Entries Tagged 'querying' ↓
March 17th, 2010 — From The Feeds, querying
"What?"
"Did you hear that?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Exactly! It's too quiet."
On the query front, that is... I think I'm done with the first wave. Not a huge success, but at least I got one good bite out of it -- still waiting to hear back from them. Querying is hard! And in other news, water is wet.
There's something not quite right about my logline. I'm usually pretty good at coming up with them. Well, maybe for other people. It's too generic. Lacks urgency. I need to sit down and figure out a way to make the entire letter pop. Placing in a well-known contest wouldn't hurt either.
In the meantime, I'm pushing ahead with the new script. It's a mix of action and comedy. No vampires, ghosts or werewolves in sight, but there is a psycho stalker, so I haven't totally sold out.
March 6th, 2010 — From The Feeds, querying, screenwriting
The production company received my release form late Tuesday and off went the script on Wednesday morning -- couldn't resist a few last minute tweaks. I should hear from them in a few weeks. And the wait begins....
At some point, I plan on resubmitting to the companies that didn't respond on my first go around, but I'm trying to sync it with early contest results. And speaking of contests...
I'm not foolishly putting all my eggs in the
Nicholl Fellowship basket this year.
The Austin Film Festival and the
PAGE Awards are two other likely candidates. Austin's screenplay competition is on that next tier after Nicholl. I haven't experienced it, but the festival itself is said to be an excellent place to network. PAGE has a pretty good reputation and nifty cash prizes. I also like the fact that both contests feature genre categories.
February 26th, 2010 — From The Feeds, querying, screenwriting
Not much to say... except that I got a bite. In case you're wondering, my query letter was pretty straight-forward and vanilla. Introduction, logline and a brief synopsis. Each week, I've tried different variations (start with a hook, just a logline, etc.), but I haven't queried enough to draw any definite conclusions.
My excitement is somewhat tempered because they're not actively looking for supernatural/horror material. However, I'm not dumb enough to look a gift horse in the mouth -- always wanted to say that. Now I have to sign and drop an intimidating release form in the mail...
February 18th, 2010 — From The Feeds, querying, screenwriting
I did say something about being more pro-active this year, because it's highly unlikely that the heavens will part and a spec sale is going to fall right into my lap. I've been querying production companies for the last couple of weeks... pretty lame adventure so far. Had a brief nibble, but the synopsis didn't quite match their tastes, or I might have given away too much.
I'm around two dozen e-mail queries at this point. The low response rate is a bit disheartening, but also to be expected. According to a post on
sellingyourscreenplay.com by Ashley Scott Meyers, a 2% positive response to an e-mail query is pretty good. Odds are slightly better with faxes and good old-fashioned snail mail. Gonna try a couple of those.
There is one positive to take away from a rejection: they're willing to read material. If not this script, then maybe the next.
Surprisingly, it's not that difficult to track down contact information. Google is your friend, which probably explains the low response rates. These producer's inboxes are being flooded with dozens of query letters and unsolicited scripts. I'm sure there are mass deletions every morning. Thanks a lot, Hacks!
At this point, it's a waiting game. Query. E-Mail. Wait. Tweak. Query. E-mail. Wait. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I'll keep you posted if anything develops.
