I’d like to introduce you to Mike Richards. At the time he contacted us, Mike worked as a sales executive and on the side wrote articles about topics that interested him, primarily articles about entrepreneurship and current events. Mike also had an idea . . . as it turns out, a great idea.
Mike, by his own admission, had never been a great writer. He just wrote what he was passionate about and it just so happened that Mike was passionate about books too. In Mike’s own words:
“One day I was reading this great book The Count of Monte Cristo, when I thought, you know things haven’t changed that much in the world. There is still injustice, there is still love, there is desire for revenge, there is hope, lost riches, and great friendships. There I was reading a book that was written over 150 years ago and I realized why this book was so great, what made it timeless was that it transcended generations. We can all relate to the story, no matter where we are, no matter who we are—and I loved that. That’s when it struck me. Someone should make a modern day movie about this book. Yeah, there was already a 2002 movie based on the original book. But I thought a modern day re-telling would be more interesting, like they did with Great Expectations (starring Ethan Hawke).”
So what Mike did next was craft a simple, but effective query letter. By his own admission, Mike believes that his sales experience helped him put together a letter that was simple, clear and effective.
“I had never written a screenplay before. Sure, I’ve read screenplays and watched a ton of movies. But I’ve never actually sat down to write a screenplay. That was something I felt was beyond me at the time. But I did believe this, without doubt, I had a great idea. In my sales career I’ve done the door-to-door thing. I’ve sold crappy products to people who didn’t want them. And I’ve sold great products to people too. I knew that I had a great idea, and if I set it up the right way, and I could get it to the right person, I could sell it.”
When I asked Mike what his ultimate goal was here, he explained, “I was just trying to find someone who could develop the idea for me. Someone in the industry who would take my idea and turn it into a movie.”
Never Be Afraid To Ask For What You Want
Well, Mike certainly got what he asked for and a lot more. Mike pitched his query letter to agents, producers and production companies. The first week Mike got a couple of responses, but these were just customary emails from producers passing on his idea. Then the following week, Mike heard back from a prominent producer.
“I got an email from this producer who liked my idea and was interested. I didn’t even know this guy and the next thing I know he was willing to offer me $50,000 up front to get the rights to the movie. Who was I to say no.”
There are many lessons to be learned in this life. One is to never let fear stop you from reaching out to people in order to achieve your dreams. People are highly receptive when people reach out to them (as we saw in Mike’s case).
As a writer, you are most likely a very unique person. Someone who is highly creative and in the fortunate position to be able to come up with unique and original ideas. Most people in the world aren’t blessed with this gift. The world craves your ideas and stories. But unless you’ve had some basic exposure to sales and marketing before, most writers are terrible at pitching their stories.
Don’t be intimidated by this concept. A good pitch is just an effective query letter delivered to the right person. Another way to look at it is like this: the query letter is the marketing of your screenplay, letting people know about your work. The follow up script that you send out is the sale, it’s the product you will be known for. Your story. Your work. Your words. Your art. There are, as you read this, people out there right now who are less talented than you working as professional screenwriters. All because they did one thing differently to almost 99% of all other people out there: they knew how to write an effective query letter.
*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).