Submitting a script via snail mail

I will be mailing off a requested script tomorrow. This is the first time I'm doing so via snail mail--all other interested prodco's and agents have wanted an e-copy.

What sort of cover letter should I include?

I was thinking maybe since we corresponded via e-mail, and we also chatted on the phone, maybe I could just print out the e-mails, rubber-band those onto the top of my three-hole-punched, brad-bound script, then slap a sticky on top of the whole package with a quick note to the exec I've been dealing with jotted onto that sticky.

Thoughts?

Flu said:

Mumut said:

check whether they want the manuscript bound. All the publishers I've sent work to don't even want it stapled - just held together with a clip.

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Screenplays don't have that problem. Brads are flexible that way.

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Flu's right, Mumut. Industry standard for screenplays is to only use brads. To bind a screen play in any other fashion is to invoke a serious case of piss-off-ed-ness in the exec.

MrJayVee said:

No, don’t send previous e-mails...and certainly don't rubberband anything. Just send a single page note that briefly reminds them of who you are (reference a previous e-mail or phone call), then an ultra-brief summery of your script, then let ‘em know you look forward to hearing from them after they’ve read the script. Also make sure your contact info is on the cover letter (and on your script). That’s it.

Good luck!

PS: I have a section on submitting scripts via snail-mail on my wesbite (see sig below).

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Thanks, JayVee -- turns out I had the wrong size! Mine are 2" and yet the style you described are only supposed to be 1 1/4" !!


So I need to go back to Staples tomorrow and buy the correct size.

clock_work9 said:

Write 'as requested' on the envelope as well to avoid getting lost in an unsolicited slushpile.

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Thanks, Chris! Good advice!

Thanks, zagoraz. That exact need to make the association between this piece of snail mail and a prior communication with an in-house exec was my rationalle. And I also like Chris' suggestion that I label the outside of the envelope "as requested."

Meanwhile, I just drove all over Hell and creation to find those frigging one-and-a-half inch brass fasterners!!! I drove all over Springfield and East Longmeadow. I went to Staples, Office Max, the Dollar Store, Ocean State Job Lot, Michael's Garden Supply and Crafts. NOBODY HAS THAT SIZE!!

Finally I went down to Enfield, Connecticut, and STILL nobody had them!

At that point I either needed to drive from Enfireld down to Harford (for those of you outside the USA, Hartford is the capital city of Connecticut), or else go back home and start doing internet searches.

I went home.

I located a small stationery store way the heck up in Northampton (half-way to the Vermont border!) that carries that size. I told them I would be there before they close (which is 90 minutes from now).

Shees! What a silly goose chase!

All right. I got my brads. They're one-and-a-half inches long. (Not one-and-a-quarter like the #5 brad is supposed to be.) But the only ones I was able to find at Staples and Office Max and Michael's and a dozen little shops along the was were:

1"
2"
3/8"

But there was nothing else. So I have the one-and-a-half inch brads, and that's what I'll need to settle upon for now. The alternative is to send away to the Writers Store for the the #5's, and I need them NOW, not next week.

Hmm .... I found ONE screenwriting web site just now that said "only use Acco #5 brads" (which are one-and-a-quater inches).

and then

Another screenwriting web site said "only use Acco #6 brads" (which are one-and-a-half inches).


So I guess my one-and-a-halfers 'tain't no big deal, eh?

(I googled the exact phrase "only two brads" and it gave me a huge slew of screenwriting advice web sites that went into excrutiating detail about how to send your script.)




All I know is the 2" brads I tried to use were SO LONG that they stuck out past the edges of the manuscript. So it just didn't seem right. And yet the 1" brads couldn't hold the document together at all.

Thanks Mr. JayVee for prompting me to rack up over 100 miles on my odometer today in search of your #5 brads.

odocoileus said:

Inch and a half's are fine.

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I suspect it will indeed sit.

odocoileus said:

They'll pull the brads out to copy it anyway. When they get to it. It could sit on the stack for a while.

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I'm just a little bummed that the strike is ending this week because part of me suspects this prodco's had a whole lot of nothing to do all this time. And so after midnight tonight, the Hollywood floodgates will be opened and the streets of L.A. will be saturated with scripts, and mine will get lost in the shuffle at this prodco.