A lot screenwriters have the false belief that once they’ve pitched their screenplay and they don’t get an agent or producer to buy it, then it’s time to give up.
– Myth #1: you only get one shot to pitch your screenplay
– Myth #2: agents and producers will blacklist you if they get a pitch from you and turn it down.
None of these statements are true. All the successful screenwriters that I’ve met have had to pitch their screenplay and query letter more than once.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
1. You need to get the query letter for your pitch just right—this usually doesn’t happen the first time around.
2. Agents and producers change their availability on a week-to-week and month-to-month basis.
An agent or producer might not be accepting unsolicited submissions one week, but the next week they do.
On other occasions an agent or producer might be looking for a comedy and you send them a drama. Then, two weeks later… a month later, they’re suddenly looking for a drama.
That’s how it works. No agent or producer is going to blacklist you for sending them the same idea or pitch. They’ll only get upset if you keep hounding them and using the same query letter over and over again.
I’ve seen too many examples where screenwriters have changed their query letters and landed an agent to know that this method works.
Speaking as a former agent myself, I would never close the door on a screenwriter. That’s not our job. It’s our job to find talent and work with that talent in a mutually beneficial way.
So here I am to tell you that it’s okay to pitch your story more than once. In fact, if you’re not pitching your script more than a couple of times, then you’re selling yourself short.
You’ve spent all that time and creative energy writing a wonderful screenplay, but you’re not giving your screenplay the exposure and marketing your story deserves.
If you’ve already pitched your script and received some positive feedback, then you probably just need tweak your query letter a little bit to encourage more agents and producers to get back to you.
This is really easy to do and I encourage you to check out the following articles that I put together to help you:
1. How To Email Screenplay Agents
2. Write A Query Letter That Producers Can’t Resist
Don’t let your talent as a writer go to waste. Getting an agent and selling your script is really just a matter of good marketing. I know, I know… sales and marketing are dirty words, but marketing, in the case of screenwriting is really just about pitching your script to the right person in the right way.
Let me know if you need any help at all, I’m always here to help you out.
*Jennifer Sloane has worked as a screenplay agent in Los Angeles and Nashville for the last five years. Jennifer loves good movies, music and animals. A former television and movie executive, Jennifer currently heads business development at Script Mailer (a company that connects screenwriters with agents and producers in Hollywood).