They weren't about development. However, it is the ruthless search for original material that forces the smaller production companies to scour the book markets for the lost gem of a novel. There's so much competition for material. So for a small company to just happen upon a great script, it's easier to find a book that maybe fell through the cracks. Recently, a glimmer of hope has emerged for authors desperate to find a new and productive medium for their work.
Television has, once again, become a stage for the adapted novel.
Authors who might once have looked to film are now finding their work being bought up by TV executives. NBC recently paid a seven-figure sum for the next James Patterson novel, which will be screened to coincide with the book's release date in 2001. The great thing about TV is you can set it up much more quickly than in the world of features. The advantage of the miniseries, of course, is the additional screen time to fully explore the inherent complexities of a novel. American TV, it seems, is just beginning to catch on to this profitable medium.