Read 'Submitting a novel to producers as a movie idea' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“For the sake of discussion. Let’s say that the book I am almost done with ( short one – maybe 200 pgs ) is truly good.
Let’s say it is so timely – super timely – that it should really be in screenplay format because it should really be made into a movie in the next 12 months given its topic – let’s say all of that was really true and agreed upon by those in the business and not just those in my head –

Who would I be sending my query letters to – since I am incapable of writing a screenplay and it is going to be in book format?”

Take a look at these two posts. They may help.

Are there any agents out there that will look at a treatment?

Turning Your Novel Into A Screenplay

First, you need to finish and polish your book. You must have something polished, clean and professional to submit.

Then, I would read my Selling Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) post, if you haven’t already done so, and start submitting using those guidelines. You’re going to submit exactly the way I describe. Buy The Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD), write a nice query letter and synopsis, and start submitting (hundreds of submissions is what’s going to be needed – literally!). You’re going to be submitting to all the same production companies that every other screenwriter is submitting to, which is to say all of them. I don’t see any difference here. Just open up the HCD and start submitting. Make sure your query letter and synopsis are concise, well written, and compelling. The only alteration you’ll make is in your query letter. You’ll make it absolutely 100% crystal clear that you do NOT have a screenplay written and want to submit your story in book format. You’ll want to make it clear that you are not a screenwriter and that you’re looking for a producer to hire a screenwriter to turn it into a screenplay.

I’ve never tried this but if your story really is very compelling and timely I think it could work. I know that there are lot of producers out there looking for compelling stories and hiring a competent screenwriter to turn a book into a screenplay isn’t hard for a good producer. But I’ve personally never tried this so I’m not really sure what sort of overall response rate you’ll get.

One big worry I would have is the 12 months you mention as the time frame that it needs to get made. There’s virtually no chance that it’ll get made within the next 12 months (I’m sorry to say) so if your story has a firm expiration date of 12 months from now you may want to rethink your strategy. By the time you send your query letters, get a few responses back, send the book to a producer, he reads it, loves it, and gets back to you you’ll be lucky if three months haven’t elapsed. Then the producer has to hire a screenwriter, get a script written and polished, (probably at least 6 months) and then they’ve got to get the script to market or raise funds independently – all in less than 3 months! No producer is going to spend their time and money on a project if the story really does expire in 12 months. Things move far too slowly and any seasoned producer is going to realize that. I know nothing about your story so I have no idea if the 12 months is firm, but think about this before you spend a lot of time making lots of submissions.

Also, I want to be clear that I’m not recommending this as a course of action. I’m simply answering your question. My general advice is if you want to be a novelist spend your time writing great novels and worry about selling the movie rights later on once you’re an established writer. You’re going to spend a lot of time trying to market your book as a movie idea and it’s doubtful that it’ll ever pay off. So I think you’d be much better off finishing your book and trying to sell it to a publisher as a book. And of course continuing to write more novels, if that’s your real passion and interest.

Now it’s possible that you’ve hit upon a really truly novel and great idea, and anyone who hears it will jump at the chance to be involved…

But I’m taking you at your word that your story really is that compelling. Again, you’ve given me no clues about what your story is about so I can’t even begin to judge it, but as a rule I’m very skeptical when someone tells me they have the greatest idea in the world for a movie.

One thing people new to the business typically do is overvalue their idea. I believe that everyone has at least one or two great ideas for movies. Literally. So think about what I’m saying… if every single person on the planet has at least one or two good ideas for movies, that’s like close to 10 billion ideas floating around out there. That’s billion with a “B”! However, there’s only a handful of people who can actually take those great ideas and turn them into a compelling movie script.

One thing I always like to do with projects is try to assess both best case scenario and worst cast scenario. I think trying to get your book made into a movie doesn’t offer you much up side.

Best case scenario here is you sell your movie idea and make maybe $50K. That really isn’t that much money and no one has a career in Hollywood as an “idea” person just making their living coming up with great ideas. The “idea” people in Hollywood are usually producers or screenwriters, and coming up with the seed of an idea is only a small part of their jobs. So there’s no real long term benefit, just a one time cash payment.

