TaleFlick, an online platform that provides writers with a chance to showcase their work to producers and studios, is partnering with HarperCollins Publishers. The collaboration between the companies will allow the publisher to upload thousands of titles across an array of genres, and provide HarperCollins authors the opportunity to have their titles made more accessible to the film industry. The two companies have signed a multi-year contract, according to Uri Singer, a producer and founder of TaleFlick. The deal adds tens of thousands of titles to TaleFlick’s database.
TaleFlick, which launched in 2018, curates full-length fiction and non-fiction books, as well as unproduced screenplays into a searchable library for producers and development executives around the world. Authors pay $88 to upload their work. Singer said he was inspired to launch the platform because of his own experiences trying to get a movie made from “The King of Oil,” a non-fiction look at the fugitive billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich from author Daniel Ammann. None of the major studios were interested until John Krasinski and Matt Damon boarded the project because the book had not been on the bestseller list. Singer became convinced that studios were missing opportunities for compelling content by limiting themselves to a handful of titles.
“There are so many stories out there and studio scouts have 50 books a week to choose from,” Singer told Variety. “Unless you are Stephen King, it’s hard to get people to pay attention. Lots of great books go unread.”
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The platform is also using crowdsourcing to help shine a light on worthy stories. Last month, it launched TaleFlick Discovery, a new public voting platform, where fans weigh in on what books should become movies. In pilot phase, TaleFlick Discovery hosted 40 contestants, garnering over 18,000 votes from industry professionals and readers. The winner of the contest receives producer meetings and increased visibility for their book.
“Rolaboi,” the winner of the first TaleFlick Discovery contest, has already been optioned by Caspar von Winterfeldt’s Fortune Films. The book is the autobiography of Jayson Sutcliffe, a world roller skating champion who has to come to terms with his sexuality.
In a statement, Sutcliffe said, “TaleFlick has opened a door that I thought had been closed and will be the beginning to a career that I believed had ended. By winning the Discovery competition, it proves that anybody who couldn’t get their foot in the door in the past, has every shot at being the next big thing.”