Obtaining Literary Rights - Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan

I've begun my quest to obtain the literary rights to Book of Shadows by Cate Tiernan, the first in the "Sweep" series of young adult novels. Wikipedia article for "Sweep"

The publisher for the series is Penguin Group.

Today, I contacted them and was told that there is a way that Penguin themselves could determine the right holder for me instead of going through the author's agent. I was told to contact the Subsidiary Rights Department at 212-366-2000 for the Performing Rights. I was told they could also tell me the rights reserved for the book and could give me a contact for the rights holder. I plan on contacting them tomorrow and following up.

And through my research on the book and whether or not it had been optioned in the past, I came across 3 prominent fan sites that have a plethora of information that will be helpful in writing my adaptation.

Sweepmoon
Forever Sweep
Firefairy

From the first site, Sweepmoon, I found an email address posted for the author, Cate Tiernan- Cate.Tiernan@verizon.net. I'm planning on drafting an email about my interest in obtaining the rights to the series and email it to her. Hopefully the email is recent and is read often enough.

Great information on optioning literary material .

An article on clearing rights for film and television.

A really great article on the process of brining a book to screen which goes pretty in depth.

My next post will include updates on the contact information for the rights holder and case studies of similar books and research on obtaining rights.