Read 'Query letter responses' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Below is an email exchange between myself and a writer who emailed me. She’s had some success sending out cold query letters and following my advice in my How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) post.

She asks a few follow up questions which I’ve tried to answer. Hopefully you’ll find the exchange useful and inspiring. The thing that impresses me the most is that she’s very hard working (she wrote her first 3 scripts in the last 8 months) and is being very proactive by sending out query letters.

Ashley,

Of the 100 query letters I mailed out, I got requests back from 4 producers so far, requesting to read different combinations of the three scripts I sent synopses of… Also, one of the production companies I sent a full script to wants to work with me exclusively on developing one of my scripts to improve the structure a bit before passing it on to the President. If he likes it, they’ll package it and/or send it to studios, and if not, I’ll still own the script to take wherever I like… I was just wondering if this is within standard industry procedure? And should I be trying to get an agent now?

Thanks so much for your advice and all the information on your website which has helped to get me this far.

Here is my response:

It sounds like you’re right on track. 4 requests for your script out of 100 is a solid number.

First, don’t stop what you’re doing. Continue to send out more query letters. I think a 4% return is good enough to feel like you’re query letter / synopses are working so I could continue to send things out. Try to send out 100 letters per week… or every two weeks… or what ever you can afford in terms of time and money and don’t stop until you’ve either optioned the script or gone through the entire HCD.

I don’t know that specific production company so I can’t comment on their reputation. It’s certainly not unheard of for a development person to read a script and be willing to work with the writer to improve it. But do NOT PAY THEM ANY MONEY for this help. If they start asking for money in any way what-so-ever (i.e. “I know this great writer who would be willing to work with you for a fee”) politely thank them for their time and move on. I’m not saying that this production company is going to ask for money but if they do it means they’re not worth working with.

However, if they’re just willing to help you develop your script for free and they’ve said you can leave at the end of the process with all rights in your revised script it really comes down to personal opinion. My recommendation is to sit down with them and have a meeting. Listen to their story notes and decide if you like them or not. If you feel like their notes have merit what do you have to lose? I’m always looking to improve my script so if someone has good ideas I’ll take them. However if you meet with them and you don’t feel like they get your material and their ideas aren’t in sync with your vision then you need to think long and hard about whether or not you think it’s worth making these changes. The only reason you’ll be making the changes (if you don’t like their ideas) is because you think they have a good chance of getting your movie made. I really can’t answer that question. And honestly it’s a nearly impossible question to answer as you just never know who might be able to get a movie made. Trust your instincts. Ask questions and try and judge if they’re serious producers or not. A large part of screen writing is making changes that you don’t always agree with so if you’ve never been through that process it might be worth it just to experience it and learn from it. And it might be worth it just to build a relationship with this company / development executive. But again it’s really a gut decision that only you can make.

But to answer your question specifically I would say that this is “within standard industry procedure”.

Ashley

She responded to my email with this:

Ashley,

I will keep promoting the other two I’ve written, but the company wants me to work with them exclusively (ie. not send it to anyone else) on the one they like…is that reasonable to expect without paying me any money? I suppose so, since they’re going to work with me on improving it for free and I can always shop the hopefully improved script around after.

The company has some really big movies listed as credits on HCD (Platoon, Falling Down, Seven, The Fugitive) so I’m assuming they’re reputable and have the money/ability to make a well budgeted movie.

As for going with my gut… I can’t have an in-person meeting with them because I live in Canada, but I talked to their Creative Executive on the phone and got a really good feeling about it. She said she loved my script, thought I had a good voice for comedy, laughed out loud several times, said the main character was so much like her that she would’ve sworn she’d written some parts herself, and she passed it on to the President of Production and he liked it too (in fact, she was so complimentary that I was almost expecting it to be a scam where they asked me for money). Then after we got off the phone, she sent an email saying how excited she is to work with me on this and that “it’s so nice when a blind letter leads to something good.” She’s going to email me some notes soon, so we’ll see if we’re on the same page when it comes to revisions, but so far my gut feeling is really good.

