviews, most soon after release, and too many from people who have no other book reviews, will be suspect by the book-buying public. The strangers you want to sell to have expectations of professionalism that lots of self-published books don't have.
You will need to spend money on a cover artist who's not only good but knows the genre's standards and styles, and on two rounds of edits, one for content, one for writing quality plus errors. (This can take the place of a publisher's three rounds of edits if they're both really good.) The art can be as little as a few hundred bucks, but quality edits by someone who knows what they're doing could run you four figures. Each. And if you go this route, please, please vet the editors. There's an appallingly large number of people calling themselves editors who don't know jack.
Okay, so your well edited book with fine cover art is out there. You have some good reviews. What gets publishers' attentions are not great reviews of a book that would make a fine movie, but great sales, at least the high four figures or more likely well into the five. While there are self-published novels that sell that well, it's extremely rare. And the number of such books where a legitimate publisher has approached the author is smaller still.
What's more common is the author doesn't know how to promote, or finds promotional doors closed because the book is self-published. He gets some good reviews from strangers and sales in the low hundreds if he's lucky. No production companies or publishers approach. Eventually he decides to approach publishers who can get print books into stores, with sales expectations in the thousands--but finds that self-publishing has shot himself in the foot. First publication rights are gone, and unless it's a hot property--which it isn't--they don't want to buy something that sold poorly already.
I'm sorry to be such a downer, but it's better to undertake this with your eyes open, right?
SPEED
Don't mistake my silence for weakness. Nobody plans murders out loud.
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