Of course worst case scenario is you waste some time and money and you get no where. But in this case you really get no where because most of what you’ve learned is about screenplays and movies which isn’t even anything you want to do long term.

On the other hand… if you want to be a novelist and you spend your time writing and re-writing your novel until it’s the best that it can be and then start submitting it to publishers you’ve got a lot more upside.

Best case scenario is you sell your novel and launch your career as a novelist. That’s a career with long term implications.

But even worst case scenario isn’t all that bad; you polish your novel, you send it out but you don’t find a publisher. But through this process you most likely will interact with some publishers (i.e. learn something about the business) and maybe even get some feedback on your story. So when you start on your next novel you’ll be a littler wiser because of this experience. The process of submitting and being rejected will help you as a novelist as you pursue that goal with future projects.

I don’t see this subtle upside for you while trying to sell your idea as a movie because it’s not what you ultimately want to do. It sounds like this is just a one off thing for you. Now if you do want to be a screenwriter that changes everything.

Bottom line: I get a lot of emails from people who want to sell their one “great” idea to Hollywood but don’t really want to purse it as a career and this just isn’t realistic. There’s easier ways to make a few bucks and a half hearted effort is really a waste of time. Sure you occasionally hear stories of people who have done it but anyone can win the lottery.

No matter how much talent you have, you’re not going to be able to go out for a few weeks and practice your curve ball and then talk the Yankees into letting you start in just one game. No, the Yankees are looking for prospects that have the potential of helping their team out for a season or maybe even an entire career. They’re not interested in spending time with a pitcher who offers them so little upside.

If you want to pursue something, pursue it. But do it with energy and passion and do it for the long haul.

Read 'What to expect from your screenplay query submissions' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

If you read this blog regularly you know that I’m a big proponent of marketing your own work. Check out my post How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) to learn how to submit your work to producers, agents, and managers. In addition have a look at my post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies to learn more about the actual submission process.

I get a lot of questions about what happens after you’ve made your query letter submission. So I’m going to try and answer those questions in this post.

I talk about response rates in my post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies but suffice it to say when you’re making cold submissions to production companies and agents you’re doing pretty well if you can get 5% of them requesting your script, maybe a little higher with production companies and a little lower with agents/managers.

When submitting to companies in The Hollywood Creative Directory you’re going to get a certain percentage of companies sending back your query letter unread saying they do not read unsolicited material. Don’t worry too much about this, it’s normal. Rejection is a big part of this process so get used to it. I wrote this post which might shed some additional light on companies that don’t take unsolicited material: Submitting to companies that don’t take unsolicited material.

In addition if you send snail mail letters you’re going to get a lot of returned letters where the post office has written something like “not at this address.” Again, this is normal. Production companies move and go out of business all the time. Which is why the HCD updates their information 3 times per year. This can be as high as 5% of your total submissions. Just update your database so you don’t waste another query letter on this company and move on. But you should always be updating your database, too, with a fresh copy of the HCD. I would recommend either joining online or simply buying a copy at least once per year so you can check your database and see if you have the most up-to-date address for a company.

Of the companies that request your script probably half of them will want you to sign their release form. I wrote a post here about release forms: Signing a release form for your screenplay.

Read 'Entering screenplay competitions' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“What do you think of script competitions?  I have heard that a high budget script will not do very well.”

I entered two (that I remember), the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting and a screenwriting contest that Disney used to sponsor (I’m not sure if they still do).

The script I entered into the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting was a “quarterfinalist” which amounted to nothing more than a nice “thanks, but no thanks” letter.  It’s possible that all scripts are “quarterfinalists” but since I only entered once I don’t know.  I did mention the “quarterfinalist” finish in my query letter for that script since at the time I had no other credits.

I had a friend who was a member of the academy and an early round “judge” for the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.  His professional background is in special effects so it seems to me that the academy will use any willing members as early round judges.  In addition, he got rushed for time while reading his three scripts so he let his wife read and evaluate the last one.

The Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is considered to be the best screenplay competition.  So if that’s how their process works think about how the other competitions’ processes work!  It doesn’t give me a lot of hope that the “best” script will rise to the top or that the screenwriter is really getting a fair read, which they certainly deserve since they paid to be in the competition.

When I was starting out here’s how I looked at it: I could spend $50 on entering a contest or I could spend $50 on sending query letters to production companies.  I spent my time and money on submitting to production companies that could option and buy my scripts.

If you have plenty of time and money you might as well enter any and all competitions you can.  Who knows, you might get some awards and those awards can only help you when you’re marketing your scripts.  Don’t expect any of the screenplay competitions to directly result in you selling your script because it won’t.  What it will do, if you win or place highly, is give you additional fodder for your query letter and maybe lead to some industry contacts.

But if you have a finite amount of time and money I think you would be better off buying the Hollywood Creative Directory and submitting your script to production companies listed in it.  Follow my advice in my post How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell) if you have any questions about how to make a professional submission to a production company.

To answer the specific question above; I’ve never heard that a high-budget script would have any less of a chance in a screenplay competition.  Screenplay competitions aren’t worried about a film’s budget so I can’t see why that would hurt its chances.

Read 'Cheapest way to access the Hollywood Creative Directory' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I mention The Hollywood Creative Directory quite often in my posts. It’s a great source of contact information for nearly every production company in the United States. You can buy a hard copy from Amazon.com, which I highly recommend. Having the hard copy allows you to go back to it often and send out query letters over a long period of time.

However, I’ve had a few people ask me if there was a cheaper way to obtain the information in the HCD. If you go to the HCD website, http://www.hcdonline.com/, they’re now offering a subscription service which is less than $20 per month. Join for one month, go through every company and copy and paste the information into a Word or Excel document for later use. While this will take a bit of time it will be cheap. Just make sure you cancel your subscription before the month ends or you’ll be auto re billed for the next month.

Read 'How to market your script when you have no money' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got an email from an aspiring screenwriter that went something like this:

Question:
What else can I possibly do to get my script sold?

Here’s what I’ve done so far.

1. Worked for about 3 months on the script, read books, read scripts.
2. Rewrote it 13 times, it’s gleaming.
3. Wrote a treatment, synopsis, and a good logline.
4. Got the Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) and sent out a bunch of query letters.
5. Started working on another script (65 pages in).
6. Waited, not so patiently.

What else can I do with a wallet constantly running on empty?

It sounds like you’re doing everything I suggest in my How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell). Just keep doing it. For as long as you can. It may take years but the rewards will be worth it.

Since email is free you can continue to market your scripts using email addresses listed in the HCD. By the time you get through the entire book you should be done your next script so you can start over from the beginning.

Since most cell phone providers offer unlimited calling plans fairly cheaply you could try and cold call companies in the HCD, too. Again, this isn’t going to be easy but it’s cheap and only requires you to put in the time.

You could start to network a bit with filmmakers in your area. Find a director and write something that you two can produce yourself. It doesn’t cost a lot to shoot something on HD video with friends as actors. Any credit is a good credit and even if it never directly helps your writing career, seeing people breathe life into your story will be inspiring, motivating and a great learning experience.

Do you live in L.A.? If not, you should move here. Your networking opportunities will be much better and the people who you’re sending query letters to will take you more seriously. I know this isn’t going to be cheap but L.A. has lots of job opportunities so no matter what your survival job is you can probably find it in L.A.

See my posts about living in Los Angeles.

One thing that I think is critical to screenwriting success is getting to a place where your wallet isn’t “running on empty.” On the one hand being poor is motivation to keep working hard to achieve your goal – I get that – but on the other hand becoming a screenwriter isn’t a sprint it’s a marathon and it’s imperative that you enjoy the journey, too. Having some extra money will allow you to market your scripts more aggressively and perhaps even invest in producing some of them yourself, too, even if it’s just shorts with local filmmakers.

