Read 'Script Quack screenwriting consulting service' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

If you read this blog regularly you know that I’m in a weekly writers group. Some of the writers in the group have formed “Script Quack,” a screenwriting consulting service. Their price can’t be beat and if you’re looking for a professional opinion on your screenplay I highly recommend that you check them out.

Script Quack is a new screenplay consulting and script notes service founded by Craig Sabin, Matt Giegerich and Chelsea Mize. Sabin has done a great deal of ghost writing for Disney, TNT and HBO. Giegerich and Mize are co-founders of “The Script-a-thon”, a screenwriting competition based in LA.

With Script Quack’s featured service you get 5-7 pages of detailed script notes, plus ideas and suggestions on how to improve your script. Each script is broken down into ten categories: Concept, Characters, Theme, Style, Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Overall, Next Step Notes and Typos, and notes are given accordingly.

A number of larger packages are a bit more costly, but they also include phone and rewrite consultations.

To learn more about Script Quack check out their website:

http://www.scriptquack.com

Also, if you haven’t already read it, please check out my post on Script Consultants, as it explains in more detail my opinion of script consultants.

Read 'Do most agents and production companies expect you to provide coverage along with your submitted screenplay?' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“Do most agents and production companies expect you to provide coverage along with your submitted screenplay?”

As a writer you would never pay for “coverage” of your script. And if you did somehow get it from someone you submitted to (which does occasionally happen), you would never submit the coverage to any other producers with your script. So to answer your specific question: no, producers don’t expect a writer to provide coverage of their own script.

To be clear, “coverage” is typically what a producer or agent gets from his assistant or reader so that he doesn’t have to read the entire script. If the reader gives the script a thumbs up and the producer is intrigued by the coverage she may read it for herself. The producer needs to know that the coverage is accurate, and if it was submitted by the writer there would be no way for the producer to know if it was accurate or not.

On the other hand if you’re new to screenwriting you might want to consider hiring a professional reader / script consultant to read your script and give you notes. Most consultants have read at production companies and agencies so you should get an unbiased opinion about your script. I wrote a post called Script Consultants which can give you more information about them.

I suppose if you got some really good coverage from an industry professional you might quote it in your query letter. But I would do this only with permission from the person who did the coverage and I would use the quote without explaining where the quote was originally from. But this is a pretty rare case, in fact I’ve never done it, it just occurred to me as I was writing this post. You don’t want to explain that your script has been “covered” because it begs the question – if so-and-so read it, why didn’t they option it?

Read 'Will you read my script?' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I get this question quite often:

“Will you read my script?”

I simply don’t have time to read people’s scripts.

I get the sense from a lot of people who want me to read their script that they’re hoping I’ll read their script, think it’s terrific, and then pass it along to some Hollywood heavy hitter who will buy it. There’s zero chance of that happening. Not because your script isn’t terrific, it very well might be. But I’m not in a position to sell your script any more than I am in a position to sell any of the 20 spec scripts that I’ve written that are sitting on my shelf. Believe me, I wish I could.

If you’re serious about getting professional notes on your script (which is the absolute most you could hope for by me reading your script) I recommend that you check out my post on script consultants. If you don’t have friends in the industry who will read and critique your work you should seriously consider spending a few bucks and getting a professional script reader to look over your material before you submit it.

Read 'Script Consultants' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Should you pay a script consultant to read and review your screenplay?

Up until a couple of weeks ago I had never used any paid script consultant services.  If you read my blog you’ll know I’m a big proponent of moving to Los Angeles if you’re serious about screenwriting.  One of the reasons to live in L.A. is that you’ll run into people everywhere you go who are either in the industry or trying to get into the industry and you’ll become friends with many of them.  These friends become a great resource and might be able to evaluate your screenplays for you.

Since moving to Los Angeles I’ve meet many actors, writers, directors and producers.  I now have several good friends who I send my scripts to and can get competent notes from them.  I will often give them my opinion on their projects as well so the relationship is reciprocal.  I trust their opinions and they know me well enough to know that I want the truth.  In addition, I’m currently in a writers group. I present material and get feedback from other writers and in return the other writers present their material and get feedback from me. If you don’t live in L.A. these sorts of connections are much more difficult to find.

So if you know people in the industry that’s my first recommendation: get notes on your script from them before going out and spending money on script consultants.

However, if you don’t have friends in the industry your mom, brother, wife, and friends will NOT suffice in getting reliable script notes and you should seriously consider paying a trained professional to give you feedback on your screenplay.

Several of the writers in my group offer professional script notes at Script Quack. If you’re looking for a screenplay consultant to get quality notes on your screenplay I highly recommend Script Quack. Script Quack will give you high quality, reliable, honest notes on your project at a fair price.

Just enter the discount code “sellingyourscreenplay” (without the quotes) on the discount page which can be found here:

http://www.scriptquack.com/discountpage.html

If you read my blog you may have noticed comments by Script Doctor Eric.  He offered to read one of my scripts and give me his “full service” script consultation.  My writing partner and I recently finished a first draft of The Un-Natural, a baseball comedy about the most uncoordinated kid in the world who works harder than anyone to make his dream of becoming a professional baseball player a reality.  Since we were really looking for notes on this script I figured this would be a good chance to put Eric’s service to use.

Overall he had a lot of great comments and if you’re looking for a good professional script consultant I highly recommend him.  He had a nice mixture of comments and suggestions.  A lot of people offer tons of criticism but offer very few actual suggestions.  I really like suggestions, even bad ones, as it helps me to understand where the person was coming from with the criticism.

As I mentioned I have never used any service like this before but it’s hard for me to imagine that you’ll find a better value with any other script consultant.  He doesn’t charge a lot of money for the service so if you’re looking for a script consultant, check out his website: http://www.scriptdoctoreric.com/. Script Doctor Eric did not pay for this promotion. He simply offered to review one of my scripts for free and I liked his notes so I’m recommending him. I’m not making any money from Eric by recommending him to my readers.

I’m very leery to recommend a specific price that I think is fair for script consultant services.  When purchasing something like this it’s all about value.  I did a quick Google search for “screenplay consultants” and clicked through to a few of them and found several that were charging nearly $1,000 for their “deluxe” service.  While this may seem like a lot of money – and it is – it’s hard to say if it’s worth it.  If it helps you get your script to where it needs to be and you end up selling it, it might be a good value.

When looking for a script consultant try and get some references from them and make an effort to call or email those references.  Ask the references about the value they think they got for the price.  Keep in mind that these references will be supplied by the consultant so they may not be too reliable.  In this day and age it’s hard for someone to make a living offering a horrible service thanks to Google.  So Google the script consultant’s name or website and see what comes up.  You might find someone who’s used their services and is willing to tell you the truth about them.

Another suggestion I would have is if you find a consultant that you like you might try the cheapest service that they offer to start and see what sort of value you get for the money.  If you don’t get a lot of value from their cheaper service than you probably won’t get a lot of value on the higher end either.