Lots of aspiring screenwriters wonder how they can sell their script. Well, after over 30 years in Hollywood working for one of the biggest producers of all time, I can finally reveal those closely guarded secrets to you. So, here goes…
This one might seem obvious, but you’d be shocked how often new screenwriters stumble out of the gate, spending months or even years working on a script that’s based on a banal, uninspiring or just plain lousy idea that will never elicit interest from agents or managers, let along studios and production companies.
Now, many cynical would-be screenwriters will say that ideas are “a dime a dozen” and downplay the importance of a dynamite concept, insisting that “execution” is the only thing that matters. Well, as someone who’s worked in the industry for over three decades, spending all my time looking for material to purchase, I can tell you definitively: these people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
Anybody who says that coming up with a great movie idea is easy has obviously never come up with a great movie idea. As far as “execution” goes, here’s the reality: finding screenwriters who can execute isn’t the challenge in Hollywood — there are literally thousands of them, all repped by agents and managers and all looking for their next job. It’s dynamite movie ideas that are rare as hell, coveted by the industry, and can make you a small fortune and launch your career as a professional screenwriter if you come up with the right one.
Of course it goes without saying that you should execute any idea to the best of your ability, but without that fantastic initial idea your execution won’t mean squat, because no one will want to read your script. This is the very first step towards selling your screenplay, and if you don’t have it you’re dead in the water.
This one is going to take some time. How does one write a great script? The same way you create any great piece of material, no matter the medium — you study the medium with curiosity, seriousness and focus, then practice, practice, practice.
The hardest part of writing is often just sitting down and getting started, but before you do that, you need to figure out what your great idea is (SEE step one), and work out the structure in some kind of outline or treatment to serve as your roadmap. Now, you don’t have to follow your outline exactly, but it’s smart to start with some sort of guide to your journey so you don’t get lost in the weeds in Act Two — and the “mushy middle” is always a challenge, even for professional screenwriters. The more worked out your story structure is before you sit down to write your pages, the quicker and less painful the actual screenwriting will be.
Write your first draft and make sure you finish the damned thing rather than getting distracted by the shiny objects of new movie ideas you’ve thought of during the writing; just make sure you write those ideas down in your notebook, Evernote or whatever method you use to keep track of your musings, and they’ll still be there when you finish this project. Take a little break after you complete your first draft, then after you have some time and perspective review your work to see what tweaks you want to make and typos you can find (and there will always, always be typos you can’t find).
When you’re done, solicit reads from the people whose opinion you trust the most, at least 3 or 4, then pay attention to what they say: if there are overlapping notes from multiple people about things that bump them, you should probably fix those issues. Whatever various notes are left after that, choose which ones you agree with and execute those. Take another short break, then come back to make last minute adjustments and fix whatever typos your friends and family didn’t find (and there will always, always be more typos).
You can ask people to read the second draft and do another round of notes and revisions, and continue to do this until they get sick of reading it or you finally feel confident enough about it to send it out into the world and hope total strangers will spend two hours of their precious time to read it.
As hard as you thought those previous steps were? This is one of the hardest, hands down.
One group of strangers you can get to read your screenplay are professional script consultants — and let me tell you, there are a lot of script consultants out there. Before you plunk down your hard-earned cash for some stranger to read your script, the best advice I can offer is caveat emptor — buyer beware. Do your due diligence and research these people online to find out how legitimate they really are: Google their names, look for their credits, find out what production companies they’ve worked for, and see if any industry professionals you’ve ever heard of are vouching for their credibility. There’s no license you have to get to be a script consultant, so literally anyone can claim to be one. But if you want your money’s worth, I’d encourage you to do your homework before you pull the trigger. If you can find a legitimate professional script consultant to provide you with helpful feedback and guidance, then you can hopefully improve your script and take it to the next level of polish and professionalism.
