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Now it’s finished where do I send it?
A question repeatable asked by new writers, particularly when they finish their first script.
Realise that anyone who has connections is not going to give you theirs, in case your work is better than theirs or because it might be your work is complete **** and they will look a fool, with their hard fought for contact.
You have to do the legwork yourself and build your own network of connections.
The first thing is to make sure the screenplay is ready, it may have re-written it several times, but almost certainly it is not ready and neither are you for the shock of the market place, if you are a beginner.
Most new writers think their scripts are unique and that their concepts are outstanding. They almost expect the industry to beat a path to their door. They won’t and undoubtedly if it is you first script it is not that good. The average number scripts before a sale for most professional writers is nine.
A Hollywood producer and writer with dozens of produced scripts to his name said, “No one is a good writer until they have written over a million words”.
Over 100,000 scripts were registered last year and Hollywood made less than 300 films and less than 10 of these were from spec scripts. Independent Producers made around 2800 movies and over half of these were written by the director or producer and less than 800 were released as a finished product.
Going from “I want-to-be a writer” to a published writer with a finished product showing at a cinema is a long eventful road.
Be prepared for the time it takes, the difficulties of finding someone to read your material and the hours you will have to spend perfecting the craft and then the disappointments along the way.
First register the script with a recognised body. WGA on-line is 22.
Then you need to know if your script is good, and comments from friends and family are not good enough, you need reviews, loads of them from FREE sites like TriggerStreet and Zoetrope.
Then get a professional critique from one of the many offering such services on the web. A good one will probably cost around 500, a really good one will cost more like 2,000.
Critiques for 50 tell you everything, you need to know about the provider. It takes at least two hours to thoroughly read a feature script, let alone make comments and suggestions, so remember you get what you pay for.
Once you know your script is good, really good, start writing the next one.
Don’t think of Agents, they don’t want to know you unless you have achieved some success on your own and you have at least five or six quality scripts behind you.
By the way, you don’t approach the good Agents they approach you, after a recommendation from somebody they trust who is in the industry.
When you have a script worthy of consideration you have to get it to someone who can see the potential, is prepared to invest time and money and their reputation in your work. That in itself is a mountain to climb, one when you first started you probably never considered.
Send query letters but never the script, just the logline, if they are interested they will request the script. You can try InkTip, personally I have had good results on that site, but mostly when I have five or six scripts on there of various genre and budgets.
Attend festivals, gatherings, anywhere you can, where you can network.
Market yourself, not you work, but you. Networking helps but don’t expect to sell your script, scripts are rarely purchased these days they are optioned. Often for a period of two to three years while a producer puts a package together.
Then, when you find a producer who likes your work, comes the delays in producing a film from your script. My first assignment was completed in July 2005; the director still hasn’t set a shooting date. My second assignment completed in January 2006 was to go to film in February 2009 but even that was not craved in stone.
We have a new date now, Jan 2010. Get use to the delays.
The larger the budget the longer the delays. The higher up the ladder you set your sights the more likely in the beginning is the likelihood of failure.
And be prepared to completely re-write your masterpiece in accordance with the producer and or directors requirements, if you are not willing to, they will get someone else to do it.
Have no emotional hold on your work, it is just a property. Becoming a writer has to be a burning ambition in your heart, something you can’t give up on, a part of your life, your very existence.
You have to write for the love of it, not the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You have to write well, your work has to be original, different, exciting, entertaining and have a style (a voice) that can be identified as yours.
All of this takes time. How long, well that is down to you and the effort you put into your dream.
The line between a dream and a nightmare is an invisible one,
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