Molly Moon: Next Harry Potter?

Adult interest in Harry Potter raised filmmakers' interest in children's literature

By CNN's Liz George

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Adults are invading the world of children's literature, forcing a change in the business of selling books.

It started with the Harry Potter phenomenon and spread. Now, UK children's authors are hot property -- particularly where film companies are concerned.

Georgia Byng is the latest British author whose children's novel has caught the attention of filmmakers.

Her book, "Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism," is being published in the UK by Macmillan Children's Books in May.

And according to news reports, the film rights went to "Harry Potter" producer David Heyman.

"When I got the film interest, well I suppose at that point it started to feel rather unreal," says Byng.

"And then when the American publishing deal happened, well I quite often would wake up knowing that something exciting had happened and then remember what it was and think to myself, 'Did it really happen? Yes it did!' So I had to pinch myself quite a few times."

Byng, 36, says she can't reveal how much the deals are worth but that it's a handsome sum. The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London put them at £1 million.

Filmmakers are interested because of the adult appeal. While there's no denying what J.K. Rowling did for children's literature with Harry Potter, something else occurred as well.

Many adults picked up Harry Potter and started to read it, and that's a new trend -- which is being continued with works by Philip Pullman, whose children's book "The Amber Spyglass" won the UK's prestigious Whitbread Book Award.

New Line Cinema recently purchased the rights to Pullman's trilogy, "His Dark Materials," which includes "The Amber Spyglass," according to news reports.

No longer is the line between adult and children's literature easily defined. Now there is a crossover in the marketplace.

Philip Pullman's "The Amber Spyglass" won the prestigious Whitbread Award

For example, at the UK bookshop Waterstone's, children's books dominate the adult best-sellers list.

Vicky Cubitt, who works for Byng's literary agent A.P. Watt, says crossover appeal has led booksellers to push children's books to the forefront.

"The way that book sellers are selling their books on the high street is obviously making children's books so much more visible in the eyes of, well, film producers, production companies," says Cubitt.

"They can see that, for instance, that children are reading adults' books, adults are reading children's books, and there is a lot of thought-provoking and challenging material out there which they can use."

That's something Marion Lloyd, associate publisher for Macmillan, is also finding.

"Another thing that is happening -- filmmakers are looking to British writers, where they know they are going to find great stories, great characters," says Lloyd.

"There's an enormous amount of interest in publishing lists like ours in America, and we're finding that there is a hunger for these children's authors."

They may be children's books, but for the publishers it's the adults who bring in the grown-up profits.