TaleFlick is a searchable library of fiction that allows Hollywood producers to find your work. It’s perfect for authors with extra money in their budget… and a whole lot of patience.
In this post, we’ll review some of TaleFlick’s top features so you can decide whether it might be worth the cost to help your work get discovered.
What Is TaleFlick?
TaleFlick’s mission is to assist talented and creative authors in getting their books off the page and onto the big screen.
The platform is designed to empower authors from all walks of the industry—self-published, agency represented, traditionally published—by curating and delivering book recommendations to film and television directors, producers, and adaptation screenwriters. Since its launch in 2018, TaleFlick has already helped to option dozens of books.
So, is it worth the yearly fee? We think maybe, but only if you have extra money in your marketing budget that you may never see again.
How Much Does TaleFlick Cost?
There are three annual plans provided by TaleFlick:
Basic ($99/year): Submit one book to be listed in the digital library, obtain a dedicated book profile, participate in exclusive contests, and write your own pitch to producers (that they may or may never see).
–Ideal for new authors who want to increase short-term visibility of their book, or for authors with a limited marketing budget.
Standard ($199/year): Get everything in the basic plan, higher visibility with your title featured as a TaleFlick Pick and/or Top Pick, and receive a full-on review of your work by professional adaptation screenwriters.
–Ideal for authors enjoying moderate success with readers and/or industry awards and publications. This plan helps your well-received book obtain much higher visibility among producers and screenwriters.
Premium ($499/year): Get everything in the basic and standard plans, have a pitch page written by professional screenwriters, and actively send the story to producers.
-Ideal for authors with a strong marketing budget and whose primary focus is getting their work adapted into a screenplay. A pitch page helps producers and screenwriters actively visualize the story on the big screen.
Additional Services
In addition to (or instead of) purchasing a yearly plan, you can also pay TaleFlick to turn your book or short story into a treatment ($399), lookbook ($499), both ($799), or an actual script (custom pricing per project; written by a professional screenwriter).
What Do Authors Think?
Opinions about using TaleFlick are generally positive among authors. Amie Ryan, author of Starfish on Thursday, registered her book with TaleFlick and found some success.
“My book was optioned by Fortitude in 2018,” she said. “But after the initial 12 month contract they opted not to renew the option. I gained a lot of new contacts in the film business, and am now working on a TV pilot!”
Jayson Sutcliffe, author of Rolaboi, won the TaleFlick Discovery competition and his book was optioned by Fortune Films. “I had also written a pilot as another project that was optioned by the same company. When I won the Discovery competition, they learnt of my pilot script as well, and both were optioned as a package!”
Industry Apprehension
While TaleFlick is indeed a very unique platform that acts as a conduit between hopeful authors and Hollywood, there has been a little apprehension from some in the publishing industry.
“[TaleFlick] has real people behind it, with real credentials,” said Writer Beware co-founder Victoria Strauss in a Forbes interview. “However… based on what I see at TaleFlick’s website, most of the properties that have been picked up so far appear to have gone to the production company owned by TaleFlick’s founder, Uri Singer. So as yet, there’s not really much proof of concept.”
TaleFlick says it all on their FAQ page: “The content that producers and studios look for is constantly changing, therefore we cannot predict when and if your story will be chosen – but it will be available in our library for the duration of your subscription, and Premium stories will be sent directly to producers.”
Final Score: 3.5/5
TaleFlick is a very unique way for authors to reach the seemingly unreachable Hollywood elite. That said, with the abundance of submissions already available on the TaleFlick platform, there is a strong chance your story won’t receive very much visibility unless, of course, you pay for the Premium plan.
If you’re willing to pay the annual fee, we say, “Well, what have you got to lose?”
Have you tried TaleFlick or any similar platforms to help your work get discovered? Share your experience in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- How to Turn Your Book into a Screenplay
- How to Submit a Screenplay: 3 Methods That Work
- List of Screenwriting Contests (Updated for 2021)
- How to Write a Script: Tips for Bringing Your Writing to Life
Nicholas Holloway is an award-winning mystery thriller author based in Austin. Born and raised just outside Palm Springs, CA, Nick earned his masters degree from the MFA Screenwriting Program at California State University Fullerton. An avid traveler and nature enthusiast, Nick has previously lived in New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. He garners a love of dynamic landscapes and also believes a story’s terrain is just as important as its characters.
I would stay away from them. I intially paid premium ($99 to renew) to have my book up on there website, and a year later when I went to edit it, it no longer appears under ‘my books’. When I searched for it on their site, it was there with a Taleflick Pick badge, but when I pressed the edit button, it took me to ads. Where is my book? What am I renewing and paying for? A fake page? I’ve contacted them for the third time and if they still don’t answer, I will cancel my subscription before it renews next week.
Steven, I have been having the same problem for 6 months now. After having a book with them for 5 years, I submitted a short story in Dec 2022. Paid $199 & I never received a review, it doesn’t show on their site and my numerous emails to them either do not address my questions or I receive no reply. Like everyone, I put a lot of time & money into my writing. I realize the competition is great & that timing is important, but I never expected to have customer service issues. All of us will not get our work published, but all of us deserve to be treated with respect. I’m trying to decide what to do now.
I signed up with Taleflick back in March of 2019. I paid for their basic subscription plan since I could not afford the premium plan.
Although my book was put into their marketplace it never got any attention.
In fairness to Taleflick, they did not bill me further after 2021 and my book is still in their marketplace.
However, after almost 5 years of waiting with no results I have decided it was time to pull the plug on Taleflick and look somewhere else to publish my book.
The problem I am currently having is that after three emails requesting that my book be removed and my account closed they have not done what I requested. Their response to my first email, which was sent on June 15, 2023, was to go to the manage subscription page and cancel it. However, when I did that the page said it was already canceled as an inactive subscription and did not give me the option of deleting it. I also could find no way to close my account with them thru the website.
My book is still showing up in their marketplace even though it says it has been canceled on the manage subscription page.
I sent them two more emails about this and they have not responded. The last email I sent them was back on June 22, 2023.
I don’t like being ignored by a service provider when I have an issue with their service. I expect a response within a reasonable amount of time, which for me is 2 to 5 business days. It has been a lot longer than that since the last email.
Because of their poor response I gave them a poor review on Trust Pilot and filed a complaint with the BBB.
Since they have not responded to my complaint in a timely manner I am hoping that if I file enough bad reviews they will get off their butts and do what I have requested.
I am not asking for a refund. I knew there was a high probability that my book would not get noticed on their site. But when I request that it be removed I expect that my request be honored in a timely manner.
there are so many places out there to publish your books. I have had four published but all sit idol and I have had three different publishers now. one closed their doors, one took me for a long ride, only thing was I did get copies from them to sell and posters and book marks so I did get something for my money from them. You have to remember that they are all out to make money that we are providing to them!! with very little if any in return. without a real book agent to sell your books with out charging you until they do sell its impossible to move forward. Its has taken the wind out of my sales as far as completing the last two novels i’ve been working on sad to say. SO GOOD LUCK OUT THERE IN YOUR SEARCH!!
Great post! It was very helpful and informative. I knew about the three fees, but I didn’t know about the other options Tale-flick offered. I think this is a great platform but like anything eles it’s a chance you take when trying to get your work discovered.