by Ashley Scott Meyers on September 1, 2010
One of the most rewarding things about writing this blog is hearing from screenwriters who have started to implement some of the marketing strategies I outline in posts like How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) and are actually having some real success using the methods.
I personally learn a lot from hearing real world examples so I thought I’d publish one from a writer who’s hustling to get his work out there. We can all learn a lot from this guy. He’s not just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring, he’s working to make things happen for himself.
His email went something like this:
“I have been watching comedy movies from the last two years or so and just watching basically the small supporting role characters to see if I think they are funny, then I read some reviews about them and then try to find their contact information. I recently got an email back from a great comedy actor who’s had some supporting roles in some big budget comedy films asking me to send one of my scripts.
I got in touch with him by going online and doing a lot of research. I googled his name after watching the movie She’s Out of My League, because I thought he really carried that movie, even though he had a supporting role. Then I IMDB’d him and noticed that he has been supporting in most of his movies. I checked for his email address a couple of times and kept coming back to the same website over and over again. I then emailed his website, which has all of his contact information on it, along with all of his agency information. I emailed him with the logline for one of my scripts and then just mentioned that he rocked the movie, because he did and that this would be a great vehicle for him to be the lead. After a couple of days, I got an email back from him asking to send the script. I have been trying this with a few comedy actors and this was the first one I got back with a “yes.” As simple as it sounds, it was really a lot of work. But in all honesty, I really thought that he would be great for the lead role!!! Of course that would be anyone who would say “yes,” but I just looked at his roles all being small, and thought that with his connections, i.e. being in a Judd Apatow film, he could possibly be looking for something that would be a great lead. Hopefully he will like my script or maybe one of the others I have been working on.”
What this screenwriter is doing is exactly the sort of thing we should all be doing. He doesn’t have any inside Hollywood contacts but he’s still getting his material out there to people who might be able to get it produced. In this day and age it’s usually pretty easy to track down people’s contact information. If your pitch is good it’s quite likely you’ll get a response especially from actors in supporting roles who aren’t inundated with these sorts of requests.
I’m publishing this email not so other screenwriters can copy his idea. You’re welcome to copy his idea, but I’m hoping that this will inspire other other outside-the-box ideas to try and get your material pushed forward. This is just one idea. There are an infinite number of other ideas out there, too.
I wrote this post a while ago: Should I find actors whom I think would be a good match for my movie and contact their agents? You might want to read it as I give some more insight into how to contact an actor with your project.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 25, 2010
SellingYourScreenplay.com is happy to announce the launch of our suite of professional screenwriting tools. Here is what you get when you join:
Screenwriter Website You get your very own screenwriter website. We’ve built a simple admin interface (no html or programming experience needed) so you can build a professional looking website to highlight your career as a screenwriter, list log lines, synopses, and some background information on yourself. Your screenwriter website will look something like this: www.ashleymeyers.com. To learn more about how a webpage can be a valuable marketing tool for a screenwriter check out this post: Why you need a screenwriter website.
Screenwriting Forum We’ve created a forum for serious screenwriters who want to take their careers to the next level. Inside the forum you will get personal career coaching and counseling from produced screenwriter Ashley Scott Meyers. In addition, Ashley Scott Meyers will help you prepare your log lines, query letters, and synopses so you can make professional high-impact submissions to agents, mangers, and producers using Selling Your Screenplay’s fax and email query letter submission service. Click here to learn more about our screenwriting forum: Screenwriting Forum.
Access to our fax and email query letter submission service to agents and managers or producers Once you have a professional log line, query letter and synopsis for your screenplay you can use our fax / email service. We currently have more than 500 email addresses and/or fax numbers for agents and mangers in our database. We currently have more than 1000 email addresses and/or fax numbers in our database for producers. In many cases the email address we have is a specific person at a company who handles screenplays and not just a general “query@companyname.com” or “info@companyname.com” email address. The membership price for fax / email blasts to agents and managers is $109 per blast. the memberships price for fax / email blasts to producers cost $139 per blast. This service is currently only available to members. To learn more about our fax and email query service please read this post: Query letter submission service.
Membership to our suite of professional screenwriting tools cost just $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year (2 months free!). Plus if you pay for a full year you will get a domain name attached to your screenwriting website and you won’t have to use a sub-domain (i.e. www.yourname.com instead of yourname.superscreenplay.com).
