NB: I’m writing this post for those of you with an interest in making films. Since I’ve no way to take aim at you individually, I’m using a scattershot approach. If you, Gentle Reader, have no personal interest in filmmaking, you might want to stop right now. Or you can read on, and who knows? You could find yourself forwarding this post to someone who might be interested…

Every couple of months, I hear from someone who’d like to adapt one of my short stories as a film. A film student, a novice filmmaker, a crazy kid with an iPhone and a dream—like, whatever. Something I wrote sometime within the past sixty years strikes a chord, and wouldn’t it make a dandy senior project? A possible entrant in film festivals? A tasteful yet compelling YouTube feature?

And is there any way I could be persuaded to allow you to bring your dream to life? Or, at least, to the screen?

Now I know a lot of my fellow writers get a fair number of emails like this. And I know that they’re most apt to respond in one of three ways:

1. They delete the email.
2. They forward the email to their agent, who does nothing at all  for three months and then says no in a reasonably polite manner.
3. They get a lawyer to tell the applicant to cease and desist or face unimaginable consequences.

Not I. I’ve written a lot of short fiction over a lot of years, and I’d prefer to make it as easy as possible for tomorrow’s filmmakers to get their start developing something of mine. Here, briefly, is what I’m able to do to accommodate them:

I’m more than happy  to convey the non-exclusive right to make a film of no more than an hour in length based on  a specific short story of mine. My fee is $500.

That’s it?

Pretty much. There are a couple of restrictions—e.g., if the film’s budget is over $20,000, the fee edges up incrementally. I also get a screen credit as Executive Producer, and a specified percentage of the film’s net receipts, if in fact there are any.

And not all of my stories are included. Those featuring series characters are not available, so that rules out any stories about Matthew Scudder, Bernie Rhodenbarr, Chip Harrison, Martin Ehrengraf, or Keller. A number of other works might be unavailable for one reason or another. (You can always inquire.)

Note that the rights on offer are non-exclusive. I think that ought to be in bold italic caps: NON-EXCLUSIVE. That means your film won’t necessarily be the only screen adaptation of a particular story.

And that’s really all I have to tell you for now. If there’s something of mine you’d like to adapt, just email me: lawbloc @ gmail.com  You already know the price, you’re acquainted with the terms, and I can explain and spell out the details as required.

You make it sounds unbelievably simple.

Good—because it is. The letter of agreement fills one side of one sheet of paper, and the paperwork gets wrapped up in no more than a couple of days. And it’s an equally smooth process wherever you live. I just licensed a story to a fellow in Uzbekistan. He paid me by PayPal, and so can you.

I’ll leave it at that. I’m not beating the bushes for sales, not at $500 a pop. I think young filmmakers should be encouraged, and I like the idea of having my work dramatized, and there you have it.

Don’t you want to let them know where to find the stories?

Good point, and maybe I’ll even manage to sell a couple of books this way. Here are my short story collections, all available in both printed and ebook form:

ONE NIGHT STANDS & LOST WEEKENDS. My earliest work, appearing originally in Manhunt, Trapped, Guilty, and other digest-sized crime fiction magazines of the late 1950s.

ENOUGH ROPE. An 80+ story skyscraper of a book. Three earlier collections were subsumed as part of this omnibus volume, so if you buy this there’s no need to bother with Sometimes They Bite, Like a Lamb to Slaughter, or Some Days You Get the Bear. As noted above, the stories with series characters are not available on these terms.

CATCH AND RELEASE. Stories written after the publication of Enough Rope. I’m surprised, now that I think about it, that no one has turned up looking to film the title story.

RESUME SPEED AND OTHER STORIES. The title novella, along with a few stories written after publication of Catch and Release, as well as a couple of very early stories that had somehow gotten lost over the years.

Cheers,