So I was recently dropped by my agent and it was at the end of a long period of bizarre and conflicting behavior.
I'd love some feedback on this if anyone has some insight.
So here goes:
I'm a TV writer with an extensive career in the graphic novel world. I've won major awards, been nominated for major awards, have a lot of press on big graphic novel series I'm working on today. I'm talking big franchise titles.
So I got staffed on a well-regarded show last year that got cancelled but that's how things go. Then I was ready to head into network staffing season.
I signed with one of the big agencies and they gave me the same old spiel about being there for me for the "long haul" and how we're going to work together to make money and blah, blah, blah.
So, I got a ton of meetings with executives early in the staffing cycle all over town based on two of my pilot samples that were floating around. Most of the meetings went well, some were duds, but most were pretty strong and I had a good feeling about it.
Then we get to staffing season.
My agent kept telling me that things were "okay" and I'm still being submitted on a bunch of shows. Now, the thing is this - I don't know a lot of showrunners or higher level EPs, but I do know a lot of folks on the story editor and staff writer levels.
I knew for a fact many of the shows that I was supposedly still being considered for were already fully staffed or specifically looking for women writers.
So when I brought up the fact that the shows they said I was being submitted for were staffed, my agent's attitude shifted into a new place where they said that my samples weren't strong enough to get me to the showrunner meetings and that no one cared about my graphic novel background.
I was okay with what they were saying, but I didn't understand why they hadn't told me that before and why they kept giving me canned responses all of the time instead of telling me the truth?
Then it turned into this big song and dance about how they were perplexed that I wasn't getting traction and that I needed to write new samples. I was cool with that but I wanted to know if they were going to employ other strategies to get me recognized?
We set up a meeting where we all decided we were going to get on the same page regarding ways to sell me to the marketplace and everything seemed fine.
Then a few weeks passed and I get a call saying that they were going to drop me because they felt I was unhappy.
I wasn't actually unhappy, but I kept asking them for greater communication because there were times when I was submitted to TV shows for consideration but wasn't aware of it until WAY AFTER the window for me to burn favors with showrunners and executives who were colleagues had closed.
I had brought this up with them but they never really explained why they were so reluctant to let me know where I had been submitted. There were at least two shows I could have been staffed on but the lateness of their submission and the lack of me being told I was submitted caused me to miss out on those opportunities.
To this day, I have no idea what was really happening. Even during our final conversation, they were still giving canned responses instead of being truthful with me.
So now I'm working on some new samples and building for the future. I want to take what I've learned from this situation and apply it so that I have a better working relationship with my agents.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I'd love some feedback on this if anyone has some insight.
So here goes:
I'm a TV writer with an extensive career in the graphic novel world. I've won major awards, been nominated for major awards, have a lot of press on big graphic novel series I'm working on today. I'm talking big franchise titles.
So I got staffed on a well-regarded show last year that got cancelled but that's how things go. Then I was ready to head into network staffing season.
I signed with one of the big agencies and they gave me the same old spiel about being there for me for the "long haul" and how we're going to work together to make money and blah, blah, blah.
So, I got a ton of meetings with executives early in the staffing cycle all over town based on two of my pilot samples that were floating around. Most of the meetings went well, some were duds, but most were pretty strong and I had a good feeling about it.
Then we get to staffing season.
My agent kept telling me that things were "okay" and I'm still being submitted on a bunch of shows. Now, the thing is this - I don't know a lot of showrunners or higher level EPs, but I do know a lot of folks on the story editor and staff writer levels.
I knew for a fact many of the shows that I was supposedly still being considered for were already fully staffed or specifically looking for women writers.
So when I brought up the fact that the shows they said I was being submitted for were staffed, my agent's attitude shifted into a new place where they said that my samples weren't strong enough to get me to the showrunner meetings and that no one cared about my graphic novel background.
I was okay with what they were saying, but I didn't understand why they hadn't told me that before and why they kept giving me canned responses all of the time instead of telling me the truth?
Then it turned into this big song and dance about how they were perplexed that I wasn't getting traction and that I needed to write new samples. I was cool with that but I wanted to know if they were going to employ other strategies to get me recognized?
We set up a meeting where we all decided we were going to get on the same page regarding ways to sell me to the marketplace and everything seemed fine.
Then a few weeks passed and I get a call saying that they were going to drop me because they felt I was unhappy.
I wasn't actually unhappy, but I kept asking them for greater communication because there were times when I was submitted to TV shows for consideration but wasn't aware of it until WAY AFTER the window for me to burn favors with showrunners and executives who were colleagues had closed.
I had brought this up with them but they never really explained why they were so reluctant to let me know where I had been submitted. There were at least two shows I could have been staffed on but the lateness of their submission and the lack of me being told I was submitted caused me to miss out on those opportunities.
To this day, I have no idea what was really happening. Even during our final conversation, they were still giving canned responses instead of being truthful with me.
So now I'm working on some new samples and building for the future. I want to take what I've learned from this situation and apply it so that I have a better working relationship with my agents.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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