We don’t cover a lot of fiction here at YuppiePunk World HQ, but we couldn’t resist the opportunity to chat with Marcus Sakey, self-proclaimed yuppie punk and award-winning writer of several well-reviewed thrillers including "Good People" and "The Blade Itself," which was one of Esquire magazine’s Top 5 Reads of 2007. His story seemed particularly interesting because all of his books have been optioned for films – surely something every aspiring writing hopes to have happen. .His latest novel, is called "The Amateurs," and is centered on a group of friends who haven’t ended up where they wanted, who decide to undertake a risky plan to get what they think they deserve. "It turned out to have a lot of topicality right now," Sakey told us during our chat. "From AIG to the Ken Lays of the world." Read on to hear more about Sakey’s work, his good luck with selling books to movie stars and hanging around the morgue as a means of research.

First off, can you talk a little about the process of having your books optioned for Hollywood screenplays?

Yeah, all three of my previous books have been optioned by film companies and they’re all in development, which is fingers crossed territory. What that means is that a book is optioned for a smallish amount of money giving a production company the exclusive right to make – or not make – a film. Most of the cases, it’s not make it, but I’ve had really good luck with mine. The first one was optioned by Ben Affleck’s production company. The second by the producers of "The Departed." And the third by Tobey Maguire’s production company. And there are scripts moving forward on all of those and I’ve actually seen drafts for some of them.

How involved do you get to be once that happens? Is it just courtesy that the companies are letting you see the scripts themselves?

It’s primarily courtesy. They are buying it from me, so you want to make a choice that you are going with people who have a similar vision, assuming you’re lucky enough to have a choice. But at the same time, you’d hope they wouldn’t be all that interested in buying your book if they didn’t think that you’d have something to say. I don’t have any power but they’ve been very generous in sharing things with me. It’s not all that uncommon for established novelists to do a sort of additional polish on a screenplay or to be available for brainstorming if they want to talk up directions. But its very much their baby once they buy it.

Are all the details about optioning a book hammered out in the original publishing contract or are you able to sell them ala carte to the highest bidder?

There are a lot of things that are figured out, but film rights aren’t one of them. The bidding war situation is the one everyone hopes for. Both of my contracts were at auction, which is essentially a bidding war situation with multiple people interested, but my movie contracts have not been at auction but there have been multiple parties interested, which goes into a lot of the deal making and negotiation. As your reputation gets bigger, or as a movie gets made or does well, all those things start to factor in to the costs.

And do you retain ownership over the intellectual property so if this becomes the next James Bond or Harry Potter you’ll profit?

Contracts differ. It depends how good your agents actually are, and mine are pretty good so if it turns into a series I’m covered. But you do sign away a lot of rights. It’s funny, I remember when I got the contracts for the first one that I sold, "The Blade Itself," I was looking through it, and there were options in there about what I would make if it was turned into musical theater. And I pretty much spat out my coffee when I saw that because it’s a pretty gritty crime novel on the literary side of crime novels and I’m trying to imagine these guys singing and dancing.

Do any of the films have release dates yet?

None of them have been greenlit, which is when they start spending money on budget and casting and so forth, but there are screenplays being written for all of them. I’ve read two drafts of the screenplay for "The Blade Itself." But they seem to have momentum behind them. Fingers crossed that something will happen.

Do you ever imagine who would play the roles in your books while you’re writing them?

I don’t generally do it while I’m writing it. It’s kind of a treat I leave myself for afterwards, once it’s done and I’m thinking about new characters and I get a little distance.

What is like to see somebody else make a new work from an existing work of yours?

It’s like watching somebody kiss your wife. It’s weird. It’s something you’re very close to and feel very personal about and the weird thing is that these scripts are good so they’re kissing her well.

Has writing become a full-time job for you?

Yeah, I’m fortunate. The first book that I wrote I was able to sell for enough money that I was able to move into writing full-time and keep doing it.

And how did that happen, you were working in corporate America previous to that, right?

