[Agency] Verve Literary

any info on what they handle?

Technically it says talent and literary, so definitely multi-media.

Verve Agency

I'm always polite and called Verve agency very first time 5 weeks ago, asked for one of the three agents from the list at IMDb and an assistant transferred me to their voice mail box. All I left was my name and number and maybe had mentioned I was hoping for a couple of minutes to pitch my script. No response ever came. I don't think I'm being a pest if I call five weeks later. A secretary transferred me to a secretary to one of the three agents on the list. She put me on hold. She then asked I spell my name as it can easily be mistaken. I spelled it. She read back to me exactly what my telephone number is that I had not given to her this call. I thought they must have had it in their data base somehow. I said that was correct. She then kind of theatrically said "bye" in that kind of way they don't really mean it and hung up. I'm new to much of the ins and outs in Hollywood. Does this indirectly mean that they black listed me? I can't imagine why they would so readily do that. Another place I called, a production company I think it was, I mentioned I was hoping to pitch to someone my screenplay. The secretary asked my name, the name of my script, my phone number, then said thanks and hung up. The whole time she spoke she sounded not friendly and authoritative. It just led me to believe they somehow black list those they think sound inexperienced or something like that. Maybe they are such renown companies (ones I haven't heard of though) that I am suppose to somehow know I'm not suppose to call them, or something like that. Does anyone know if they create black lists of some kind? Thanks!

Winfred said:

I am suppose to somehow know I'm not suppose to call them

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It is certainly not considered professional or appropriate to cold-call literary agencies that deal primarily with the publishing industry. (Here's agent Janet Reid's recent post on the topic.)

I don't know if there are different expectations of what is and isn't professional behavior with literary agencies that deal with screenplays, tv scripts, and multimedia projects as well as book manuscripts. Perhaps folks in the Screenwriting forum here can help.

Does anyone know if they create black lists of some kind? Thanks!

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No. But I would encourage you to ask experienced people what the most professional way of going about this stuff is, and then follow those strategies. Clearly cold-calling Verve and the production company didn't work; I don't know whether they're representative of most of the other companies in this market, or what, but the people on the Screenwriting forum here do.

I am no expert, but I doubt that cold call is going to get you an agent.
As a matter of fact, I would not want an agent who returns cold calls. Reeks of desperation on agent's part.

Hi! Thanks very much for taking the time to respond with your helpful advice! I'm not new to this, although this is my first time attempting the telephone approach. After phoning about 50 agencies and producers only one asked (agent) to look at my story. At times secretaries would ask; "does this have talent attached?", "Is this budgeted?", "Does she/he know you?". I was always upfront and polite and would just say that I'm a screenwriter hoping if I might have a couple minutes of their time to pitch my story. I would then get the response they don't take unsolicited material. If they added because of fear over lawsuits, I'd then ask; "even if it is WGA registered and copyrighted?" and they would still say no. I never even thought that if an agent returned a cold call that it was an indication of them not being a successful agency, which is good advice as now I can see what you mean. One agent was nice to warn me not to call non-signatory agencies, just WGA signatory agencies. That WGA list isn't very long when one considers the odds of any even taking scripts... and wonder too why out of so many agencies out there so few are signatory ones. Does anyone know the answer to that?

Also reading Janet Reid's article has helped very much, although I try to see things from the other's perspective and be respectful, in fact I was sweating it out and my stress level rises with phoning as I am worried about intruding. It's just that I feel I can better represent myself verbally. I'm unemployed and so low budget I can't afford the contests, or the pitch fests etc. I also was thinking that if agencies go to pitch fests then maybe they wouldn't mind a pitch over the phone. Also, in the contest vein, I remember phoning Austin Film Fest as I had missed putting 2 pages in my script. I asked the secretary how many scripts they had received, and this was quite some years ago, and she said 4,000. Then I asked; "who reads them?" She said local people, anyone whose interested in reading one. I asked; "then they don't require any past experience?" She said no, at least in the first round of reading it's just anyone. I don't want to intrude on anyone, however I have to admit I'm trying everything I can in hopes of getting someone out there to want to read my script, the script of an unknown unproduced writer with no recommendations. I am going back to the query approach. It was surprising to hear too how many are not taking queries, and some not taking them just for now, which could mislead a writer. If you have more advice I'm very appreciative. Thanks!

Hi! It's funny I just received a call with a 310 prefix that made my heart jump. It was actually Verve Agency! I guess the secretary who was very short must have forwarded my name and number. The secretary asked why I had phoned. I said I was hoping to take a couple of minutes to pitch my story. She said, like one word, "we don't take unsolicited scripts bye" and hung up. At least she didn't sound angry, just in a very big hurry. At least trying twice made the difference over knowing that fact. There are a fair number of agencies, even though they are listed at WGA, that don't even take scripts from new writers. I wish WGA could note that so writers wouldn't waist their time trying to contact them. Thanks Again!

Oh, boy.

There's a definite chain of 'how things are done' in film, and cold calling while brushing off the overworked assistant isn't anywhere on the list.

You might want to hang out in the TV&Film section of this site and read some threads. The competition in film is much greater than that of literature, and that's pretty steep competition in itself.

/return to originally scheduled program.

Anyone know anything about response rates at this agency? Still nothing on website. I pitched an agent after she told me to at a conference, but acc to QueryTracker she doesn't reply much, so I'm not sure how long to wait... Any positive experiences with them? Thanks in advance!

I love my spreadsheet.

I queried Haley in April of 2021 and never heard back.