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sales-options Best way to sell a script?

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Craigslist.

Just kidding.

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Nobody is going to read it for various reasons. You need to find an agent or third party with the right connection to even have a remote chance of it getting read by a junior member of a production team. You'll also be competing with 27.5 million other script writers.

Good luck.
 
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russflex said:
What is the best way to go about selling a script? Should I just mail it to producers?
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Mailing a script to producers is not the best way to sell a script.

Read about "unsolicited material". The best way is to get a high powered
agent to send your script to producers. But you may not yet be in that
place. I've read another post of yours where you say, "I don't think making
money should be the main concern for anyone trying to get established in
this business." That might be good advice for you, too. When trying to get
established as a writer you may have to partner with a producer and raise
money yourself to get a script made. Perhaps selling a script at this stage
isn't realistic.

But you don't want to hear that, do you?

You have at least five finished screenplays, right?
Send a query letter to producers, prodCo's, agents, managers and directors.
 
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There are some suggestions here that you should "Find an agent". That's a great idea. However after selling a script, it might be the next hardest thing to do in Hollywood. Agents just don't sign any joker that cold calls them. On the topic of cold calls, that's another strategy some are good at. Try and get past the gatekeepers to a low level decision maker and beg them/ pitch them to read your script.
Winning contests can get you some attention and it'll vette your script to some extent.
 
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Forget about Hollywood and agents and managers without a track record of writing stuff that has a pre-existing fan base.

You have to start off small.

Email queery letters with the log line to your script and see if someone is interested in reading your script.

Also, get an account with Inktip.com, list your script on Mandy.com, and join writers' groups.

If you are lucky, an independent producer who is as unknown as you are will pay you what they can afford for your script, which may be anything from $50 to a couple of hundred dollars. Be happy for that much and move onto your next script.

Once the script is sold, the producer / director takes over. Hopefully, they will mail you a DVD copy of the final cut down the line in a year or two.
 
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directorik said:
Mailing a script to producers is not the best way to sell a script.

Read about "unsolicited material". The best way is to get a high powered
agent to send your script to producers. But you may not yet be in that
place. I've read another post of yours where you say, "I don't think making
money should be the main concern for anyone trying to get established in
this business." That might be good advice for you, too. When trying to get
established as a writer you may have to partner with a producer and raise
money yourself to get a script made. Perhaps selling a script at this stage
isn't realistic.

But you don't want to hear that, do you?

You have at least five finished screenplays, right?
Send a query letter to producers, prodCo's, agents, managers and directors.
Click to expand...

You took that out of context. I was telling a film maker they should take a deal that a distributor gave them instead of saying no and letting the film go unwatched. That isn't the same thing. If I had a $1 deal for my script to be produced along with credits for it, I would take it. When I use the word "selling," I mean more of selling the idea to a producer who would invest in making the film. I don't expect to make any real money because I know writers are the last person to get rewarded, even though they are the most important part of the film making process.
 
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Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
Forget about Hollywood and agents and managers without a track record of writing stuff that has a pre-existing fan base.

You have to start off small.

Email queery letters with the log line to your script and see if someone is interested in reading your script.

Also, get an account with Inktip.com, list your script on Mandy.com, and join writers' groups.

If you are lucky, an independent producer who is as unknown as you are will pay you what they can afford for your script, which may be anything from $50 to a couple of hundred dollars. Be happy for that much and move onto your next script.

Once the script is sold, the producer / director takes over. Hopefully, they will mail you a DVD copy of the final cut down the line in a year or two.
Click to expand...

I tried InkTip before. Never really had success with them. I know it is a million and one shot anyways. I was just wondering if any of you actually had success with selling scripts.

The sad thing is Hollywood doesn't seem to appreciate good stories anymore. They would rather produce garbage that is quick to entertain, without it staying with you when you leave the theater.
 
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GuerrillaAngel said:
Craigslist.

Just kidding.

---------

Nobody is going to read it for various reasons. You need to find an agent or third party with the right connection to even have a remote chance of it getting read by a junior member of a production team. You'll also be competing with 27.5 million other script writers.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Yeah right, lol. That site is full of scumbags. I wouldn't sell my shoes on there.
 
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I sold a short script. It can be done. It was sold to a small time producer. I didn't get paid much.

Try listing on Mandy.com.

If your script is a short, you can list it for free on InkTip.com.

There are several places you can list your script on filmmakers web sites. Just use Google.com.

I was told by a Hollywood producer, the studio execs are only interested in material and writers with pre-existing fan bases. That way they can track their bottom line to figure on how much money they can make. They will not take any chances with unknows. They have a business to run with one objective. And, that is to make money. Art and technical excellance does not interest them.
 
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russflex said:
I don't expect to make any real money because I know writers are the last person to get rewarded,
Click to expand...
You are incorrect. The writer is the first person to get "rewarded" (paid)
unless the writer gives their script away for one dollar and credit. Then
they get one dollar. Without a script the producer has nothing.

So are you are asking how to find a producer who will make the film - not
asking how to sell the script? If that is your question, then nothing I said
is relevant. Sorry about that.
 
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I like to look at it this way, selling a script is a wholesale transaction. Someone has to turn it into a movie to get retail sales. So I need to have a script that can make money for someone else. Having a track record of making someone else money is a good thing to have when selling anything. Can my script make money if produced? That's the million dollar question.

Find people to read your script and listen to what they say. I recently got lucky and a indie distributor read my current script I've been working. He liked it and said he thought it was "shootable". But also said he didn't think it would make money, "depends on how much it cost to make. I could probably sell this oversea and make about 25,000.00". So the film cost would have to be around 10,000.00 for the producer to make any money at all. How many people are making features for 10,000.00? How much will the writer make? The distributor provided me with very interesting information.
 
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Without a pre-existing fan base, your figures are off by a factor of 100 to 1,000. No production company or filmmaker in their right mind pays that type of money to a first time writere with no fan base or the script's material that has no fan base. If a Hollywood actor or producer was here right now, they'd be asking, "And what have you done before? What movies do you have creditd in that ahve made money?"

An agent, manager, or production company will run your name through IMDB first before any consideration to read maybe the first 10 pages of your script. And, that will be from your query letter. They will check for past credits and income the films have made.

Even overseas, filmmakers won't pay much for unknowns.

First timers have to start off small, until they can build up a fan base.
 
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For all writers out there;

Modern Day Myth is completely wrong on this. Producers do NOT, EVER
turn down an excellent, marketable, well written script because the
writer doesn't have a "fan base". It is the writing that producer buy and
good writing is good writing.
 
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directorik said:
For all writers out there;

Modern Day Myth is completely wrong on this. Producers do NOT, EVER
turn down an excellent, marketable, well written script because the
writer doesn't have a "fan base". It is the writing that producer buy and
good writing is good writing.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's any such thing as a screenwriter with a "Fanbase". Even A list screenwriters are nobodies to the public, and schmucks with Underwoods to the tastemakers. :ike you say, good writing is good writing is good writing. Period. The trick is for an outsider to get the script in front of eyeballs that matter. Those suits really know what they want and what they can sell. if they like it they like it, irrespective of IMDB credits.
 
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The 25,000.00 I mentioned was from regional broadcast rights over seas not DVD sales. The distributor felt there would very little in DVD sales. I should have clarified that in my previous post.

I agree with Directorik, producers are looking for good scripts. That's their business. The trick as a writer is to come up with a great script. Not so easy.
 
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