I realize there are quite a few more stages to go through and the odds of getting paid for it/it ever getting made still aren’t that good, but I’m very encouraged that only 8 months after first trying my hand at screenwriting, with only the second script I’ve ever written, and with only my first batch of query letters, I’ve even gotten this far. And a lot of it has to do with me closely following the marketing advice on your website. Your advice was realistic and yet made me believe it was possible to get my scripts read by producers. So, truly, thank you.

I responded with this:

From what you’re saying it sounds to me like the company is legit and really does just love your screenplay – so I would go with it. Always keep your eyes open and be aware that production companies asking for money aren’t legit, but it sounds real good to me. And yes, it’s pretty normal for them to not want you to shop it around while they’re helping you re-write it. If they really like the rewrite they’ll probably want to option the script from you, and that’s the courtesy they’ve earned is the first look at the rewrite.

One note make sure you get the contact information of every person you talk to that likes your script. Try and get a personal email address (gmail, hotmail, yahoo, whatever) if you can. People in the entertainment industry move around all the time so it’s quite likely that the person you’re working with now will go to another company and your connection is with that person not necessarily with the company. When and if they move you’ll want to know where they go. Start building a contact list so that with every script you finish you send out an email to all your personal contacts. These contacts are like gold. There’s a good chance that they won’t sell this script but you’ve gained a solid relationship in the industry and down the road it could pay dividends. The person you’re working with is going to advance in their career, too, so if you stay in contact and build a good working relationship you just never know what opportunities might present themselves.

It’s actually very inspiring to hear that someone is actually succeeding using my site as a template. That’s exactly how it was intended. Like you, when I was starting out just gaining the knowledge about how to actually get my scripts read was very inspiring.

The one other thing that I thought about after emailing you was that while 4 responses out of 100 is okay it’s not great so you might want to continue to try and improve your logline, query, and synopsis a bit. Use the 4% as a benchmark on your next batch of 100 letters. Hopefully you’ll get 5% or more and can keep improving with each batch of query letters you send out.

I quite agree with you – the reception your material is getting is very encouraging. You must have some talent to be able to churn out your first 3 scripts in only 8 months and have them be good enough to get interest from a production company. I know my first 3 scripts were a mess and it took me a lot more than 8 months to write them! So keep doing what ever you’re doing ’cause it’s working.

If you have a question please let me know: info@sellingyourscreenplay.com

(Note: Please keep in mind that this is an informal email exchange so please pardon spelling and grammar mistakes.)

Read 'Getting Your Screenplay Proofread' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I’ve started to receive a good number of emails from new writers with questions.  I’ll be posting the email exchanges as I think other aspiring writers can benefit from them.  If you have a question please let me know: info@sellingyourscreenplay.com

(Note: Please keep in mind that this is an informal email exchange so please pardon spelling and grammar mistakes)

Mike said:

I do have a question.  Who do you recommend for a proof reader?  I need one for both my screenplays and I don’t want to pay up the “ying-yang”.  What’s the average going rate?  How much should I expect to pay per script and per page?

Ashley Scott Meyers said:

I’ve never paid anyone to proof my screenplay.  My advice is to try and find other screenwriters and simply trade scripts back and forth and proof each other’s work.  This will help you both and will give you more than just notes on the grammar and spelling.  This is what I’ve done over the years and it’s worked well for me.

If you don’t know any other screenwriters try friends and family.  If that doesn’t work you should be able to place an ad on Craig’s List (use the Los Angeles version even if you’re not in L.A.).  Try and find an English major who’s great with grammar and spelling and offer whatever you can afford to pay.  I’m sure you can find someone.  A script should only take a couple of hours to read over so even if the person is a slow reader and really double and triple checks your writing it shouldn’t be more than a 3-4 hour project.  Certainly a lot less than $100 should get you a through reading but just make sure the person you hire is going to do a good job.