Read 'How to create an original television series (breaking into television writing)' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I’ve gotten this question many times over the last couple of months:

“I have a great idea for an original television series.  How can I sell it to a television network?”

I want to start out by saying that I have zero experience in television writing.  I wrote one Seinfeld episode for a sit-com writing class in graduate school but I never sent it anywhere.  It wasn’t very good.  That’s the extent of my television writing experience so I may not be the best person to ask about this.  I have known several television writers over the years and I do know the basics about how a television series is created so I’ll take a shot at answering this question even though my experience is fairly limited.

Creating a successful television series is the most lucrative thing a writer can do.  A hit television series that runs for 3 to 5 years (around 100 episodes) and goes into syndication can net the producers/creators hundreds of millions of dollars.  When you hear about the astronomical sums of money that actors are paid on hit television shows it pales in comparison to what the producers and creators are making.

I’ve never heard of an unknown writer being the creator of a television show.  I’m not saying it’s never happened but if it has I’ve never heard about it.  If anyone knows of a show that was created by an novice writer by all means let me know by posting it in the comments section below.  It would be inspiring for all of us.  It’s easy to research this.  Just think about your favorite show, look it up on IMDB, and then look up the show’s creator on IMDB and see what she did before she created that show.  In most cases you’ll see that she was a writer on other shows for many years before creating her own show.

This makes sense, too.  When a network or production company decides to produce a new show it’s a huge financial investment and is very risky.  So to try and mitigate the risk as much as possible they try and use ideas from people who have experience creating shows or at least have written for television for many years.  If you were putting together a project of any sort you would try and get the most experienced people you could afford, too.  It just makes good business sense.

Unlike feature film writing, a writer who creates his own show is involved in many levels of production.  So a network is not just buying the idea they’re hiring that writer to oversee the show for years to come and they need someone who knows how to do it.  No matter how brilliant your idea is for a show there’s a lot more to being a show’s creator then just having the idea.  The show’s creator is usually a producer and they often become the “show runner” which literally means the person who runs the show.  It’s not a job for beginners.

So the bottom line is that there is no market what-so-ever for original television shows from new writers.  With that said, I’m a big believer in thinking outside the box and not listening to conventional wisdom so if you have your heart set on trying to create your own television series go for it.  I wish you luck and I hope you succeed.  But realize what you’re trying to do is probably the most difficult thing in the entertainment industry and may be flat out impossible.

If you take a step back and look at this as a long term goal (which I highly advise that you do) there are some basic steps you can take to slowly work towards creating your own television series.

Since most shows are created by television writers you need to become a television writer on an established show.  While this is not going to be easy it is possible for an unknown writer to get hired on an established show.  You should write several spec scripts for successful shows that are currently on the air.  Then send query letters to agents and producers using these scripts as samples of your ability to write.  In the Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) you’ll find production companies listed that produce television shows.  You should target these companies with your query letters.  Again, you’re not pitching your original show idea you’re trying to get hired to write episodes of an already existing show using your spec scripts for similar already existing shows.  As an aside, it’s usually bad form to send a spec script for a show to that show.  They usually won’t want to read it for legal reasons (they think you’ll sue them if they air a similar show).  So if you’re trying to break into sit-com writing write an episode of Two and a Half Men (or whatever popular show you’re familiar with) and send it to production companies that produce other similar shows. Two and a Half Men has been around long enough and is popular enough that most television producers will be familiar with the characters enough to gauge your writing ability from reading your Two and a Half Men spec script.

You should read my post How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell).  It explains how to write a query letter and find companies to send the letters to.  You’ll have to adapt some of the information for television writing but overall it should be pretty much the same.

If you’re serious about turning your idea into a television series you should move to Los Angeles and try and become a television writer’s assistant.

Here are my posts about moving to Los Angeles:

Do you have to live in Los Angeles to be a screenwriter?

