Article of the Month

I’m repeatedly confronted by writers who believe it’s futile to try to break through the barricades to Hollywood or to the world of publishing. These writers often live far from Los Angeles or New York, and they’re loaded with work and family responsibilities. They don’t know who to contact (they feel like they don’t know anyone at all), and they hate the idea of research and cold calls and networking and pitching and anything else that brings them out of the comfort of their writing cocoon to do something they don’t think will work in the first place.

So imagine my joy at receiving a very kind and generous email from Theresa Carey thanking me for my books and DVDs, and telling me about the great success she and her partner had had by using my methods to get their script read. Theresa is a mediator in rural Wisconsin (!) who lives and works at home raising five of her seven children (!!).

Besides making me feel good (a sure-fire way to get your email read), her comments intrigued me. So I asked if she would tell me specifically what she and her partner had done to produce such great results. Reading her reply, I quickly realized that they had gone far beyond what I had recommended. Thanks to a good log line and concept, a strong query letter, a specific business plan and a great deal of tenacity, they prove that with sufficient commitment, it’s possible to get lots of people to read your screenplay or manuscript.

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I wanted to thank you – for several things, if you will indulge me for a few minutes.

Last summer I emailed you about barter possibilities for some coaching on our screenplay. You were very gracious and sent the barter form for completion.

We don’t live in the LA area, although I grew up in Orange County. I left Orange County, and the full-time practice of law, in 1994, after my three year old opened our front door to find an opposing party from a heated custody case, standing there with a gun. I haven’t practiced law since leaving California several months after this incident. Shell shocked, I guess.

So, as I was filling out the form, asking for a favor from you, I felt this just did not make sense, asking for a handout when I have skills that could generate an income. I needed to get back in the saddle – one way or another – and work to earn the money.

I feel a strong connection with your message (on the inner journey of the hero) and am a big fan of your work, and thus felt motivated to get off my duff and do what it takes to get my life in order and accomplish the goals (including expert coaching on this project) I have set out for myself. The idea of getting your input helped me to find the motivation to make some major changes in my life.

Instead of going back to practicing law, however, I chose a kinder, gentler path. I opened a small mediation practice here in rural Wisconsin (outside Madison). There have been ups and downs, but I have made enough money to keep the office open, pay the rent and keep the phone on. The extra hours that are not devoted to family and clients have been filled with reading and re-reading your books, watching The Hero’s 2 Journeys and your DVD on love stories, and on editing and perfecting the script and the pitch.

At the same time, my writing partner and I spent several months perfecting our logline and developing a marketing plan. Part of that included writing down the plan (very important!) and listing every potential contact we could think of – and then some. Another big help has been Dave Trottier’s book The Screenwriter’s Bible. He has great info on marketing as well, and has also been a big help with formatting questions.

My partner attended the Screenwriting Expo in 2007, and he made a lot of contacts there. He practiced pitching (and at that point it was really just practicing), and he attended lots of workshops, including yours, which he loved. The script still needed a lot of work at that point, so we decided to take it slow and get it as good as we could. We did not want to use these potential connections prematurely, but he held on to those names and business cards.

Once the script was as good as we felt we could get it, we committed to sending out ten queries a day - consistently and regularly - and agreed to not get bogged down in self doubt, even if we heard nothing back. Persistence and patience are the keys here, I guess.

One trick I figured out is to send email queries around a holiday weekend, as we get a LOT of automatic "I am away for the holiday" responses which give an email address for that person’s assistant, and usually a direct phone number as well, which we can use for our follow-up.

We really try to only send a query to a person or an organization that would be a good fit for the project, as we don't want to waste their time or our time. We subscribed to IMDbpro.com and DoneDealPro.com (cuz they were inexpensive and recommended by you - good call!), and read the daily info on what sold to whom, and which companies bought similar projects to ours (drama, romance, adventure).

Truth be told, it took months of tweaking, studying, editing and perfecting to get to the point of being confident enough to send a handful of cold call email queries. I felt like I was just dipping my toe into the water, and naturally I did not expect much of a response – you know how it goes with cold call email queries.

Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the office one Tuesday morning to find four requests to read the script. By Tuesday afternoon, I had received two more requests, one from an agent, and one from a production company executive. By Friday, I had several more requests and had a good conversation with an agent. He also requested a copy and promised to get back to me in a week or so.

At that point - but not before - we started tapping into some of our friends of friends who knew people in the industry. We spoke to several of them and received a good referral to an entertainment attorney, who has been very helpful and available for questions on releases, legalities and just general advice. We got another good referral to an agency, and they are currently taking a look at the script.

We have had a great response, but are still sending ten queries a day. Every few days we have one or more requests to read the script. Today we got a request for the script from the producers of the Twilight series – which is exciting!

We also got one "Pass", but it included a request for any other scripts we may have. I passed on several loglines on projects we are working on and the producer expressed strong interest in one of them, and asked to see the script ASAP. We have also been given a lead on a potential writing project for an A-list actress – so although we haven't sold The Donner Party yet, doors are opening up.

A really big part of our success thus far is having a good, eye-catching title right in the subject matter of the email or query letter. You have four or five words AND THAT IS IT, to grab their attention. You know how it is when you get an email – you can usually just see the first few words of the content. So, we don’t ever bother with a "Dear so and so," but just get right to the heart of it.

The email in the box below is the one we send. It’s short, sweet, to the point and has a hook – all those things you have recommend in your books and lectures.

Of course at this point it is a lot of hurry-up-to-wait, so we are also trying to exercise patience regarding hearing back from those who have requested a script. We follow up with people at the two-week mark – on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, as most reading takes place on the weekend, and company meetings are on Mondays. By mid-week, perhaps they will have something to report, or have questions, etc., and be open to talking before it gets too close to the weekend.

I also ALWAYS send a thank you email if someone does respond, even if they say they are not looking at new projects right now or whatever. I say thanks AND would you consider referring us to someone who might be interested in this type of project. I have not gotten a “No” yet from anyone who has asked to read it, but some others have said they only accept from an agent or attorney. Here is where our attorney connection is very helpful, as he has offered to send things on for us if necessary.

Thank you again for being such an inspiration and an accessible crutch (when periodic moments of panic set in, it is very handy to have your books on the bed table for a quick 2 a.m. pep talk). I think everything you have said on these topics is really right on, and as hard as it is for us over-anxious writers, it is really important to approach this like a business, take it a little slower than we are comfortable with, make sure the title, the logline, etc., hit all those points you repeatedly tell us to hit, and stay positive, optimistic and determined. It is sometimes scary talking to some of these high level people, and of course we are at times almost consumed with self-doubt. But we just power through that and hold on to our love for this story, and our belief that this is a story that needs to be told. We try to harness our commitment to the story to keep us focused and able to move beyond our fears and self-doubt.

Needless to say, this is an exciting time. I am guardedly optimistic, and naturally hoping for a positive response. However, at this point, regardless of where things head in the next few weeks, I wanted to take a few minutes to write to you and thank you for all your help and inspiration!

Take care,

Theresa

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Theresa’s terrific story pretty much speaks for itself. I just want to summarize what I think are the key steps she and Bruce took to achieve the success they did: