How the Black List Changed Hollywood, and Might Change Publishing Too

Nearly twenty years ago, Franklin Leonard started publishing his Black List which collected “an annual survey of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays.” The goal was to help undiscovered projects find funding and backers. More than 400 of the forgotten works on his list were eventually produced, including blockbusters like Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech. His efforts have had a dramatic effect in helping more diverse projects get made and The Black List even inspired a Harvard case study.

Now he is opening the platform to feature works of fiction as well. In the world of publishing, it has been notoriously difficult to get diverse projects discovered and funded. In addition to providing a platform where authors and writers and submit their work and an approved set of publishers can review them—the site is also launching the “The Unpublished Novel Award,” a $10,000 grant for authors of unpublished manuscripts in seven genres — children’s and young adult, mystery, horror, literary fiction, romance, science fiction and fantasy, and thriller and suspense.”

This is the sort of platform that I love to see and is different from anything else out there that might allow a more merit-based way for authors to get discovered by publishers without desperately trying to land a superstar literary agent first. It’s an idea worth sharing and talking about.