Moving to Los Angeles and preparing for the long haul

Becoming a writer’s assistant is a great stepping stone to breaking into television writing.  John August had a good post about being a writer’s assistant here: http://johnaugust.com/archives/2009/showrunner-asst

Whether you want to be a feature writer or a television writer you should always be writing and always be trying to get your stuff produced, even if it’s on a shoestring budget.  If you have an idea for a television series why not try and produce a few episodes yourself?  Living in Hollywood makes finding other aspiring filmmakers easy – use that to your advantage.  Once you’ve produced an episode or two submit them to film festivals as a short.  After that has run its course post them on YouTube and promote the hell out of it.  This probably isn’t going to result in you selling your original idea but it will add a credit to your writing resume and at least on paper you’ll no longer be a complete beginner.  These small projects will add up over time.

Once you’ve been living and working in Hollywood for a few years you will eventually stumble into an opportunity to pitch your show idea.  Make sure you’re not a beginner when it happens.  If you’ve done everything you can to advance your writing career for a few years you won’t be a beginner for very long.  If you have a little bit of experience, a great idea for a show and it is executed well over several completed scripts it will be an impressive package and when you finally do get your chance you just might be able to make it happen.

Read 'Taking a Trip to Los Angeles to Jump Start Your Screenwriting Career' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

A got a few questions from two aspiring screenwriters a couple weeks ago who were planning a trip to Los Angeles.

1. What are some ways to arrange meetings before we arrive in L.A.?

2. While there, do you have suggestions on how to meet industry people? Are there any bars/spots we should visit to network?

3. What are your thoughts about going to a company directly to give them a script?

If you read my blog regularly you’ll know that I’m a big proponent of moving to Los Angeles if you’re serious about becoming a screenwriter.  I’ve written these two posts on the topic:

Do you have to live in Los Angeles to be a screenwriter?

Moving to Los Angeles and preparing for the long haul

While I think a short visit to L.A. will be fun and certainly can’t hurt, I’m doubtful that it will result in any tangible benefits – unless of course you use the trip as a launching pad to moving here.

With that said, if you’re planning a trip to Los Angeles I think there are a few things you can do to make the trip as valuable as possible.

1. What are some ways to arrange meetings before we arrive in L.A.?

I would purchase the Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) and cold call a few agents and producers.  Pitch them your script and try and set up a meeting.  Offer to buy them lunch (or breakfast or dinner or coffee or drinks) even if they aren’t interested in your script idea.  Tell them the truth: you’re just starting out and you’re looking to meet people in the business to learn as much as possible.

http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/links/amazon/73

Most people in the industry didn’t get to where they are because of nepotism or blind luck, they got to where they are because they worked hard.  They were once a newbie too so many people will have compassion for people trying to break in, especially if they’re polite, energetic and seem smart.  Not everyone will be willing to meet but a few might.

Keep in mind what you’re trying to do with these meetings.  You’re not trying to sell your script – if that happens great but it probably won’t.  You’re trying to sell yourself.  What you’re hoping for is to learn what this agent / producer is looking for and to get some quality face time with them so that you can contact them in the future as you write more scripts.  Make sure you get their card and put their information into your rolodex of industry contacts.

You’re going to need great phone sales skills and you’re going to need to make dozens – if not hundreds – of calls for this to work.  Over the course of several days of making hundreds of calls you should be able to set up at least a few meetings.

2. While there, do you have suggestions on how to meet industry people? Are there any bars/spots we should visit to network?

If I were you I would try and line up as many meetings as possible and simply ask at the meeting if they know of any good networking hotspots.  If you’re lucky they might be going to a party that they’d invite you to.

I’m reluctant to recommend any place specific because on any given night there could be no one in the industry in a given place.  However, as a rule Hollywood, Venice, or Santa Monica are pretty trendy places and any bar will have at least a few entertainment people.  In all my years in L.A. I’ve never made a single meaningful contact at a party or bar so I’m not speaking from experience here.  Hopefully you can work a room better than I can.

3. What are your thoughts about going to a company directly to give them a script?

I wouldn’t do this.  Unless you’re an absolutely great salesman and you’re used to this sort of door-to-door pitching I doubt it’s going to work out.  L.A. is very spread out so you won’t be able to get to enough companies in a day to make this work.  People who work in the entertainment industry are busy and they’re not going to want to drop everything to meet with an unannounced stranger.

