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GKelly
10-02-2005, 11:29 AM
I'm gotten the name and contact info for the assistant to a big agent. Has anyone ever tried querying an assistant rather than trying to get to the agent directly?

Thoughts?
GKelly
10-02-2005, 12:33 PM
He's the assistant to a major lit. agent at one of top five agencies. I might give it a shot. As you pointed out, assistants are usually on their way to agent status.
pooks
10-02-2005, 12:52 PM
If you're going to contact him (or her) you might as well go for broke and say that you've heard terrific things about him/her, that he/she is really sharp, or something similar. Brown nose. It never hurts. (Just don't overdo it.)
elephant1978
10-02-2005, 01:47 PM
But if you haven't had contact with an assistant first, I'd suggest just querying the agent. The assistant will read everything by default anyway. Might as well aim high and see if it gets in the big guy's lap.

Ele...
GKelly
10-03-2005, 10:40 AM
That's my thinking... The Big Agent won't even open the letter, but the assistant might.
pooks
10-03-2005, 11:20 AM
I'd call, not write.
elephant1978
10-03-2005, 02:10 PM
That's my thinking... The Big Agent won't even open the letter, but the assistant might.

My point is that the assistant goes through all of the agent's calls and letters regardless. So you may as well go after the big guy.

Ele...
Deus Ex Machine
10-03-2005, 02:20 PM
Targeting an assistant is a strategic move to appeal to the ego and ambitions of the assistant.



Today's assistant is tomorrow's young turk.



I've targeted assistants and had success with it.


Good luck.


:)
kidcharlemagne
10-04-2005, 04:46 AM
I established a connection with an assistant at Gersh. She read a script of mine years ago and met up with me for a Starbucks when I was in LA. She became an agent a year or two later. I got a bunch of meetings and interest in a pitch. I kept her in the loop. She said she'd read the script.

When I finished the script I touched base with her but on that same day she was clearing up her desk and leaving the business! Not to be deterred I called up her replacement who read my script and passed. I managed to get a couple of friends read by him but he passed on their scripts as well. That was my experience with assistants. Normally I try and go for the agent.
Jake Schuster
10-04-2005, 06:30 AM
It should be mentioned, Kid, that her replacement not only passed on one particular person's script, but forgot to tell that person. :)
kidcharlemagne
10-04-2005, 01:15 PM
Nout so queer as folk, as they say in Yorkshire.
pooks
10-07-2005, 04:42 PM
I once had a Big 5 assistant tell me there was no way his boss would read anything that came in from an unproduced writer, that they only wanted writers who were already earning money. He said most queries got trashed unread. (I still believe in querying, by the way, because as John Doe said, I believe in doing EVERYTHING hoping SOMETHING will work.)

The point is, IF somebody has a reason to want to go for the asst, it's much better to do it directly than to send a query to the boss and hope the asst will notice.