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.
Here’s how to sign up: First you sign up for our screenwriting tools services and you get access to the forum along with your own screenwriting website. Inside the forum you post your log line and query letter. You will get notes on your log line and query letter, and once you’re happy that it’s as good as it can be, you pay for the blasts and it gets blasted out. By submitting your log line and query letter to the forum first, it ensures that there is some standards to the query letters that are sent to my list.
Go here to learn more and to sign up: Professional Screenwriting Tools.
What people are saying about our fax / email submission service:
“After using the Query Letter Submission Service at SellingYourScreenplay.com to effortlessly blast out a personalized query letter to 500 literary managers, I received 40 requests for my screenplay and booked several meetings before signing with my new manager. Now my screenplays are being submitted to studios and production companies all over town. I love this writer’s eblast tool!” – Marie R
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If you found this post useful and want to learn more about how to sell your screenplay please check out my book Selling Your Screenplay.
Want to take your screenwriting career to the next level? Check out our suite of Professional Screenwriting Tools.
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I got this question:
“I was just wondering, when you purchase this service are you also purchasing the actual lists? Are we sent the list to use in the future or do you fire out the query letter from your account?”
You are NOT purchasing the lists with this service. The lists I’ve built have taken me years to build and a lot of the value that they have is that they’re not getting inundated with query letters. If I were to give these lists out they would get over run with people sending to them and would lose a lot of their value. I’m going to be limiting how many blasts I sell to each list to only one or two per week to try and keep the lists as active as possible. In addition, I’m only going to allow query letters that are up to “industry standards” to go to the list.
So, I will be doing the blasts for you when you purchase this service. All you have to do is supply me with your query letter. The emails will be sent as-if they are coming from your email address so the producer, agent, or manager will think the email was sent directly from you (which it basically is) and you will get all replies and manage the submissions and follow up yourself. Obviously you will get contact information from the people who respond to your queries and I would highly encourage you to start to build your own lists with this information.
Hi………we are a very small indie film production company. We have recently made two shorts and also set up a website which will soon be online. As well as trying to market my screenplays, the website will also show the two short films. Should I set up a different website purely for my screenplays?
Thanks,
Ed Penney
Ed;
I don’t think there is any right answer to this. It really depends on your overall strategy and your ability to set up websites. If you can set up a website easily why not create one specifically for the shorts, especially if you think you’ll be creating lots of shorts your website for them becomes a sort of channel for the production company’s shorts. Then you can set up a separate site for your screenplays and you can link to the production company site where people can view your shorts. If nothing else it makes your shorts seem more valuable if they have their own website. But if you’re strapped for resources and setting up a website for your shorts is difficult maybe you should stick to one site for all your film related businesses.
Ashley
Hi Ashley,
What do you think the ETA is on the launch of the forum? I am eager to participate, and have my query letter ready & synopsis ready for review. My earlier snail mail blast to HCD-listed production companies was expensive and not particularly effective, so I am interested to try your approach. I did register for the mailing list, but haven’t seen any recent updates.
Let me know, thanks!
Sheila
Our suite of professional screenwriting tools will be launching on Wednesday, August 25th. Keep an eye on this blog as we’ll be posting details around 8am PST about how to join.
Every time I see your first name I think of Ashley and Scarlett O’hara-my all time favorite movie!
When will the Query Letter Submission Service be ready?
I just finished my first screenplay-The New World Order-and would like to send you my Query Letter for approval. BestRegardsAshley! Byron
I think Ashley is offering a great idea..! Thanks for taking the time out to answer my questions.
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