The Friendly Follow-Up

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  • The Friendly Follow-Up

    A good friend and I were talking this morning about the joys of the well timed follow up note. For him it was about a contract negotiation that was dragging it's feet. We'd been talking about it for a while and he'd been biding his time and being patient so as to not look desperate, but also being very firm in what he expected when they contacted him over a protracted period of time. A couple of days ago, he decided now was the time for HIM to follow up with a polite email asking, "Where are we here?". They responded... "Thank you for following up and we DO need to get this done.", and viola... he signs the agreed upon contract, that's he's happy with, today.

    For me, it was also a couple of days ago that I politely followed up on the status of a write for hire cable network series episode I had completed and sent to the production company a couple of weeks ago and heard nothing about since, even though they made it clear the needed it very asap. I wanted to call them a lot sooner but knew if I bugged them, well... they would be bugged and that's not good. So, after waiting a couple of weeks, off went the email to the VP of Production which started with a friendly, "Hey, I know you're busy, but I'm in town in two weeks and would love to see you and oh... did you get a chance to read the episode?" I got an immediate answer... "No... will try to read it early next week, but I'm glad you emailed... we have a film rewrite job we want you to get started on asap. Will call you Tuesday." I expect the call today. And a job.

    I read in here, all the time, advice from better pros than me about following up and not being afraid to do it, but also being smart about it. Well, it's true. Don't be afraid to follow up. Sometimes it's needed to jog them to action.

  • #2
    Re: The Friendly Follow-Up

    Very true.

    A lot of new writers treat reps, execs, and producers like holy genies who once disturbed will no longer grant your wishes.

    But when you're actually in business with someone, you need to treat it like any other professional client-vendor relationship. And that means open communication.

    Now, this isn't to be confused with query letters and read requests. Do one follow-up and then move on.

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