The Next 'Gone Girl'? Meet the 6 NYC Book Scouts Most Likely to Find It - Hollywood Reporter

You likely will never hear a book scout thanked during an Oscar or Emmy speech. But these New York-based literary sleuths are on the front lines in a key creative battle: identifying and helping reel in the next big property that can be adapted for film and television. Few studios have in-house book scouts (20th Century Fox's Drew Reed and Sony's Ryan Doherty are notable exceptions), so most rely on a small clique of independent literary consultants whose job is to canvass the landscape and chase down books (as early as the proposal form), newspaper and magazine articles and now even blogs and Twitter feeds. With such literary franchises as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and the books that became the Game of Thrones TV series generating billions in revenues for Hollywood, it's no surprise that there's an increased focus on New York's publishing world. And considering that some of Hollywood's most profitable films of 2014 - Gone Girl ($368 million worldwide) and The Fault in Our Stars ($307 million worldwide) - started as must-read manuscripts, the book scouting business only has become more necessary.