One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is if and when one of my novels will be made into a movie. Like most authors, I shrug and reply, "God only knows."

I can say, with the publication of The Secret Cardinal, that I have earned my first credits as a screenwriting and executive producer for my involvement in the book trailer posted on the home pages of my web sites. Now, I have no plans to give up my day job and move to California to write screenplays and do lunch with industry movers and shakers. I did have a fascinating meeting with filmmaker George Lucas several years ago, but the subject was a non-fiction book and not bringing Nolan Kilkenny to the silver screen.

So, why haven't any of my novels been made into movies? Numbers.

Approximately a thousand new book titles are published every day, totaling over three hundred thousand new books on the market every year. Of these, roughly fifty thousand are novels, which are typically the kinds of books turned into movies.

The annual theatrical output for Hollywood runs under two hundred titles, and of those only a fraction are based on a novel by X. Only a handful of book titles are ever optioned by Hollywood, and even fewer of those are green lighted into production.

Only two of Clive Cussler's many amazing adventures have been made into movies, and at last count, Tom Clancy was up to four. Stephen King and Elmore Leonard have a decent book-to-movie ratio, though the quality of the transition has left much to be desired in many cases. J.K. Rowling will, in another few years, go seven-for-seven, when the last of her Harry Potter novels becomes another blockbuster, but she remains an amazing exception to the rule.

Writers know that getting published is a lot like winning the lottery. The odds on having your novel turned into a movie is akin to being struck by lighting while shooting a hole-in-one—not impossible, but a very rare feat.

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