TheScreenplayAgency
God I wish I had come across this message board sooner! I'm another naive screenwriter who fell for TSA's "promise". I paid $95 for a pathetic critique and since the second draft of my screenplay was re-submitted I've received two responses. The first one was this --
Dear Gary,
Sorry I haven't been able to get you a proactive report on any marketing
results. (You beat me to the punch by a few days
In the past month there have been a couple of "internal matches" that
were relatively close to your work from the Look For Now (LFN) database
process. I am in the process of following up to discover if any of them
will agree to review your work. I will be continuing to work for you in
this manner over the next month if that's ok with you. It's slow, but
it is a good place for us to start and for you to get used to the slow
pace of the industry, which is almost tougher than writing!
Circle back to me in about a month if you have not heard from me before
then. During the next 30 days, if we don't have anything more concrete
from the LFN process, we will shift gears and get more aggressive and
discuss other options.
All the best,
Mary Bluestone
Senior Agent
3 moths past and I heard absolutely NOTHING so I sent a query e-mail - only to get the exact same e-mail sent back to me - word for word..including their promise..."During the next 30 days, if we don't have anything more concrete from the LFN process, we will shift gears and get more aggressive and discuss other options"...complete bull because more than 30 days have past and they haven't shifted gears or discussed ANYTHING with me thus far.
The latest e-mail I got from them when I sent another query a few days ago is a peach. Read this --
Gary,
Sometimes the LFN process can be maddeningly slow.
At this time, we are planning ahead and asking certain authors about
whether they would like to create a website to assist us with marketing
your work in more circumstances.
If you remember, email and having a website is one of the methods we use to market your work. It's more aggressive than just waiting for the LFN database to give a hit. The way having a website helps us is that we
have a certain group of buyers that we send an email pitch to. You can
also reference your website in any communications that you initiate.
The pitching website mimics your hotsheet, except it's placed on the web
in an attractive and industry accepted format.
If you would like to be included, you must have a website that the buyer
can click to. Uf you have one of these websites it gives us many more
options with marketing your work, so if you can afford it, we strongly
suggest that you have it.
If you would like to proceed in this manner, we found a web creation and
hosting company that does a great job and we have negotiated a greatly
Reduced price for our authors ($145 total cost.) That's the only cost
for the website for up to 2 years, and it includes creation, and hosting for
that time period. Of course if you can get a website done yourself
that's fine too, it needs to match this format exactly.
Here are a couple of examples of what the pitching websites look like.
http://www.stauthor.com/6044/Suffocate.htm
http://www.stauthor.com/6044/legendofdestiny.htm
http://www.childrensliteraryagency.com/Ghostplc.html
So, let me know your thoughts about proceeding with a website, or if
you'd rather wait and let the LFN process continue to move along.
I look forward to your reply.
Mary Bluestone
Senior Agent
CAN YOU BELIEVE THOSE SCAM ARTISTS OR WHAT???????? What a change from the very start huh? From the lame promise "we never charge a fee until we sell your work" to "we have negotiated a greatly
Reduced price for our authors ($145 total cost.) That's the only cost
for the website".
I URGE ANY ASPIRING SCREENPLAY WRITER/ AUTHOR TO STAY WELL AWAY FROM THIS USELESS, PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR AN AGENCY. IT IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND THEY DON'T EVEN DELIVER THE "PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP" THAT THEY KEEP PROMISING.
"We never promise a sale"....now I can see why. Because they CAN'T.