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 18, 2010
I got this question recently:
“Is it possible to obtain contacts of specific film directors? I might try to target specific directors. I want to make sure my script is handled by someone who has made a good horror movie.”
I talk a lot about the Hollywood Creative Directory on this blog and in some cases directors will have their own production companies so you can find them in there. If that doesn’t work contact the DGA, they will give you their contact info, or in most cases their agent’s contact info. If it comes down to pitching their agent it’s going to be a very difficult proposition.
Someone asked a similar question about attaching actors to a project, Should I find actors whom I think would be a good match for my movie and contact their agents? Check out that post as it goes into more depth about pitching an agent on a script and trying to get them to pass it along to their client.
One flaw in your thinking, however, is that you want someone with a track record to handle your project, yet you have no track record yourself. If you were a director with a track record wouldn’t you want to work with a writer with a track record? Of course you would. Think about what you’re asking for here? You’re trying to get someone to do something that you yourself don’t want to do – work with a newbie. Why not try and seek out a hungry up and coming director where you can mutually help each other move up the ranks together?
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 11, 2010
If you read my blog you’ll know I’m a big believer in marketing your screenplays aggressively. Sending out lots of query letters is one of the keys to succeeding as a screenwriter. In fact, I believe spending time marketing your material is just as important as spending time writing. All the scripts that I have sold and optioned have come from as a result of a query letter. It’s not easy but it does work.
I wrote this post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies which explains how to find companies to send your material to. While finding the information is a good first step, it’s still a lot of work compiling the information into a spreadsheet, creating the letters and then faxing and emailing them out.
Over the years I’ve built a large database of agents, managers, and producers and have been using it to promote my own material. I keep this database updated and am constantly adding new contact information to it. I’ve built several time saving tools to access this database so I can send out faxes and emails to my database of contacts with relative ease.
So… I’ve decided to open this service up to the readers of Selling Your Screenplay.
Agents and managers fax/email blast I have about 500 agents and managers in my database. The membership price for fax / email blasts to agents and managers is $109 per blast. If you’re looking for representation this is the quickest and easiest way to get your material into the hands of agents and managers.
Producers and production companies fax/email blast I have about 1000 producers and production companies in my database. The membership price for fax / email blasts to agents and managers is $139 per blast. Many new writers assume that getting an agent is the first step to starting a screenwriting career, but I’ve actually found that producers are more open to reading material from new writers than agents are, and in fact all my sales and options have come without any help from an agent or manager.
My current database is much more than just the stock information out of The Hollywood Creative Directory. I’ve been compiling my database for years and I’m constantly updating it and I have many email and fax numbers that go directly to the decision makers, not just the stock “info@” or “queries@” type email addresses. I’ve also found that doing both a fax blast and an email blast hits most people twice and increases awareness and response to my scripts. I haven’t found any other query service that includes faxing, so it’s a fairly novel way to present a query letter and seems to get a really good rate of response. The prices quoted above include both an email blast and fax blast to all the email addresses and fax numbers we have in our database for that category. When you purchase this service all you will need to do is provide your query letter, I’ll take care of faxing it and emailing it out to my list of contacts.
I’ve created a members only screenwriting forum where I will personally critique writer’s log lines, query letters, and synopses. I don’t want to burn my lists by sending out junky query letters so all query letters must be approved first, and the approval process will be online through the members only forum. I’m also going to limit the number of blasts per week, again, so that I don’t burn my list by sending too many query letters to it.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 10, 2010
As part of Selling Your Screenplay’s suite of professional screenwriting tools we’ve created a members only screenwriting forum. Inside the forum produced screenwriter Ashley Scott Meyers will be answering questions, giving career advice, and critiquing log lines, query letters, and synopses. The goal is to build a community of serious screenwriters so they can share information, help each other out, and grow their careers together.
The forum will act as a workshop for writers to get their query letters in shape so they can use Selling Your Screenplay’s email and fax query letter submission service. Ashley Scott Meyers will help writers get their query letter up to professional standards, and once it’s approved, writers will have access to our email and fax query letter submission service which has more than 500 email addresses and/or fax numbers of agents and managers and more than 1000 email addresses and/or fax numbers of producers and production companies in it. Our query letter submission service is only available to members of the forum.
