Shopping Your Screenplay: Advice from a Fellow Screenwriter

Advice comes from lots of people - often from those who've never even done what they preach. I've written four feature film screenplays, shopped them around and got them read. Let me share my tips in getting yours read too.

Query Tips

Hollywood, despite legitimate criticism thrives on creativity. It's a dream factory where creative ideas develop into films, which tickle, thrill and chill us for generations. Movie studios definitely appreciate creative ways to sell product.

When shopping a script, you may think you only have those 90-120 pages to lure the industry to read it. After all, you've spent many months, perhaps even years into crafting a story and characters, which should touch and amaze all that read it. But they have to want to read it. They have to really want to read it, because agents, producers and directors get dozens of calls, faxes, letters and emails queries shouting at them to read scripts. The flood of requests can be overwhelming even for a well staffed agency or production house. You have to make you and the material stand out from the crowd.

This isn't to say you should take paints or flashy stickers to punch your screenplay up. That should be professionally presented. Don't use huge fonts for titles or weird formatting. That screams amateur. What you can do is make your query stand out. You're a writer that crafted material, which could soon be entertaining millions around the world. You're perfectly able to write a fun query letter.

What's fun? That's subjective. You don't want to come across like a desperate stand up comic or clown, but some well placed safe jokes can't hurt. Offering up a brief synopsis of the story, then standing outside it and offering pointed comments, draws attention to the plot and puts yourself as a prospective audience member of the film. This can have the same effect on who reads the query letter.

Sample query

Romeo and Juliet are two crazy kids in love, but the world is against them. Isn't it always the way? Remember when you loved someone, but family or friends hated them? You survived, but poor Romeo & Juliet aren't as strong. The audience will identify and be incredibly moved. Who could want more?

You've communicated a core plot, familiarized the reader with characters and asked them to ponder the plot in relation to something in real life.

Marketing Tips

Creativity in marketing is essential. Studies show new products do better if campaigns it are fun or memorable. Raw statistics are fine, but packaging it entertainingly can do wonders.

After finishing a science fiction horror movie with a writing partner, we wondered how to get attention for our chiller. I came up with stationary featuring grisly fun graphics in the spirit of the script horrors. It wasn't too gruesome, just enough to be catchy. We printed these up for snail mail letters and inserted them in emails as graphics. Finally, I did something that really caught the eyes and appetites of Hollywood.

The movie involved nasty creatures - the staple of many classic horror movies. I realized gummi candy creatures are sold in candy stores. I bought a case, personalized each pack with our film title and contact info. It was a huge hit. A few loved the candy so much, they asked for more! We got three agent requests to read it and also one very popular film director. Stuart Gordon, director of such cult horror films as Re-Animator and who co-wrote Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, asked for our script and even called us while on set filming a new movie.

Going the extra mile in hatching a solid marketing plan will give your script more of a creative punch to score those all important reading requests.