What to do with screenplay?

Pinkarray

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I have just finished a screenplay last month. It's a dark comedy fantasy/sci-fi animated screenplay and I am looking for a way to submit it somehow? I don't know if I should sell it to an industry, submit it to an agent, enter a contest or what. I have been searching and writing down possible agents I can send a query letter to. I am a new writer who is looking to break into the industry.

A few years ago, I sent a teleplay to Cartoon Network but they sent it back telling me that they don't accept unsolicited submissions and to get an agent, so that's why I've been looking for agents a lot.
 

Maryn

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My understanding--strictly second-hand--is that you don't query until you have a minimum of three excellent scripts in three genres.

According to the screenwriters I used to know at IMDb before they killed their message boards, it's pretty common to query a script that unknown to you is too close to something already in the works or that the agent already represents. So the agent calls, because your script was really pretty good, and says, "Yeah, we've just sold a dark comedy fantasy/sci-fi animated script to BigStudio. What else you got?" and if you can't immediately pitch something completely different, you've just used up the one chance you have with that agency.

Based on that, I think you need to be writing, say, a kids' movie and an action or adventure movie, or a romantic comedy and a biography, or a drawing room drama and a Christmas movie.

Maryn, knowing you hoped for advice that was less work
 

Pinkarray

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My understanding--strictly second-hand--is that you don't query until you have a minimum of three excellent scripts in three genres.

According to the screenwriters I used to know at IMDb before they killed their message boards, it's pretty common to query a script that unknown to you is too close to something already in the works or that the agent already represents. So the agent calls, because your script was really pretty good, and says, "Yeah, we've just sold a dark comedy fantasy/sci-fi animated script to BigStudio. What else you got?" and if you can't immediately pitch something completely different, you've just used up the one chance you have with that agency.

Based on that, I think you need to be writing, say, a kids' movie and an action or adventure movie, or a romantic comedy and a biography, or a drawing room drama and a Christmas movie.

Maryn, knowing you hoped for advice that was less work

It's more of a tween movie and it does have action and adventure in it. I do have several drafts of teleplay episodes done that are in different genres but I don't have any movie scripts done.
 

Maryn

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Then I'd advise you not to query yet.