Should you enter screenwriting contests? I can tell you that as someone who worked for a top producer for decades, the only contest we ever really paid attention to was the Nicholl Fellowship, run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; that’s as legit as they come, and those writers go on to have real careers in the business. Beyond that, we’d pay attention to The Black List, but most of those screenwriters already have representation, and the list is made up of suggestions by production company execs who’ve already read many of the scripts, so it’s harder to get on that list. I suppose contests can be fun and validating, but do they automatically result in industry attention and offers of representation? Possible, but rarely.
What about PitchFests? As a young junior exec I attended a few of these early on, but to little real effect: it’s mostly like an even more awkward kind of speed dating then real pitching, and the kinds of “professionals” attending are usually the low-ranking ones who can’t really buy anything anyway. Do connections get made? Again, possible, but rarely.
Do query letters work? Sometimes, sure, depends entirely on who you’re sending it to — but it’s like sending a message in a bottle: maybe someone responds, but 99 times out of 100 they won’t. Remember what I said about dynamite movie ideas? Well, the query letter is where the rubber meets the road. Even if some harried agent/manager/film exec was remotely considering responding to a random query letter and soliciting a script from a total stranger, that logline or paragraph describing your premise better knock their socks off and make them pay attention to your idea over the hundreds and hundreds they’re inundated with over the course of the year. Even then, they’re leery due to potential liability: you never know what projects that person is developing, and if it’s something related to your idea, then if they solicit your script they run the risk of you thinking they “stole” your idea and open themselves up to a lawsuit. Not the best way to keep your job in a competitive industry.
So what are your other options? Network as best you can in writers groups online, a resource that didn’t exist before the advent of the Internet and social media. Follow professional screenwriters on Twitter and try to get them to “friend” you on Facebook, and see if you can ask them questions. There are temp services that cater to the studios and production companies, so you might be able to get a gig that gradually allows you to meet people in the business. Try to get a job as an assistant to a development exec, or an assistant in a TV writers room; you won’t find these listed in the classifieds, so you’ll only learn about them from people who already work in some facet of the industry.
The truth is, everyone’s in the same boat starting out, looking to make connections, but eventually some of the people you’ll meet will have a friend of a friend who works as an assistant for someone in the industry, and maybe — if you’ve got a dynamite idea with a solid script, and you’re not an aggressive jerk about it — you can get them to read your screenplay.
It’s a tough road, but literally dozens of aspiring screenwriters break through every year. If you’re diligent, smart, talented, sociable and patient, and genuinely have a strong piece of material, eventually you’ll get your lucky break. Just bear in mind that lucky break could take a dozen screenplays and many years to materialize.
Congratulations! You did it!
You read dozens of screenplays to learn format, style and structure, you’ve watched countless films in the genre you want to write to see what’s been done and fire you up with inspiration, you sweated coming up with a fantastic premise for your script, you busted your ass for months to get your screenplay finished, you’ve run the gauntlet of reads from family, friends and script consultants and you were lucky enough to find a friend of a friend who works in the industry to read your script… and son-of-a-bitch, they loved it!
If your friend works for an agency, then it got read by an agent who’s now excited about the script and intends to submit it to production companies and agencies that’d be a good fit for the material. And if it’s a friend who works for a production company or studio, then its gotten the executives excited, and this interest will immediately help you land representation.
If all goes according to plan, you finally have the right script at the right time, and voila! You’ve optioned/sold your first screenplay! You’re officially a professional screenwriter, and since you’ve sold to a Writer’s Guild signatory company, you get to join the WGA!
Just bear in mind: negotiating contracts for a script sale and actually receiving payment is a notoriously long and arduous process. One script sale I made with a major studio literally took nine months from “congratulations, we want to buy it!” to the actual check in my hands. So be prepared for that, even if you’re lucky.
Now that you know the secrets to selling your script — that are not-so-secret — it’s time to get started. So take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves, steel yourself, and get writing. Good luck!