If you’re looking for a script consultant the prices will range widely.  I’ve seen quality script consultants charge as little as $100 and as much as $1,000. A good script consultant should give you much more than just notes on your grammar.  Make sure you take a look at some of their coverage on other scripts so you can get an idea about how much detail you’ll get for the price you’re paying.  I’m going to be reviewing script consultants in the near future so check back often for updates.

Read 'How To Submit Your Screenplay Query Letter To Agents' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I’ve started to receive a good number of emails from new writers with questions.  I’ll be posting the email exchanges as I think other aspiring writer’s can benefit from them.  If you have a question please let me know: info@sellingyourscreenplay.com

(Note: Please keep in mind that this is an informal email exchange so please pardon spelling and grammar mistakes).

Branden wrote:

My name is Branden and I have finished a screenplay that I spent a year and a half working on. I’m still not sure if agents or studio executives can believe that it will be a plausible story to be made but I’m going to ask you what you think and if you think there’s a way I can make it sound more interesting. It’s about a man named Mr. Lee Burrows, who is a middle school ancient history teacher obsessed with the Roman Empire. While being a teacher, he is also the leader and founder of an underground dog fighting ring that he slowly turns into his own version of the Roman Coliseum. Midway through the story, he gets a new next door neighbor who is the founder and leader of an extremist animal rights movement based on Keith Mann’s animal rights movement in England. We soon find out that this man is also a closeted child molester and begins to prey on the children of the town including one of Lee Burrow’s students. The story is a drama comedy and is hopefully breaking new ground in terms of its topics.

Ashley Scott Meyers responded:

Well… I think it actually sounds pretty compelling.  You certainly have a lot going on in your story.  You should write up a query letter and a 1 page synopsis and start doing a test to see if you can find any interest.  Did you read my post about writing query letters?  That’s a good place to start.

Branden wrote:

Thank you for responding to my e-mail and the positive response to the story. I have been reading most of your posts on your site and I think it’s the best advice I’ve read from anyone’s website. I have friends who write and I will refer them to your website too. I have been reading the query letter section and how to get your screenplay to production companies and this is all helping. I have written five drafts of my query letter so far and I sent out 15 so far to agents from the WGA website. I have gotten no responses yet. I see you say to send out 100’s and I will have to do that then. I will also have to re-write my query letters because my loglines are like a synopsis because it’s two paragraphs I take to tell them the story. I read on another website you need one paragraph and I couldn’t get my story to just one. This could be why I’m not getting responses or maybe it’s because I have been writing to agencies that don’t work with unpublished writers. They used to have the agencies on the WGA website that tell you if they work with unpublished writers or not, but they changed it so now you don’t know who you can or can’t write to. Anyway, thank you so much for responding to my e-mail. I may try to write to production companies too. One question I have is, how important is it having the names of the agents in the letter? Some of the agencies I have found don’t have agent’s names.  Does it make a big difference?

Ashley Scott Meyers wrote:

It sounds like you’re doing many of the right things.

Before you spend a lot of time submitting to agents read my post “How do you get an agent for your screenplay? (And why you don’t need one!)“.

15 letters isn’t enough to really get an idea if you’re on the right track or not.  However my first impression is that you’re probably not so take some time and go back to really hone your query letter, log line and synopsis.  Check out these posts:

You do need to pair your logline down to a sentence or two – less than a full paragraph.  And it should really be something that quickly piques the interest of the reader so that they want to read the full (1 page or less) synopsis. You’re not trying to tell your entire story in a couple of sentences all you’re trying to do is get people interested enough in your basic idea as to get them to read your short synopsis.

In my experience submitting to agents is far less fruitful than submitting directly to producers and production companies.  So the percentages I quote in my submitting your screenplay post might be a bit lower if you’re submitting to agents.

