Novelizers don’t get no respect

Nice article on film novelizer Dewey Gram (“A Writer Who’s Adapted,” Dec. 4).

I’ve done 28 film and TV novelizations, including “Star Wars” and the first three “Alien” films. I consider myself a novelist and my novelizations to be collaborations with other writers.

Apparently it’s OK to receive kudos and even an Oscar for adapting a novel into a screenplay, but worth little more than contempt for doing the reverse, when doing the reverse (screenplay to novel) is actually much more difficult.

Alan Dean Foster

Prescott, Ariz.