Query letters

nikand28 said:

Thank you for your time and information. I will be much more informative on my next post.

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jbraykr was indeed brusque, but he's right. It's not easy shopping a screenplay. I finished one last year and it was very hard getting anyone in the industry to even look at it. Agencies like the WIlliam Morris Agency sent it back with Federal Express and a letter saying they had not even read it!
But then I realised that as a screenplay it wasn't nearly ready anyway - screenwriting is a very specialised form of writing and one needs years an dyears of experience before a script is ready for submission, and by that time, hopefully, one has found the right contacts.

What I did was take the screenplay and turn it into a novel. That's much easier to shop around - I already have several requests for it.

Good luck to you!

So because you're having a hard time of it, you figured it be okay to be rude? Yes, people start threads with little or no information. Yes, it can be annoying. But it doesnt give us the right to be rude in return. There are ways to toughen someone up without being tough about it. While your advice was right and nikand28 needs to do a lot of research, maybe your vehicle of delivery could be softened up a bit.

Nikand28. The consensus is that selling a screenplay to Hollywood is nearly impossible. That doesnt mean give up, by no means, but read the books that jbaykr suggested. Several times. From what I understand, selling screenplays is a totally different game. Most writers have sample scripts that they shop around and from that come commissions to write scripts for movies that producers want. In Hollywood, the writer is the lowliest man on the totem pole and a necessary inconvenience. If they could make movies without writers, they certainly would and I'm sure that some movies are made just that way. How else would you explain 21 writers working on a script and it still stinking to high heaven?

Tough advice, and I'm sorry we let the air out of your balloon. But like jbaykr said, better to know it now then later when you've hit your head against that brick wall once too often. Don't give up, but be aware of that wall. You'll remember to put your helmet on first.

I noticed that you're not posting from LA. That's a big problem, unless you're related by blood or otherwise to one of the Hollywood movers and shakers. What it all comes down to, at this point, is that, short of stalking an agent and holding a gun to his/her head, there's probably no way to get your query read by an agent or studio, let alone your screenplay.

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Bull. That's like saying you have almost no chance of getting a book published because you don't live in New York or Chicago.

Nikand28, let me start by saying that when I was in the seventh grade, I wrote a screenplay, wrote a query along with it, registered it, and sent the query around to agents. And guess what, an agent requested to read the entire thing. They showed interest. No, the script didn't sell, but the point is, I live in Georgia and it doesn't matter where you live. If you have an interesting story, people will take notice.



Regards,

Jason