This recent article in NY Times magazine recounts the story of Sanjay Sanghoee, a hedge fund executive who published his first novel in 2005 and is now trying to make a movie version.
Hey, great for Mr. Sangohee; I wish him the best. But maybe he doesn't need my best wishes, since he has something like $5 million committed and Lara Flynn Boyle attached to the project. Well, heck, the book must have sold pretty darned well to generate that kind of interest.
Or so you would think. The reporter recounts this phone conversation between Sangohee and a potential investor:
A typical pitch occurred in a phone call on Nov. 3 with a principal at a private equity firm based in Connecticut. The firm, the principal said at the start of the call, was looking to invest $7 million in movies over the next six weeks.
Mr. Sanghoee began by talking about his book. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 75 percent of sales, “Merger” sold about 2,000 copies; Mr. Sanghoee puts the number closer to 20,000, explaining that many copies were sold through uncounted wholesalers.
“Movies and books sell each other very effectively in today’s marketplace,” Mr. Sanghoee started out, “which is where I think ‘Merger’ becomes even more sensible a project. We know this book is going to sell the movie.”
“Fantastic,” responded the potential investor, Alex, who agreed to let a reporter listen in on the condition that his last name not be used.
Um, 2,000 books according to BookScan, but he puts the "real" number at about 20,000? I'd guess the "real" number is likely somewhere south of 10k, and maybe even south of 5k, but let's just say he really did sell 20,000 books. What I love about Mr. Sangohee is his ability to channel his inner PT Barnum when he says, "We know this book is going to sell the movie," (which gets a response of "fantastic" from the potential investor).
Well, figure each copy of the book sells two movie tickets, which means, at $10 a ticket, the book generates $400,000 in revenue...for an investment of $1 million or more. (I doubt the investor was looking to sink his whole $7 million into one project.)
That's not to say Merger would fail as a movie at all; as I said before, I hope Mr. Sangohee gets all the money he needs, makes the movie, and goes on to great success.
But the facts behind this whole story had me choking on my Cheerios. If nothing else, it should be a tale comfort and encouragement for aspiring novelists: if the book tanks, maybe you can make a movie.
And maybe the movie will be better than the book.
Your blog about my movie
Hi TL,
I found your blog about my book/movie MERGER very amusing. My first question to you is have you read the book? My guess is you haven't which enables you to say something like 'maybe the movie will be better than the book'...
Secondly, it seems you don't really know about the book publishing process. MERGER was released with very little publicity and very little was done to help support it. This is the way most publishers work with new authors and is a bitter reality of the trade. Given all that, I have at least managed to raise the profile of the book to somewhat respectable levels through my PT Barnum act, so cut me some slack will you?
It's been a real uphill climb to get even blogs to pick up on the book (which is about corporate crime). The web community LOVES to trash corporate criminals and criticize runaway capitalism but won't read a book written about the subject??? Of course you're writing about it now because there may be a movie involved, otherwise you never bothered to pick up the book. See my point?
And given the utter trash that routinely finds its way to the bestseller lists now, including self-help nonsense and the latest pop-star memoirs, I would hope you would give me at least a little credit for writing a real book.
In either case, thanks for taking the time to comment on the Times article.
Best Regards
Sanjay
Sanjay - Thanks for dropping
Sanjay - Thanks for dropping by to comment. As I said before, I admire your PT Barnum-ness; more folks need to get out there and get after what they want.
No, I haven't read the book. But I wasn't really making any judgments about the quality of the book; my interest was in the book's sales, and your efforts to make it into a movie. To comment on that, I don't really need to have read it. So, I hope you didn't feel I was trashing the book at all.
I do know about the world of publishing, though, since it is my profession. You won't get any arguments from me about the majority of books published. I, like you, would be happy if 90% of the stuff on bestseller lists was never published in the first place.
Once again, best of luck with the book and the movie.
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TL Hines
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