3. Contracts, Production, Promotion

It's great if you can make overseas sales, and spectacular if you can make a movie sale. Not likley, but spectacular!

A contract normally gives a publishing house 1 to 2 years after publication to secure an overseas sale. The money from overseas sales isn't always big money, but it mounts up - and hey, you didn't have to do anything to earn it. Plus overseas sales raise your prestige and that rebounds on sales at home.

Movie sales are fantastic, if they happen. I’ve never heard of any regular routes for making them happen. Who knows why producers or directors or name actors become interested in a particular book as a movie prospect? I have a film director interested in making a movie version of Worldshaker—which happened by sheer fluke and personal contact. I suspect that’s the way it usually happens.