Inside the forum we will be creating writer’s groups where you can share your work and critique other people’s work within a small group of other writers. Reading other writer’s material and getting feedback on your own is a key ingredient to growing and improving as a writer.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 9, 2010
I’ve had a screenwriter website for nearly my entire screenwriting career. It’s a simple website that lists log lines, synopses, links to my various profile pages (Twitter, Facebook, IMDB, etc.), and a brief biography about my writing credits. To see exactly what it looks like go here: http://www.ashleymeyers.com.
Having a screenwriter website can get you more script requests. In my query letters to producers, agents, and managers I always include the URL and tell the reader that I have more log lines on my website. Countless times I’ve had people pass on the script I was pitching in the query letter but still go to my website and request another script from me. These sorts of submissions can ad up over the years.
Having a screenwriter website can also be a great networking tool. If you meet someone who’s in the business it’s easy to tell them your URL (or print it on a business card) so they can check out your material at a later time. If you live in Los Angeles this is especially important as you meet people all the time who are in the business but you might not always get a chance to pitch your entire inventory of scripts. Having a screenwriter website allows you to pitch all of your scripts 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Selling Your Screenplay is building a suite of professional screenwriting tools and a tool to create and manage your very own screenwriter website is going to be included. We’ve created a simple to use interface (no HTML or programming skills required) where you can input all of your information and it will format it into a professional screenwriting website for you. To see an example site check out my own screenwriting website, http://www.ashleymeyers.com.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on August 4, 2010
I got this question recently:
“My wife and I just recently started writing Horror screenplays, which we both enjoy. In August we are attending a Horror convention, where there will be a-few actors/actress, who we always had in mind for certain parts when writing a script. Should we approach them about this and let them know?… Should we take our script with us, and offer it to them to read over?
We’re really not sure if we should say anything to them, since we’re new to all this, and we don’t have an agent/manager/representation. So any advice would be most grateful.”
I love people who want to take the bull by the horns and do some producing on their scripts themselves and aren’t just going to sit back and wait for things to come to them. So I commend you for trying to move your projects forward yourself.
There is really no right or wrong answer to this question. I’ve known a lot of people who have tried this and in some rare cases it’s actually worked. I knew a guy once who was a limo driver and one night Patrick Swayze and his agent got into his limo. He had a script with a part in it that Swayze was right for and he was a good enough talker that he was actually able to get a meeting with them. I had another friend who worked in radio and one day Jerry Bruckheimer was being interviewed at the radio station so my friend went up to him and pitched him a comedy script that we had written together. Bruckheimer pretty much ignored my friend and my friend’s boss reprimanded him for doing it. So it can go either way.
The answer really lies in how good of a salesman you are. I truly believe that salesmanship is the greatest skill to have as a screenwriter, trumping even writing ability. If you can confidently approach these actors and actresses and pitch your material to them you might find something good comes out of it. On the other hand if you approach these actors and actresses and stumble over your words and appear like an unprofessional drooling fan it could get ugly. My feeling is that most of the cult horror actors and actresses that appear at these sorts of events probably are just working stiffs like the rest of us and if you have a good script they’d be happy to read it. But again, it’s going to come down to your pitch.
There are a couple of things to think about before you approach anyone (and probably incorporate into your pitch). Are you going to produce the project yourself? By approaching talent you’re already doing some producing, so the question is how far are you going to take this project? Do you have any money lined up to get this project off the ground (having money in place will garner some interest even if the script is weak)? What are you going to do if the actors/actress says “sure” I’ll do your movie?
Ideally what you’d like to get is a signed letter of intent from a bankable name actor/actress in your genre. With that you can then try approaching producers with your star attached to your script.
Also, read my post Should I find actors whom I think would be a good match for my movie and contact their agents? It applies to actors who you might want attached to your project but have no way of actually contacting but also answers in more depth the specifics of getting an actor attached.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on July 28, 2010
I got this question recently:
“Is it okay to include a two page synopsis with a query letter, or does this fall under the ‘Unsolicited Submissions Will Be Thrown in the Trash’ policy of so many production companies and agents?”