I worked in advertising and marketing in various capacities for about 10 years and I had been enjoying it fine, but I was getting burnt out. I didn’t like the specific circumstances I was working in and I just wanted a change. So I came home and talked to my wife about it and I suggested setting the building on fire and she suggested resigning. And it seemed like maybe that was the better idea. I went in the next morning determined to quit and I was going to take some time and write a novel. And I walked in to see my boss and I swear to god it happened this way – I walked in to tell him I quit and he said, "Oh, Marcus, I’m sorry. We’re going to have to let you go." It was beautiful. I got laid off. I got severance. And more than anything I got kind of a karmic kick in the ass. So I enrolled in some classes, read a lot of books about writing and more than anything you just learn to write by writing and by reading so I turned myself into it and I spent probably a year taking classes and writing short stories before i started the first novel. Then I spent a year writing that first novel. It sold, and I’ve been doing a book a year ever since.

You’ve been pretty well-reviewed. Does that fuel book sales?

It definitely fuels books sales, but the thing is, I’m not entirely sure bad reviews don’t fuel book sales too. I think anything that gets your name out there is a good thing. The funny thing is, the ego, yeah it feels nice, but it turns around on you really quickly. You get about 10 seconds of feeling like a god and then immediately segues into, "Holy fuck, how am I going to do that again?"

By the same token are you able to take the negative reviews and just brush them off?

No, you take the negative reviews and you sulk for a long time, and you try not to. And you can’t let yourself literally stop writing or be directly influenced by them. But they get you. The stupid thing is that a bad Amazon review can wreck my whole afternoon which is just idiotic because you get them. It happens. And they can happen for very random reasons. Some people just enjoy getting on and doing slashing reviews. Some people may have genuinely disliked your book, but regardless, it took them five minutes to write the review and took me a year and a half in total to create the novel. So it stings a little.

I know you’ve done some hands-on research prior to writing your books – whether it’s riding along with police or going to the morgue – but were things things you did prior to having some cache as a writer?

It’s really kind of startling. On one occasion I talked to the Chicago Police – and I got transferred around until I got to the right person – to talk about doing a ride along and to ask some questions. And I had nothing at this point in terms of professional credentials except for a few awards for advertising copywriting. And this guy was great. We talked for an hour and a half, and amongst the questions I asked were, if I wrapped a body in plastic and dumped him in the Chicago River, would that get rid of trace evidence? And he answered! He said, "Yeah, that’d probably do it. That’d take care of it." Never asking if had a body sitting in my yard. People tend to be really willing to talk about what they do because they want to see it represented well. With things like cops and military and so forth, they ease up once they realize I’m not a reporter and its not an expose, that I just really want to get it right.

Has the access increased since you’ve gotten more well-known.

Definitely. It’s easier now. If nothing else I can at least walk in and pass them a a hardcover book. That’s like a permission slip. But I never had too much trouble with it in the beginning. It worked nicely recently. I wanted to do some research about chemical weapons for a new book actually and it was very helpful when I was querying these people who know very dangerous things, to say, "No really, I’m an author! Here’s my novel. I promise I’m not with Al Queda." And people want to see themselves represented well. Cops hate "CSI." Its such a steaming pile of garbage and unlike how their actual job is. They’re excited to actually get it right.

Are you taking copious notes while you’re shadowing these people?

Yeah. The thing is, usually by the nature of these things, they won’t allow any recording devices, so I’m trying to scribble, but you have to be careful not to scribble too much in front of them because then you look like a reporter. I go to the bathroom frequently to scribble down keywords. They probably thought I had a bladder infection.

Do you ever miss your advertising days?

Coming from advertising, I love that at the end of the day the book is mine. In advertising there was nothing that was ever yours. There were about 23 people involved on a good day — and you still sometimes come up with good work — but usually the more people you run something through, the more edges that get filed off of it. I like edges.

That would make a good album title.

[Laughs] It depends who the band is. If it’s The Smiths it means one thing. If it’s the Dropkick Murphys, something else.

Marcus Sakey’s latest novel, "The Amateurs," is out now from Dutton.

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