Hollywood Screenwriters Network
Opening the Doors to Hollywood® - Hollywood Discovery Awards®
HollywoodNet || HollywoodLive || HollywoodFest || HollywoodShop || HollywoodBooks || Members

The Screenwriter in Cyberspace
By Charles Deemer

Mr. Deemer is an award-winning playwright, a screenwriter, an editor and writer. He teaches screenwriting at Portland State University, is the author of the book Screenwright: the Craft of Screenwriting, and is the webmaster of The Screenwriters & Playwrights Home Page. For more information on Mr. Deemer and his work, please click here. This column is a guide to using the Internet to a writer's advantage in matters of craft and marketing.

Listen to Charles Deemer's RealAudio Screenwriting Tips

Column #20: Getting Your First Reading

This summer I taught a seminar at Portland State University for a small, select number of students on Marketing Your Screenplay. Each of these students had been working with me on a script for nine months, taking my screenwriting class and working one-on-one with me in special conference sessions.

The results of this seminar make me more optimistic than ever about the marketplace. Each student got at least one producer to request her script, one student got over six requests, and another got over a dozen requests.

For each student, this was her first script. None has an agent.

The Marketing Plan

How did these beginners get producers to ask for their work? By carefully following a step-by-step marketing plan.

  1. Rewrite until the script is ready to market.
    • Each of my students has been working on a script for nine months. They developed the concept in my beginning screenwriting class and also wrote a draft of up to half the script there. Then they continued to work with me on their script through the next two terms of the school year. Each script, then, had had several rewrites by the time they enrolled in my marketing seminar. I believed it was time to see if producers would read their script.
  2. Prepare a short, effective query letter.
    • I had each student write a query letter less than a page in length. The focus was on pitching their story. Although none has any credentials of note, I thought it was important for them to say that they have been studying screenwriting at the University for a year. The letters were short and to the point but also were "catchy" without being cute. They presented their stories in a dramatic context that made them appealing. Hopefully the reader of the letter would want to read more about this story. (Interestingly enough, I did not think any of the stories were high concept enough to be easily marketed. One of them was a coming of age comedy, another a woman's family story, another an adaptation of a 19th century novel, which also was a woman's story. I was frankly surprised - and encouraged - by the number of requests for scripts.)
  3. Research the marketplace.
    • Each student used the Online Hollywood Creative Directory to find appropriate prodcos for querying. This was a two-step process. First I had the students list movies similar to their stories and then to find the producers of these movies. These were the first to be queried. But I also encouraged the students to use the HCD to do a "shotgun approach," querying anyone who was not genre-specific in their credits. Most of the querying was done electronically.
  4. Query to a schedule.
    • I had the students send out a minimum of ten queries a week. The more, the merrier. I had them do this throughout the entire course.
  5. Keep records.
    • Finally, results started to come in. Each student's first request for a script was like Christmas. I paused to remember my own joy at this necessary first step in the career process. Requests for scripts encouraged them to send out even more queries. I had the students keep records of all responses - who asked for a script, who said no. The first scripts were mailed out and the waiting began.
  6. Start another project.
    • I encouraged each student to begin a new script. This is the way to face the waiting head on - be fickle and find a new love, another focus for your enthusiasm. Begin a new screenplay!
  7. Don't get discouraged.
    • And then the first rejections. Fortunately, all my students received "good rejections," notes that while the script was well written etc., it did not meet the production plans etc. These companies invited future queries, and I had each student put these in an "A" File for future use. Interestingly enough, the warmest response came to the student with the adaptation, including a long phone chat with Spielberg's people, and as I write a producer is close to making an offer for her script. But I emphasized how tough and competitive a marketplace they had entered, and how sometimes "yes" really meant "no," that initial producer enthusiasm could quickly turn to rejection. Once again, I urged students to focus on a new screenplay in progress and to continue to market the first one with the detachment that accompanies grunt work. Market to a consistent schedule but save your soul for your work in progress.

The Open Marketplace

What excites me most as a screenwriting teacher is that all of my students had their first scripts read by producers with credits. I don't take credit for this, although I do think the short, snappy query letters and the students' own enthusiasm and studies opened the doors, all of which I influenced. But this class tells me that the marketplace is open, that producers will read your work if you have an interesting story and promote it in a professional manner.

I will not be surprised if at least one of these students options her script soon. Two have this level of interest.

And you can do the same.

--Charles Deemer



Become a HollywoodNet Member - It's Free. Choose Category in Menu.
Enter Your Email. Click Submit
Yes! I want to receive news & info via email:
   
 

Hollywood Shopping Network

Scour Hollywood for Movie memorabilia, books and more!

[Inner Circle || HollywoodFestival || HollywoodNetwork || IndieNetwork || Hollydex || Shopping]

e-mail: Writing@Screenwriters.com

Originally appeared at the Hollywood Network.