That's an interesting and thoughtful piece. Thank you for sharing it. Would you care to tell us how you self-published?
I get the impression that writing a book might actually be a more likely (but still very unlikely) way to to get a film of you story made, as well, for writers who do not intend to produce their screenplays themselves. Isn't that an interesting related question? I mean, I know it's foolish for a book writer to expect his book to be made into a film (unless he's Stephen King). But the odds might be better for Hollywood to produce a film based upon a successful book than for them to take an original spec script all the way?
Or so we're told. We're told Hollywood much prefers to fund something that already has a fan base in another medium. And that especially goes for things like fantasy and science fiction which tend to require large budgets?
George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire seems like a good example. And I've long wondered if the Harry Potter films would have ever seen the light of day if J.K. Rowling had been a screenwriter instead of a novelist. My guess is the answer to that is: highly unlikely.