What Kind of Book Translates Well to the Screen? | Jane Friedman

Compared to scripts, books might have a better chance of becoming a recommended project. Annie Nybo, a reader for Netflix, sifts through more than 200 potential projects in a year for the streaming service. Her job requires her to read a book or script, write a three-page summary or synopsis as well as a one-page analysis, and rate the project on five criteria. Those criteria include premise, structure (hitting the plot beats), story line (how that plot is working), character, and dialogue. Even for books, Nybo is able to rate dialogue based on how the characters speak and if they sound unique (versus everyone kind of sounding alike).

Last year, Nybo read 215 scripts and books combined and recommended eight of them. That's about a 4% acceptance rate for projects coming to her. As far as books specifically, she read 22 and recommended four. That's a 14% acceptance rate and half of what she recommended. (Stand proud, authors, agents, and publishers!)