Spend your time cold calling companies before you get out there.  At least with a phone call you’re only taking a few minutes of their time and then you’re letting them pick a convenient time to meet.

If anyone is taking a trip to Los Angeles and tries any of this out please let me know.  It would be great to hear some in the trenches stories from people who have had some success doing this.

Read 'Who Do You Address Your Screenplay Query Letter To?' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“When submitting a query letter, should you send it to the company in general, should you send it to a specific representatives of the company (after looking in the HCD), or should you send it to multiple representatives of the same company?”

Make sure you read my post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies. It explains how to find companies to send your query letter to, including the Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) which this reader refers to.

If you’re wondering how to write a professional query letter make sure you read my post How to write a professional query letter for your screenplay.

If you can find a specific name in the HCD (or anywhere else) to address your letter to, do it.  I would usually look in the HCD for the lowest ranking employee that looked like they were involved with script development.  A title like “Development Assistant” is perfect.  While this person may not have the power to green light your movie they are most likely trying to build their own careers and will probably be more open to reading material from new writers.  In addition, there’s a good chance that’s the person who will be reading your script anyway even if the “V.P. of Development” requests your script.  Some of the companies listed in the HCD are small and only list a person or two – in that case just choose one.  Always make sure you do use a person’s name don’t just address your letter to the company in general – that’s a sure sign of your query being an unsolicited request of some kind and will increase your chances of going in the trash can without anyone really reading your letter.

I would never send the same letter to two different people at the same company.  I’m usually pretty liberal when it comes to mass mailings/emails/faxing but this just seems like overkill and might end up really annoying some companies.  I would keep track of who you’ve addressed your letter to and when you start submitting your next script if you didn’t hear anything from a specific person at a company I would address your next letter to someone different.

Read 'Submitting Your Screenplay Via Email – How To Create A Catchy Subject Line' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

I got this question recently:

“I’ve noticed that e-mail queries are becoming more accepted. When sending an agent an e-mail query, what should the subject line be? Should it say Query or the script title or Attn: Agent’s Name?”

You should read my post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies if you haven’t already as that article covers some logistics to tracking down contact information for production companies including email addresses, fax numbers, and mailing addresses.

The fact that email queries are considered “acceptable” is precisely the reason why I think you might want to consider other methods of approaching a production company like regular mail or faxing. The problem with email is that it’s so easy to do and costs so little that everyone is doing it so your email is likely to get lost.  In addition with increasingly powerful spam filters there’s a high probability it won’t ever be delivered.  No one has invented a spam filter for faxes and most companies are not in the habit of throwing regular mail away without at least opening it up and having a quick glance at it.  Furthermore, unless you’re prepared to send hundreds if not thousands of emails you’re probably not going to be very successful at cold emailing agents, producers and directors.  When I was sending out email queries to production companies I had gathered every single email address in the HCD so I was sending a lot at one time.  I suspect that these screenplay submission services are doing the same thing.  If you’re going to use email as your delivery method be prepared to spend a lot of time gathering the email addresses because you’re going to need to send a lot.

As a rule I would try and be as direct and up front as possible while also trying to catch the person’s attention.  Perhaps you can even slip in a condensed logline, something like this: “Screenplay Submission: Dish Dogs is Easy Rider meets The Graduate.”

What I’m doing is using my alternate log line and trying to grab the person’s attention as much as possible.  See my post Writing A Screenplay Logline for more details about how to write a good logline.

Do not just use something vague like “Screenplay Submission Request” as your subject line. That will most likely be deleted quickly.  You’re not giving the reader any reason what-so-ever to actually open your email and read what you’ve written.

I highly recommend you NOT try anything underhanded even if you think it might increase the likelihood that someone would read your entire email.  For instance something like this is probably a bad idea:”Steven Spielberg told me to contact you about my project.”  You’re trying to build a long-term working relationship with this person so start it out on the right foot.  Use creativity in a positive way to make your subject line catchy and interesting.

