Publishers Want Higher Billing in Book-Film Deals

Galled by decades of this kind of equation, New York publishing houses have launched ventures intended to get a bigger piece of the Hollywood action. And who could blame them? Publishers almost never control the film rights to the books they put on the market.

"There is such a thing as film envy in many parts of the publishing community," said Sara Nelson, editor of Publishers Weekly. "Movies based on books can make a lot more money than books, and people in publishing have watched for years as film companies make profits on novels they've developed. They want a bigger role."

In the boldest of the new ventures, Random House, the nation's largest publisher, has formed a partnership with Focus Features, maker of such literary-based hits as "Brokeback Mountain," "The Constant Gardener" and "The Pianist." The publisher will not only open its vast holdings to the filmmaker, but it will also put up half the money for the movies that result, on projects costing up to $20 million. It marks the first time a major U.S. publisher has gambled on such a scale in Hollywood.

At HarperCollins, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., publishers recently announced a plan to transform books into television series through an aggressive in-house partnership with Fox TV Studios. Elsewhere, Penguin Group (USA) is allying itself with Walden Media to develop movies and television properties based on its books. Simon & Schuster, part of the corporate universe that includes CBS and Paramount, continues to pursue a host of book-to-movie projects, as does Hyperion, which is part of the conglomerate that includes Disney films and ABC.

"We're seeing a lot of new ventures because now, more than ever, content is king when it comes to movies and TV, and nobody has more content than the book world," said Samuel Craig, director of the entertainment, media and technology program at New York University's business school. With the book business flat for years, "the challenge for publishers is to find new ways to exploit material they already have, to tap into an entirely new source of revenue beyond book sales," Craig said.