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Do You Need an Agent? By Mary J. Schirmer
I've been meeting with an overly-anxious screenwriter (a friend of a friend) who's written his first screenplay, based on his book. The theme centers on some true events in his life, so he feels a genuine emotional connection to the material.
As with most screenwriters, he's convinced that he's written the next box office smash, even though I pointed out that it's a story without one clear main character which makes it hard to cast, and it's a period piece which makes it expensive to shoot.
Undaunted, he set out to find an agent. He found one all right, and even though I pointed out that there were Internet warnings about the company, he sent off his script. They, of course, true to the warnings, told him he had to pay a reader to do a critique before they'd take him on as a client.
I don't want this to sound like I told him so, but I did! I told him he shouldn't pay them to read his script because that's part of their cost of doing business.
Please, please, please don't pay an agent or manager or producer to do their work.
Anyway, now that he realizes it was a scam to separate wannabe screenwriters from their money, he's looking for another agent.
What attracts an agent to a screenwriter? The potential to make easy money.
Who makes easy money for an agent? A screenwriter who's already had a hit or two or three or four.
Does this sound like the screenwriter in question? Say it with me: "No."
This is not even to mention that he's not in LA or NY to take meetings, his book isn't a bestseller, he has very few writing credits in other forms, he has no contest placings or wins, he has no formal training in screenwriting or filmmaking, he argued with me about cutting back his script from 149 pages, and I could go on.
I told him to send a lovely query letter to the agents on the free list from the Writers' Guild website.
I suggested that he ask his book publisher for a referral to a literary agent who handles both book and film rights. He wants me to refer him to somebody. I don't know anybody (so don't ask).
When you ask for a referral to an agent, you are asking for a major consideration.
People protect their own agents because, if you think about it, if someone says, "Hey, use my agent," he's really saying that he's willing for his agent to spend time selling your projects, too. Most writers can't afford to be that generous. Not that agents don't have multiple clients, but writers wish they didn't.
Also, nobody is going to recommend you to an agent until he or she has read your screenplay and is 1,000 percent behind it. People protect their friends and their friends' time. They extend favors carefully.
Getting an agent reminds me of what Groucho Marx said about not wanting to be in a club that would have him as a member. In other words, why would an agent want an unproven screenwriter?
It's really, really, really hard work getting scripts out there to be read. Why would an agent want to work that hard for you or for any other new writer, when you haven't made one dime for his company yet?
Maybe because the agent's new, too. And if the agent's new, you don't want him or her.
It's a catch-22.
In the meantime, I told him to begin his next screenplay. When you pitch your idea to a producer or agent, if she doesn't care for it, the next question is, "What else do you have?"
This is another reason why agents don't want to work with new screenwriters. They often have only that one script.
And one is not enough.
To read past Film Fuss columns, click
here.
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