Does this mean anything?

[workhorse]

So after querying several managers and not getting any bites, I thought I’d just query some development execs at studios and see if I got any bites there. I haven’t, but…

I sent it to a development exec at a major studio on June 2nd. Thanks to email tracking, I was able to see that it was viewed several times on both an iPhone and Mac desktop in LA and Beverly Hills. Then on June 5th, I received a form response that they have a strict policy not to accept unsolicited material. So I figured all of those views were from the email getting forwarded to legal or whatnot in order to send me the form response.

However, even after sending me that form response, my query is continuing to be viewed. It was viewed twice on June 5th (after sending the response to me), viewed once more on June 6th, and then twice more on June 7th.

Is that odd? Am I reading too much into this? I’m just confused as to why they would keep viewing my query letter even after sending me a response saying they don’t accept unsolicited material. Any idea what it could mean? Or does it mean absolutely nothing?

[And while we’re on the topic…I always wonder what it means when one of my manager queries is viewed, and then viewed again an hour later or a day later. I usually get no response…so did they just forget to delete it the first time and then have to go back and look at it again before deleting it, or do you think they were mulling it over a second time? Or was it opened by the assistant first and then later viewed by the manager? I know, I’m driving myself crazy with this email tracking!]

[omjs]

Depending on the email app/program they use, there could be all sorts of reasons they're viewing an email multiple times. It could have an unclear subject line (or the program could be pushing the unique part off the screen), so they're opening it while looking for something else. They could be absent-minded and going "What was that again?" Or it could be like my Outlook client, which marks emails as read every time I do something that would make them open in the preview panel (which happens often by accident while I'm scrolling). Maybe it's an assistant browsing through. Maybe they just decided to practice zero inbox and they're moving emails around. It's hard to say.

Honestly, one of the reasons I've never liked read receipts or email tracking is because it doesn't tell you much. What will you really do differently if it turns out someone hasn't opened your email? What does it matter if they've opened more than once if they still pass? It just seems like one more thing to obsess over.

[workhorse]

Yeah, you're probably right. No sense in trying to figure out something that I'll never know the answer to. I guess I just assumed that once a query was a pass that it was then deleted. But it sounds like many just keep the query in their inbox. Maybe so they can search back through their email if they need to.

[catcon]

Given the HUGE number of queries I send out, I am SO glad I do not track them. I'm bad enough refreshing my website hit counter every hour on the hour!

Incidentally, I don't know if it's different now, but in the OLD days, when a sender requested a receipt the RECIPIENT was told "the sender ha asked for a receipt, do you wish to..." etc.

Now I don't know about any of you folks, but surely this is one way to truly annoy these executives!

But maybe the new email systems are different.

Just send 'em and forget 'em, and move on to the next person, and be surprised if/when somebody truly responds.

[martin]

Agreed with all of the above. You're goal is to gob smack them and make them feel compelled to track you back. If they didn't, they're either not the ones meant to champion your stuff - which doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with your work - OR - (big IF) you should give it to a couple of trusted readers to see if maybe the idea is great but there's something not tracking well in the execution. But yeah, don't read too much into the tea leaves, just keep on trucking.

[workhorse]

Originally Posted by catcon

Given the HUGE number of queries I send out, I am SO glad I do not track them. I'm bad enough refreshing my website hit counter every hour on the hour!

Incidentally, I don't know if it's different now, but in the OLD days, when a sender requested a receipt the RECIPIENT was told "the sender ha asked for a receipt, do you wish to..." etc.

Now I don't know about any of you folks, but surely this is one way to truly annoy these executives!

But maybe the new email systems are different.

Just send 'em and forget 'em, and move on to the next person, and be surprised if/when somebody truly responds.

It's an add-on for Chrome called "Streak" - it tells you when and where an email was viewed but doesn't send or require any read receipt. I downloaded Streak because I was tired of wondering "Did they not like my query or did they just not see it yet?" At least now I know when a query has been viewed, and when I don't hear back, I can just assume it's a No. But of course the downside is that now I obsess over what multiple views means. lol

[catcon]

> Google Streak

Well, hell.

I wouldn't care as much about how many views the thing got, but simply whether it's gone directly into their spam folder and not read at all, ie. via a message rule.

I get a 1% response rate - not READ rate, RESPONSE rate!

Oddly, some of the ones I most appreciate are those that say "take me off your list" or a note from a legal department. That reduces my work and helps me clean up my database, so I'm actually happy to receive them.

Alternatively, I've sent queries to some producers over the past 8 years (the best examples are 9, 13, even 25 pitches overall) before they've responded with a request! Now, does this mean they've evaluated every pitch prior to that, or just that this one managed to get through?

I didn't want to ask (was too happy to just get the read request).

Anyway, I will obviously go streaking... or at least check it out.

thx

[cvolante]

Google Streak: A whole new world of paranoia, worry, and cyber-stalking for screenwriters!

(Not what we need!)

I think the old "send it and forget about it" remains the best approach, although it is kind of hilarious to see what they keep doing with it after the letter from the legal department.