The “book-to-movie bounce”: why visualizing a story brings success

Once the book is visualized, a whole new world opens before the author, e.g. when the movie based on a book is out, hardcover sales rise dramatically. There’s even a special term for this called a “book-to-movie bounce.” However, not only movies, but also computer games and some other crafted types of visualization can bring additional profit to an author and increase his or her popularity. Here’s to the benefits of visualizing!  

From “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “The Hunger Games” to Sherlock Holmes’ detective stories and Dickens’ novels, the book-to-movie bounce is undeniable. It’s hard to tell when the term appeared, but now it is surely fixed in sales parlance. In the article, we gathered the strongest examples of how the release of a film based on a book has resulted in increased sales for the literary project.

+738% increase in book sales  

Probably the biggest and the most recent book-to-movie boost was “Fifty Shades of Grey’s” skyrocketing success. In 2015, it whipped up a sales increase of 738% (!) in the week prior to screen openings compared to three months prior. And this is only by official estimates.

In 2014, the lists of best-selling books and top-grossing movies looked awfully similar: “The Fault in Our Stars,” Veronica Roth's “Divergent” trilogy, and the next book in the “Diary of Wimpy Kid” series — all of these novels saw rise in sales due to the screen adaptation.

In 2010, book sales for “Eat, Pray, Love” enjoyed a bump in anticipation of the release of the film. 94,000 units were sold just in one week, which is the same amount sold for the entire 2006 year.  

TV series help boost book sales. In 2012, Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” trilogy managed over 2 million in sales. George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” also boasted high profits before people fell in love with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen when HBO’s “Game of Thrones” premiered in April 2011.

Not only modern novels, but also immortal classics have the “book to bounce effect.”

In 2012, Dickens’ book sales were boosted by television adaptations. In the run-up to BBC One's new version of “Great Expectations,” weekly sales of Dickens' back catalogue rose more than twice.

The sales of Sherlock Holmes’ books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have also experienced an upturn due to the BBC drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch. For much of 2011, less than 2,000 copies sold each week, which had doubled by the first week of January after the beginning of the second series.

Not only movies?

Computer games based on books also contribute greatly to the rise of sales. The most notorious example is Witcher — an action role-playing game based on the novel series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Naturally, after the game was released, interest in the book rose, despite the writer’s claim that the games have spoiled book sales. 

In 2015, another game - Beast Quest - based on the children's adventure book series prompted the first book in the series to leap ahead 50,000 places in the Amazon book charts.

Next, there was a Metro novel, which gained worldwide fame after the release of the Metro 2033 game. Dmitry Glukhowski, the author of the thrilling story, cheerfully praised the game for the increase in his book sales.

So, visualizing a story definitely brings success. Apparently, we live in a visual culture where content relating to seeing is visual. Data creators rely on this trend greatly. Maybe it's time for the publishing industry to do the same?

Cine-books: a brand-new big opportunity

Nowadays, there’s one more way for authors to get their books visualized. The greatest stories can be published in a cinematic way via the brand new cine-book format!

You won’t need to spend years waiting and searching for the movie adaptation rights to be sold.

CINE-BOOKS offers you a chance to take a step towards your book-to-film adaptation. Create a cine-book and build your brand among film production studios, investors, and producers!

We have opened registration for contemporary fiction writers on our new book-to-film platform. This provides the possibility to create a cine-book by gaining the support of book fans’ through voting. As a result, an author can get the investment for production and a publishing deal.

One could also run a voting campaign, promoting his or her best fiction titles to potential filmmakers and producers.

An applicant receives the opportunity to publish his/her work in the unique digital format—cine-book, that allows you to READ, LISTEN, or even WATCH the story with cinematic illustrations and special effects.

Be among the first authors to visualize their best stories, bring your readers an entirely new reading experience, and expand your audience by sharing your visualized books with visually-perceiving people.

Explore CINE-BOOKS and its great possibilities! Get registered now!

P. S. If you have any questions, contact CINE-BOOKS Publishing via publishing@cine-books.com.

Thanks to cine-books, we can embrace the visual world we live in!