I wouldn’t worry too much about trying to find agencies that supposedly will accept unsolicited material.  In my experience if you find that information it’s often inaccurate and a lot of the companies who say they won’t, will and a lot of the companies who say they will, won’t.  So just pick some and submit.

If you can get a specific name to include on your query letter that should help tremendously.  I recommend calling the agency and talking to whomever answers the phone.  Ask them if there are any junior agents who are accepting new clients.  They’ll probably say “no” but maybe not.  If they give you a name write it down and address your query to them or better yet try and pitch your idea right over the phone (telemarketing skills required!).  If you buy the HCD’s Hollywood Representation Directory it will list actual names of people who work at the agencies and sometimes list their job title, too.  This can be a bit dicey, however, as it won’t always be clear exactly who are the junior literary agents but it might give you a bit of a clue.  I think even if you address it to the wrong person that’s probably better than addressing it to no one.  In fact I think that could be why out of the 15 letters you sent you haven’t gotten anything back from any of them.  A letter addressed to no one probably was received by a receptionist and tossed away without even being considered.

Ashley

Read 'Turning Your Novel Into A Screenplay' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I recently got this question from Abba A. Onyeani who’s the owner of www.theblackurbantimes.com: “Currently we have a title [novel] out called , The Broederbond Conspiracy. It’s about a Black James Bond character. We’d like to get the book made into a screenplay, but I don’t know the initial steps to take to do that. Any advice?”

Since you’ve already published the book you have a step up on most other people peddling ideas to Hollywood.  So that’s good.  What you do next really depends on what you want to do and what you have the resources to do.

You can either shop the book around to producers (or agents, directors, and actors), you can hire a screenwriter to turn it into a screenplay, or you can try and write the screenplay yourself.

Unless you really want to pursue screenwriting as a fulltime occupation, I recommend NOT trying to write the screenplay yourself.  I assume since you wrote the novel first novel writing is your true passion and probably what you’re best at, not screenwriting.

Further, hiring a screenwriter at this time is also probably not such a good idea. Unless you can pay WGA wages and hire a reputable writer there’s a good chance you’re going to end up with a poorly written screenplay.  Some of the same things that I talked about in my post ‘How to hire a screenwriter to write your life story or great movie idea’
apply here so you might want to read that post.

A good book with a poorly written screenplay isn’t going to do you a lot of good when trying to shop your story around.  Nobody will read the novel if there’s a screenplay already written, so if you have it turned into a screenplay make sure it’s good.

If you’ve had even a little bit of success with the book I think you’ve got to try and use that heat as your spring board to getting a producer to read your material.  I’ve worked for agents and production companies and they quite often will read a book with an eye towards turning it into a movie.  Producers love to adapt material from other sources.  There’s an assumption that since it’s from another medium it is already a proven commodity and probably better than a lot of scripts that are floating around.  There’s some truth to this as getting your book published (as I’m sure you know) takes quite a bit of effort so a vetting process has already occurred.

So you’ve got to dig in and try and contact producers with a query letter or by cold calling them.

I wrote this post about how to find and contact producers:

http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/how-to-sell-your-screenplay/getting-your-screenplay-to-producers-and-production-companies/

I wrote this post about writing a query letter.

http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/how-to-sell-your-screenplay/how-to-write-a-professional-query-letter-for-your-screenplay/

Since you have a novel already written I would recommend writing a concise 1 page synopsis/teaser for your story and also a 4-5 page treatment of the story.  Include the synopsis in your query letter but be sure to mention the 5 page treatment.  I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks to pitching a novel is that the producer (or their reader) will have to spend extra time reading a novel so if you can write a real concise 5 page treatment they might be more willing to read that then committing to reading an entire novel.  And then if they like the treatment they will request the full novel – but by that time they should be pretty serious about it because they’ve already gotten an idea of the story and your writing style.

Also, if you can get any sort of attachments to your project that will most definitely help.  If you have any friends who know any famous actors or directors try and approach them with the material and get them committed to the project.