It’s really marketing 101.  If your email actually does arrive in someone’s email box they’re most likely going to read the subject line and then either view the full email or delete it without reading it so make the subject line count.  Keep in mind there’s really no hard and fast rules with something like this.  Use common sense and test what you do.  For instance if you gather 100 email addresses from the HCD try a test to 10 or 20 of them using one version of your subject line and then 10 or 20 with another version to see what works best.

If you have a specific contact name (i.e. a friend knows the brother of an agent at CAA or you meet someone in a coffee shop who gave you her business card) use that in the subject line.  “Jane Smith told me to contact you” or “We met in Starbucks on Thursday”.  These may not be very creative or catchy but a lukewarm lead like this may actually be just enough of a cracked open door for you to slip your email in and it will separate you from all the other people just trying to submit using the above mentioned logline approach.

Read 'Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies' at http://www.SellingYourScreenplay.com.

Getting your screenplay to production companies is actually a lot easier than most people think. It’s really as simple as getting the production companies address, email, phone number, or fax number and pitching your script idea to them. Most of the time you’re going to be politely turned down or dismissed out of hand but once in a while you will get through and someone will agree to read your screenplay. Please keep this in mind: rejection is going to be the overwhelming result (98% of the time in some cases – this is normal!) of what I’m about to tell you so please prepare for it and do not get discouraged by it.

Many new writers feel helpless because they don’t know where or how to submit their script. I know for myself I never had the motivation to write anything until I had some idea about who to send my script to. Sometimes beginning writer’s think getting an agent is the answer but getting an agent to read your script is often more difficult than getting a production company to read your script. Even if you get an agent it probably won’t be one who has a lot of power so you still might want to try and submit your script directly to production companies, too. Check out my post about how to get an agent. You can find it here: http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/screenwriting-faq/how-do-you-get-an-agent-for-your-screenplay-and-why-you-don%e2%80%99t-need-one/

Before you start submitting your script to production companies read my post “How to Sell Your Screenplay (in a nutshell)”. You can find it here: http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/how-to-sell-your-screenplay/how-to-sell-your-screenplay-in-a-nutshell

Then you’ll want to read my post about how to write a professional query letter. You can find it here: http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/how-to-sell-your-screenplay/how-to-write-a-professional-query-letter-for-your-screenplay/

Now you should have several solid scripts and you should have written a nice query letter to pitch them. If you don’t have both of these things don’t start submitting your script. Submitting before you’re ready will be a waste of your time as well as anyone reading your query letters so don’t do it until you’re ready. People will remember you so make sure you are ready to make a good first impression.

All you need to do now is prepare a list of production companies.

To be clear (in case you skipped my other articles), you’re submitting a query and a short synopsis to these production companies which will hopefully result in them requesting the full script from you. Never send the full script first. There’s really no point in blasting out thousands of scripts when most of the time the company won’t want to read it anyway.

Luckily The Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) publishes a frequently updated list of virtually every production company in Los Angeles and New York, usually with address information, email addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers so all you need to do is purchase a copy and start submitting. You can purchase the HCD at Amazon by clicking here.

Online you can buy a one week trial membership fairly cheaply – and during that week you should be able to go through every company and copy and paste the information into a spreadsheet for later use. You can also buy a hard copy from Amazon by clicking here if you prefer to own it. Keep in mind it does change quite a bit so if you do buy it you’ll want to buy a new copy at least once a year so that you’re always using the correct information when submitting.

You need to get all the companies’ information into an excel spreadsheet so that you can easily and quickly send out mass mailings. If this means keying it in by hand, that’s what you’ll need to do. If this means getting your friends to help you, that’s what you should do. There are a lot of companies in the HCD so this is going to take a little while. You can also buy a digital version of the HCD which will allow you to copy and paste it into an excel spreadsheet much quicker – however the digital version costs over $300. If your time is very valuable this is a good way to do it although certainly not the cheapest.

