From Development Executive to Author

How the Film Business Influenced Gitty Daneshvari’s Books

Sep 20, 2009

Gitty Daneshvari, author of The Makedown and School of Fear, describes how jobs at an entertainment agency and Contrafilm helped her writing.

For many writers, early jobs seem to have little to do with their later careers. Roald Dahl was a Royal Air Force pilot before Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Lewis Carroll worked as a mathematician before Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Even so, when authors look back, they often find these jobs did influence and help their writing careers. Such is the case with Gitty Daneshvari, a former entertainment agency assistant and development executive, who has written two books, The Makedown, a dark romantic comedy for adults, and School of Fear, a wacky YA novel that Warner Brothers optioned film rights to before the book was even completed.

Daneshvari spoke with Suite 101 via a September 15, 2009 phone interview where she reflected on how her work in film helped her writing career. The following is an edited version of the interview.

S101: You worked as an assistant at Creative Artists Agency, an LA entertainment agency, and Director of Development at Contrafilm before you became an author. Did these experiences help your writing?

GD: I think working in film helped me in the sense that I read a ton of material and I saw what sold and what didn’t and what the marketplace was like. When I was writing, I definitely had it in the back of my head that, “Maybe this could translate to another platform, be it TV or film.”

But at the end of the day, you don’t know. It certainly isn’t a science – every time you think, “Oh this is definitely going to sell,” it doesn’t sell and some things you think will never sell do!

GD: The Makedown started as a short story. At that point I was working as Director of Development for [Contra Films] and felt there was an idea in there that could translate to film.

I showed it to a friend of mine who also was in the film business and he helped me turn it into a book proposal. And he knew some people in publishing so he sent it – and it was a really small book deal, but I said, “Great, I’ll take it!”

I left the company three months later, and wrote the first draft of The Makedown, and thank heavens I had a good editor at Grand Central because I’d never written a book before, so she sort of helped me make this into a coherent piece!

S101: Your second book, School of Fear, had its film rights optioned while it was still a book proposal. How did this happen?

GD: It started by accident actually. I had sent [the School of Fear book proposal] to a couple people – obviously I knew a lot of people since I worked in the film business – to ask what they thought of it. I didn’t even have a proper publishing agent. And it was just one of those ridiculous stories where it got out there and I thought, “Oh my gosh, is this not going to sell?” Because once your work goes out there and doesn’t sell, it makes it that much harder to sell it in the future.

And it started – early in the week I knew that there was an offer coming in but it was so low, I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is not even going to be worth it.” But then it started to take a life of its own and obliviously there were passes in there as well. But I was thrilled that Warner Brothers ultimately bought it because it’s the studio behind Harry Potter and I couldn’t think of anyone better for my series.

The next week I came to New York and met with book agents and signed with Sarah Burnes of the Gernert Company. And right after that they sold the publishing rights – U.S. and North America to Little, Brown and then we sold [foreign rights] to eleven other countries. So it all happened pretty quickly after the film rights – but all this was off the book proposal. And a proposal, mind you, that wasn’t even ready to go out. So it was kind of miraculous that it all came together.

S101: Your film representative Shari Smiley works at Creative Artists Agency. Did working as an assistant at Creative Artists Agency help you gain representation and get your School of Fear book proposal looked at by Warner Brothers?

GD:I don’t know if it helped in terms of the sale, but it certainly helped me. A friend of mine who is now an agent at CAA had read The Makedown proposal after it sold and said, “I’d love to pass it on.” And that’s how Shari Smiley read it, and I ended up with her. So it did help me find representation at CAA, yes.

The copyright of the article From Development Executive to Author in Marketing/Selling Books is owned by Michael Jung. Permission to republish From Development Executive to Author in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.