'The Great Query Letter Hoax': Thoughts, Agreements, and a "Personal- Rebuttal; An In

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  • 'The Great Query Letter Hoax': Thoughts, Agreements, and a "Personal- Rebuttal; An In

    Read more: https://thebackstoryscreenwritingsta...ting-staffing/

  • #2
    Good Infos! Thanx!

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    • #3
      Re: 'The Great Query Letter Hoax':

      The thing is, that if you are outside the immediate area, queries are a way to obtain requests to read your material. It isn't a fable.

      It's also about sending the query to the right person. If you send a dark thriller to a person/company that sells comedies guess what, you're not going to get a response.

      Equally true is when the concept is poor and that shows immediately in the logline. You have to be able to write an effective logline-- a compelling one.

      And when the right person requests the script-- it had better be good.

      I guess what I'm saying is there are a lot of reasons why query letters go unanswered-- it isn't always because it's a poor format.

      I just sent an email (today) to a manager that has strong sales, and he responded with a request to read my spec literally within minutes of receiving it. THAT'S the kind of manager I want working for me. Receptive. Hungry.

      And the same thing happened last week with a production company (with 12 projects listed in 2015 already) last week. They sent me a release, I signed it, returned it, and they made sure everything was in order and gave me permission to send the script on Thursday.

      It doesn't get better than that. Except of course it they really like the writing-- and that's subjective and personal, so we'll see, right?

      It's out of my hands now.

      And I'm not saying this doesn't take time and research, it does. All it takes is one person to want to champion your project-- it's the finding that one person that takes time and effort. It takes perseverance.

      Some of us have responsibilities: families and other paying careers that make it impossible to accept a low paying (or unpaid) internship in order to make connections. Believe me, if I could move to LA now, I would be on the first plane.

      That's not to say that connections can't be made elsewhere, they can and are made all the time. An agent sent me a facebook friend request last week. I have no idea why, we have no connections to each other that I know of, no friends in common-- but it's an opportunity to network and make new friends.

      Even twitter has turned out to be a worthwhile resource for making connections.

      I guess, I just see it differently. Use every available tool to your advantage. Just because the odds are against you, doesn't mean you shouldn't try-- after all, if you had that attitude, you never would have started writing screenplays in the first place, right?

      Don't do what someone else tells you to do. Don't do what I tell you to do. Do what you feel YOU should do to advance YOUR career.

      Anyway, my two cents.
      FA4
      "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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      • #4
        Re: 'The Great Query Letter Hoax': Thoughts, Agreements...

        I've never written a query letter, to be up front. I got my manager/agent through a buddy who liked my script and was awesome enough to pass it along. I definitely think that making connections any way you can is more important than essentially cold calling, even if it's informed cold calling (in regards to a production company that produces your type of script, etc).
        That being said, I agree, why wouldn't you take advantage of every opportunity possible? Unless you're turning down networking opportunities to stay home and write more query letters, I don't really see the harm. I think the article is right to point out the odds of it being successful though. As long as you're realistic about it, doesn't mean it's not worth trying as well.
        @ZOlkewicz - Don't follow me on Twitter.

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