09/07/2024
Repost from
•
For nearly 20 years, Franklin Leonard has made it his mission to help undiscovered writers find an audience. In 2005, he started the Black List — an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays. Since its launch, it has become an indispensable tool for studios and producers. More than 400 screenplays that landed on the Black List’s survey have been produced, including acclaimed films like “Spotlight,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech.”
Now, Leonard is tackling another industry: publishing. Aspiring novelists can now post manuscripts on the Black List, where they can potentially get discovered by the literary agents, editors and publishers who subscribe to the site. The goal, Leonard said, is to create a new avenue for authors whose work may have gone overlooked because they lack a literary agent or the right industry connections.
This lack of visibility, Leonard said, “has really negative consequences for the writers who are trying to get their work to somebody who can do something with it, but also for the publishing industry itself, because it’s not necessarily finding the best writers and the best books.”
Tap the link in our bio to learn more about Leonard and the Black List’s efforts to change publishing. 📸: .briella for The New York Times
