Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
Thanks for the answers! I guess the more interesting part (for me) lies not in whole autobiographies, but more in individual events, where I've heard "so-und-so has already acquired the movie rights". I always wondered: but why?
And the answer seems to be: it's just easier that way
Write a manuscript or first draft of your memoir or autobiography. Contact publishers and if they like it or it has meaningful themes and they might make a profit off of it, they will do business with you. But memoirs are the most common type of manuscript these days. I tried getting my foot in the door but never received anything but rejection letters. You have to be persistent.
I think the question is more like, why should anyone have to pay to make a book/movie about things that happened to you.
Yes, correct. I am not planning to do my memoir 😅
Oh, I missed it.
Anyone sending original manuscripts gets rejected 99% (or more) of the time. You stand a better chance self publishing, but it's serious work.
You're basically asking about the difference between an authorized vs unauthorized biography.
If you sell the rights, that's just getting some nominal fee in exchange for your participation in the process. You may have insights and knowledge of certain events that aren't easy to find without your help, so some media production company may pay for you to fill in those gaps.
None of that is strictly necessary, though. Anyone can write about anyone else, so long as they aren't making false claims about the source, or making other negligently false claims of fact. (Don't do false advertising or libel.)
Libel is pretty hard to prove. Historically, you can probably get away with a little libel to sell books, fyi. But you didn't hear it from me.
Usually what makes it worth it is if the person in question has any works under copyright. It is usually fair game to make an unauthorized biography of a politician since very little of their public work is protected. In contrast, various artists, especially singer-songwriters, generally need to have their works be official since the copyright holders want control over how the artist is portrayed.
You have a right to your name, image and likeness. If someone makes a movie about your life and doesn't pay you, you can sue them for damages. Here's an example law, the one that covers my state.
It's complicated.
As I understand it, the short form is that the same laws that keep a corporation from taking photos of you in public and using your face and name to sell their product also make it hard for a movie company to tell the story of Erin Brokovoch or Queen without their permission. Not impossible, just "hard" -- so hard that it's often cheaper to just get permission and be done with it.
Part of it is likeness rights, part of it is defamation, and part is just the threat of an expensive lawsuit.
Someone has to be willing to buy it, first off. Usually what you're selling is a script or book that you wrote, though. Not necessarily the details of your life itself.