First-time novelist Sylvain Neuvel landed a movie deal for his self-published debut, “Sleeping Giants,” before a publishing house had even picked up the book.

The manuscript took an untraditional route to the spotlight. Three years ago, the author, a Montreal linguist with one unpublished screenplay to his name, set out to write a science-fiction fantasy. Finding no takers for his tale of scientists trying to track down metal body parts scattered across the globe, he turned to self-publishing.

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