In the HCD it will typically list a few credits that each company has recently produced. I’ve read on other blogs and how-to books about looking through this and trying to find “good matches” for your material but I highly recommend NOT wasting your time with this. When I’ve submitted to companies I’ve never found any real correlation between a companies’ credits and what they were willing to read. In fact, I’ve worked for companies listed in the HCD and I’ve asked the heads of development about this and they usually all say that they’re interested in good material and don’t usually care too much about genre.

Once you have all this information in an excel spreadsheet you can actually use it 2 or 3 different times over the course of the next year or so it’s a good investment in time.

Over the years I’ve had the best luck in terms of response rates when I sent a letter through regular mail to a production company. Typically I can get a “we’ll read your script” response from letters about 5% to 10% of the time. While this method is very costly (one stamp per letter plus envelopes and paper) it does seem to produce the best results. Once you have all the contact information in an Excel spreadsheet you can actually use MS Word’s Mail Merge function to pump out all the letters with the proper heading and address on it. Tip: while it may be very time consuming hand write the addresses on all the envelopes when you send them out (get friends to help). I’ve seen a nice jump in the response rate with handwritten names and addresses on the envelopes. I think this is because printed labels, while easy, look more like junk mail and may get discarded before even being read.

After letters through regular mail, I’ve found that faxing a query letter to a company usually results in about a 5% positive response. This is probably the way to go. Using a service like FlatRateFax.com you can send out a fax to all the companies in your database in seconds and for relatively little, too. Again, once you have your letter written you can upload your Word doc and your Excel spreadsheet of addresses to FlatRateFax.com and they will merge the documents and send out the faxes to all the fax numbers in your spreadsheet. It takes a little bit of time setting up the files properly, but once you’ve done it you can blast out query letters in next to no time and for a pretty reasonable price, too.

Email is the easiest and cheapest way to send out query letters, but I’ve found that my response rate suffers, too. If you can get a positive response rate anywhere near 2% of the time you’re probably doing pretty well. In today’s world of spam filters I’m sure a large number of these emails don’t even get read. Check out my post Submitting Your Screenplay Via Email – How To Create A Catchy Subject Line for some tips on how to write an effective subject line.

I have never tried cold calling production companies mainly because I’m not a good salesman. I have had friends try this method and it is by far the most effective. If you can stomach it you should try it. Pick out a few smaller production companies and call them. Pitch your idea and try and get them to agree to read your script. Keep careful notes so if someone is friendly and receptive to your ideas you can call them back after you’ve sent the script to try and get any notes they’re willing to offer.

As you can tell from the different methods I recommend you’re going to get turned down a lot – in fact the vast majority of the time. Do not let rejection slow you down. Not even a little. I don’t. Any success I’ve had optioning and selling scripts is a direct result of me plowing forward even in the face of mountains of rejection letters.

I would recommend starting out with 100 letters through regular mail to gauge the effectiveness of your query letter and synopsis. Once you start to get close to 5% of your queries getting a “yes” response then you can step it up and start to do mass fax blasts. By only doing 100 letters at a time you won’t be alienating lots of producers with half backed ideas. If you can’t get roughly (i.e. at least 3) “yes” responses out of 100 letters you’re not ready for a massive campaign. You’ll need to take a long hard look at your query letter and synopsis and rewrite them. Try again with another 100 letters and measure results again. Rewrite and try again. And just keep trying until you’re getting some producers to read your scripts.

Another great source of young producers looking for material is places like Craig’s List, Backstage West, The Hollywood Reporter, and Daily Variety. Read my post about submitting your screenplay to ads like this. You can find it here: http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/how-to-sell-your-screenplay/submitting-your-screenplay-to-craig’-list-postings/

One word of warning: The ideas I’ve purposed above should not be used if they violate any local or state laws which they very well might since these emails and faxes may be considered SPAM. Most areas have laws forbidding SPAM and by sending unsolicited material to a company you may very well be spamming them. I’ve never had any problems; however, you should consult with a lawyer if you have any questions about the laws in your area.