IP Picks🔎: A Year-End Look at the State of the Industry
➕ Some of my personal favorites that are still on the block
Welcome to The Optionist, where we’re saying “see ya later” to 2024 and offering a hearty “how ya doin’?” to 2025. With the year about to cross the finish line, I reached out to a sampling of agents and managers who represent authors and journalists to find out how their year went, what worked in the market for them (and what didn't), how the election might shape the market in the near term and more.
Before we get to what I learned, a preview of this week’s picks, which revisit some personal favorites from the past 12 months that are still available to be optioned.
The full lineup:
A mystery/thriller set at a posh resort in the Himalayas
A magical-realist drama about a woman who is immortal as long as she keeps moving
A drama about a man who travels back to the 1860s, plays with the first professional baseball team, meets Mark Twain and steal a fortune in gold
A sci-fi noir mystery centered on a PI who uses a team of dead souls to solve crimes
A real-life business drama about a spicy feud between two former friends — a Vietnamese entrepreneur and his white supplier — that nearly destroyed the successful business they built together
A rom-com about a recent South Asian immigrant who stages a Bollywood musical in his NJ hometown to win over the girl of his dreams
The State of the Industry
Let’s begin with things that worked . . .