Is selling/publishing a book easier than a screenplay? Which do you think is better: writing books or screenplays? What are some good and bad things about both of these two writing industries?
Screenwriting : How is book writing compared to screenwriting? by Victor Titimas
How is book writing compared to screenwriting?
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My partner, in addition to screenwriting, writes prose. It's his first love. He had his first short story collection published this year with a smaller, exclusive publishing house and it's doing well.
The literary world is much easier to get a foothold in and has a lot less bullshit than the filmmaking industry. There is a lot more support and less competition between writers. When we go to readings or other events, it's a fricking love-fest between writers, editors and publishing houses.
If you prefer writing a novel, do it. Such an easier road and a better chance of getting your work out there. You can even self publish, which a lot of people do these days.
My guy has suggested several times that I consider writing a novel. I just don't have the patience for it. Screenwriting, for better or worse, is my thing.
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To me, writing a novel is tougher than writing a screenplay. A novel's page count is truly terrifying.
It is very easy to writer and self publish an e-book, only costs you time. Selling a book made be a little easier because printing books is slightly cheaper than making a movie. But book stores are closing. The big question is creating saleable content.
It may be easier to get books published these days, but selling them is the hard part. There's marketing and getting distribution, advertising, etc. I wrote several stories and have published one and having the second book edited. Books are full of "head" stuff. Turning them into scripts is all visual-no head stuff. It's a different mind set, but I think it's easier to write the book first, then go with the script adaptation because you know your characters better.
There are about 250,000 books published every year. There are about 250 scripts/pitches bought (domestically) every year. so, yes, publishing a book is literally a Thousand times easier than selling a script.
I'm self-published. Is it easy? Yes. In today's day and age, you literally just have write your book and upload it. It's that easy.
Is it easy to sell tons of books? On Amazon even? No. Super hard. Whoever tells you that it's easy are the same liars who sell books on how to sell books. And they WILL go all out to make sure you pay for their bullshit.