So yeah, I have a blog? Been almost a year since I transgressed into this dear lost but not forgotten tundra that is Trying to Write Some Horror. But I've been very busy. Working at a movie studio, writing my own stories and home life have me securely tied down, but not today. Today I want to try and reach out to as many of my fellow writers as possible with a few helpful hints regarding querying reps and production companies.
Now in full disclosure I have yet to sign a rep, whether that be an agent or manager or guardian angel. But I've got open doors at several of prominent managers and all five major talent agencies, so hopefully it's only a matter of time before I can cross over to the other side.
The Query. A blind email to a person you do not know asking them to give you an hour or more of their personal time to sit down and give you a chance. Why should they say yes? Time is money. Time is limited. Time is precious. You are writing me out of the blue asking for my time?
Now as someone who both receives queries and sends them I want to pass on a few tips on how to get to yes. Because not only does YES give you a glimmer of hope for the hours and days you have put into essentially 100 pieces of worthless paper, YES gives those pieces of paper validity. Validity for your ideas and validity for your work.
THE LETTER:
Intro paragraph: Dear _____, (actual name)- not "production executive", or "agent" or to "whom this may concern", take the time to specify each letter to each specific person. You want my time? You need to show you took the time to know who the fuck I am. Followed by a brief, introduction and what you are submitting to me. Enter, Enter, then--
The Logline: Title in bold, one to two sentences on what the story is, the concept, the characters and essentially why should I glance at page one. The logline is your lifeline. Give it to as many people as possible and see if they give you the slightest inkling that they would watch that movie. Pay someone to write your logline for you if you have to. But keep it brief and to the point. I normally skip everything your have written up to the logline. If I cannot find your logline; DELETE. If your logline does not sound original? DELETE. If your logline has spelling or grammatical errors? DELETE.
The point is to keep them reading and interested.
Next a brief summation as to who you are and why should I respond to this query. Interesting occupation? Film School? Screenwriting Awards? Something to validate your awesome logline. To get to a yes.
And that's it folks, nothing more nothing less.
COMMON MISTAKES THAT BOTHER ME:
- Spelling, Grammar, obvious copy and paste sections that are of a different font or size. I realize that if you do not speak English or if English is not your first language this may be hard, but its also an immediate delete. Pay someone to do this for you. Because if the two paragraphs you are writing do not make sense the hundred pages you send me most definitely wont.
- Writing too much. I get 300+ emails a day, give or take. You have a brief window to woo me into a yes. When the email pops up in the bottom right hand corner, if I can spot a mistake already, auto-delete. If I open the email and see that you have sent me a four page memo, it doesn't matter I'm probably not going to divinci code the thing to find your logline.
- Subject Line. This one is tricky. Just putting "Query" in there certainly does let me know what it is, but if I open an email and see an interesting title, you get my attention immediately. When I'm sending out queries to put the title here. You're looking for attention right? Start off by getting some.
- Asking if I accept submissions or queries. The answer is no. If you're writing me an email asking if I will accept your submission the answer is always no. Why waste your time sending out these emails? And secondly, why would I respond? My company has a very strict no unsolicited submissions policy. And so does every agency, studio, production co, etc. Yet, somehow these scripts get through the cracks every once in a while... I wonder if a good letter/logline has to do with that?
- Submitting a query to a production company/studio and asking for representation. Either you don't know enough about the business or you are too lazy to change your query for me. DELETE.
- Do not use constantcontact or another subscription based blast email websites. Those go directly into my spam account, I see a bunch of queries in there every morning when I check my email and those are immediately dumped.
- Last tip... Time of Day. Think about this one... You want to get someone when they are at their computer, so they can see an email pop up and click on it. Unless you are querying someone in NYC think about PST times. I've found the best times to send out queries is between 11AM-1230PM, and 3-5PM. People need time to settle down into their offices. Drink a cup of coffee. Go to a meeting. Then you've got them at their computers. Probably looking for an excuse to surf the web instead of do work.
