The Wrap reports that studios are buying lots of books these days by first-time authors, though not all of them are necessarily newbies when it comes to writing. For instance, Paramount snapped up Hank Steinberg's yet-to-be-published novel OUT OF RANGE, the first in a tw0-book series. While Steinberg may be new to publishing, he's hardly new to Hollywood — he was the creator of the long-running CBS series WITHOUT A TRACE. Even so, it's interesting to see Hollywood chasing books at a time when everyone seems to be wondering what the future of publishing is going to look like.
Hopefully, it will mean we’ll be seeing new and fresh ideas at the theater (and books!). Amazon.com certainly changed the game with Kindle and is becoming the “iTunes” of ebooks. Could the studios be making a strategic move to lock-up content for electronic distribution?