I would keep your synopsis short, like less than 1 page, but certainly not two. There are no exact rules for this but keep in mind who our you’re submitting to: a very busy person who gets lots of submissions. If you’re having trouble boiling your story down to a half page it means you’re probably not too clear on what your story is all about, which is a very bad sign. My advice is to get your query letter down to less than half a page and to also get your synopsis down to less than half a page.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on July 21, 2010
I got this question recently:
“I’m a little confused. Say you have the Hollywood Creative Directory and have only the fax and address of a given company. Do you fax the query and treatment or just the query by itself? And if you use use snail mail, do you send the query and treatment? What is the difference between a treatment and synopsis?”
Typically a treatment is a much longer and more detailed description of the screenplay than a synopsis. Treatments are often written before the script is written as a guide for the screenwriter and producer so that the screenwriter doesn’t waste time writing a draft that the producer isn’t going to like. In fact many paid writing assignments have a payment schedule which includes the treatment as a step towards the first draft. I’m a big proponent of outlining your story before turning it into a screenplay, but there really isn’t a good reason to write up a formal treatment if you’re writing your screenplay on spec.
Typically a synopsis will be a less than one page summation of your screenplay’s story. I usually try and include a short synopsis (like less than half a page) of my story in my query letters. In some cases if you submit just a logline in your query letter you will get someone asking for a short synopsis and in other cases you might find an assistant who reads your script and likes it and then wants a synopsis from you to pass along to their superior. I also include synopses of all my scripts on my screenwriter website so if a producer is checking out my site they can get a good feel for which projects might be right for them. I also feel like a short synopsis really helps you boil your story down and decide what’s important, so it can be a very helpful tool in trying to do re-writes, too.
There really is no exact definition or specific requirements (that I’ve ever heard) that defines what a treatment is or what a synopsis is, but that’s the gist of it.
Now to answer your specific question about what to include with your query letters… I would include a short synopsis with your query letter no matter how you make your submission (fax, snail mail, or email). If it means sending two pages via mail or two pages via fax that’s fine. But if you can be very precise and pack your synopsis into your query and keep it all on one page that’s even better.
Check out my post Writing a synopsis for your screenplay if you have any questions about how to write your synopsis.
by Ashley Scott Meyers on July 14, 2010
I got these questions recently and thought it might be worth publishing my answers in case someone else had the same questions. While these little details may seem trite to some, when I was starting out I often wondered about them myself. And because they are such “minor” details it was next to impossible to find the answers.
I’ve written many posts on screenplay query letters and the person who asked these questions had just read my post How to write a professional query letter for your screenplay. If you haven’t read it you should check it out as this post won’t make as much sense if you haven’t already read it.
1) When you say use the footer and header on Word, are you saying create letter head? Or are you just saying name at top, phone number and email at the bottom?
When I create query letters I use MS Word’s header and footer feature. In MS Word 2007 you click on the “Insert” tab and then click on the “Header” button to create the header and the “Footer” button to create a footer. I usually use a slightly stylish although very readable font for the header and footer, too, just to differentiate it from the rest of the letter. This looks very professional.
2) What type of paper should I use? White? Just plain old computer paper?
Use normal plain old computer printer paper. Anything special or fancy will look amateurish.
3) What about envelopes? Plain white envelopes that I would use to send a regular letter?
Use plain old normal cheap white envelopes. You’re sending them a professional business letter, you’re not inviting them to your wedding. Again, Anything special or fancy will look amateurish.
4) For postage, should I just use stamps, or take it to the post office and have it printed on the envelope?
I usually stick a normal stamp on the envelope. One thing that should be avoided is making the letter look like a mass mailing. I think getting postage stamped on the envelope might make it look a bit like a mass mailing. With the kind of volume I’ve done with query letters I could probably get a bulk rate but I’ve always felt like that would really make the letter reek “mass mailing” so I’ve never done it.
5) What do you put in the header and what do you put in the footer?
You put your name in the header and your address, phone number, and email address in the footer.
My header is this: Ashley Scott Meyers
My footer is this (with real information): 1111 My Address, My City, My State, My Zip | 111-222-3333 | myemail@email.com
6) Do you know of a site that has the proper format for a synopsis?
There is no exact format for a synopsis that I know of but it should be single spaced for sure and paragraphs should have a double space between them with no indenting. This is how I’ve always done it.