I'm sure there are many more tips and tricks you can use, but my lunch hour is over and I wanted to get these tips out of my head for anyone out there wanting to check them out. Feel free to hit me up on twitter if you have any questions or concerns
Best,
CJevy
Now in full disclosure I have yet to sign a rep, whether that be an agent or manager or guardian angel. But I've got open doors at several of prominent managers and all five major talent agencies, so hopefully it's only a matter of time before I can cross over to the other side.
The Query. A blind email to a person you do not know asking them to give you an hour or more of their personal time to sit down and give you a chance. Why should they say yes? Time is money. Time is limited. Time is precious. You are writing me out of the blue asking for my time?
Now as someone who both receives queries and sends them I want to pass on a few tips on how to get to yes. Because not only does YES give you a glimmer of hope for the hours and days you have put into essentially 100 pieces of worthless paper, YES gives those pieces of paper validity. Validity for your ideas and validity for your work.
THE LETTER:
Intro paragraph: Dear _____, (actual name)- not "production executive", or "agent" or to "whom this may concern", take the time to specify each letter to each specific person. You want my time? You need to show you took the time to know who the fuck I am. Followed by a brief, introduction and what you are submitting to me. Enter, Enter, then--
The Logline: Title in bold, one to two sentences on what the story is, the concept, the characters and essentially why should I glance at page one. The logline is your lifeline. Give it to as many people as possible and see if they give you the slightest inkling that they would watch that movie. Pay someone to write your logline for you if you have to. But keep it brief and to the point. I normally skip everything your have written up to the logline. If I cannot find your logline; DELETE. If your logline does not sound original? DELETE. If your logline has spelling or grammatical errors? DELETE.
The point is to keep them reading and interested.
Next a brief summation as to who you are and why should I respond to this query. Interesting occupation? Film School? Screenwriting Awards? Something to validate your awesome logline. To get to a yes.
And that's it folks, nothing more nothing less.
COMMON MISTAKES THAT BOTHER ME:
- Spelling, Grammar, obvious copy and paste sections that are of a different font or size. I realize that if you do not speak English or if English is not your first language this may be hard, but its also an immediate delete. Pay someone to do this for you. Because if the two paragraphs you are writing do not make sense the hundred pages you send me most definitely wont.
- Writing too much. I get 300+ emails a day, give or take. You have a brief window to woo me into a yes. When the email pops up in the bottom right hand corner, if I can spot a mistake already, auto-delete. If I open the email and see that you have sent me a four page memo, it doesn't matter I'm probably not going to divinci code the thing to find your logline.
- Subject Line. This one is tricky. Just putting "Query" in there certainly does let me know what it is, but if I open an email and see an interesting title, you get my attention immediately. When I'm sending out queries to put the title here. You're looking for attention right? Start off by getting some.
- Asking if I accept submissions or queries. The answer is no. If you're writing me an email asking if I will accept your submission the answer is always no. Why waste your time sending out these emails? And secondly, why would I respond? My company has a very strict no unsolicited submissions policy. And so does every agency, studio, production co, etc. Yet, somehow these scripts get through the cracks every once in a while... I wonder if a good letter/logline has to do with that?
- Submitting a query to a production company/studio and asking for representation. Either you don't know enough about the business or you are too lazy to change your query for me. DELETE.
- Do not use constantcontact or another subscription based blast email websites. Those go directly into my spam account, I see a bunch of queries in there every morning when I check my email and those are immediately dumped.
- Last tip... Time of Day. Think about this one... You want to get someone when they are at their computer, so they can see an email pop up and click on it. Unless you are querying someone in NYC think about PST times. I've found the best times to send out queries is between 11AM-1230PM, and 3-5PM. People need time to settle down into their offices. Drink a cup of coffee. Go to a meeting. Then you've got them at their computers. Probably looking for an excuse to surf the web instead of do work.
I'm sure there are many more tips and tricks you can use, but my lunch hour is over and I wanted to get these tips out of my head for anyone out there wanting to check them out. Feel free to hit me up on twitter if you have any questions or concerns
Best,
CJevy
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