Screenwriting : What if I wanted to sell my script really, really cheap? by Mariano Amézaga

There are companies out there that do pay like that. I've sold scripts for a little as $1000. You just find producers or companies that are churning out very low budget stuff and hit them up.... However, credit on a micro-budget movie, one that no matter how good your script is probably isn't gonna turn out so hot, isn't going to help you. In fact in can hurt. Better no credits than bad credits. And really it's not much easier to find a low budget producer to buy a script cheap. My advice is to seek out producers who pay fair wages. Don't waste time trying to give your stuff away.

Anything is possible. What it requires, regardless of budget, is a Producer or Creative Exec to become aware of your script, read it, then fall in love with it enough to champion it. The real truth is that 99.99% of the time, so-called producers with no money will NEVER have money. And these are the producers you are most likely to find in the bargain basement end of the business. Those producers who do have the money or access to money need to be very selective about what they spend it on, even a thousand bucks, because they have tens of thousands of really bad scripts to wade through to find one that interests them, and limited funds to expend on any of them . And even then it's a whole lot easier to hire an experienced writer with a track record to tailor a project to fit the needs of the company or market than dig for needles in a haystack. Not to mention the legal risk they expose themselves to by reading outside material. How do you break out of the pack? That's the age old dilemma of the starving artist. First comes the work, writing script after script honing your skills and art. Then persistence, getting out there and making contacts, any contacts that can lead to a break. Finally, shameless self promotion. But the thing is the people you are trying to get to are flooded with a hundred thousand really bad writers, sometimes clinically insane, storming their offices with a script in every pocket and past-due notices on their rent, desperate for success. I'd suggest first getting feedback from paid script readers to see if your stuff is really ready to take to market. Then start going after low level managers and agents with recent client sales in your genre. Got to AFM in Santa Monica and talk to the companies there and the distributors. Ask questions and make contacts more than trying to cold sell them on your script. Then follow up with a nice email and a query sent to the person you met addressed to them by name. Go to some of the major film festivals and do the same. Have fun and don't stress about making a sale today, for a thousand or a million. A career is a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck.

Nice insights, David. When is your horror story, The Nameless, coming out? And is it true that some really scary stuff happened during the filming of it, like what happened during the filming of The Exorcist? And did you really shoot it in the original house of the possessed girl? NICE.

David is on it! I did want to expand on one thing he said. In ANY business, if someone selling you something even has the residual scent of desperation alarms go off. It is natural to pass on something that seems undervalued as we have all learned that there is no free lunch. No one wants the potential drama or down side that can come with someone that is desperate.

right on David, it is indeed a marathon not a sprint.

Wouldn't it depend on the budget of the movie? I'm a producer. I cannot finance a $10,000,000 project even if I buy the script for $1,000. Wouldn't it depend on the quality of the script? The script could be already tip-top finished, bulletproof, bla bla bla, but if it isn't something that people will pay to see $1,000 might be too high. I feel a script is so much more than the writers asking price.

The real issue isn't the script price, it's the script quality. Because no matter the price, the screenplay is going to be one of the least expensive elements of the film. And all of those other elements? Live and die on the quality of the screenplay. (Quality in most cases has more to do with commercial aspects than artistic aspects.) So if you decide to sell a screenplay for $1k, no one is going to jump at that because it's a cut rate script. In fact, they may spend ten to fifty times that even though your script is cheaper. The whole film comes from the screenplay, so every other cent spent on the film is wasted if that script isn't good.

I got offered a similar price a few years back to write a script off a producer's story idea. I turned it down because it would have paid substantially less than my very flexible book-editing work-at-home day job. And now I'm regretting that choice a bit. I'm taking Hal Croasman's ScreenwritingU ProSeries class and he talks a lot about taking less than super-attractive deals, because they're deals, which means a credit, which is really important. He also advises that other writers will often tell you not to do these things, not to sell yourself short and so on, but that is often the worst advice when you're trying to get a foot in the door. The thing is, though, it sounds like there's no offer on the table yet for you, so i would say shop it everywhere, from high-rent to the gutter. And then do what a friend of mine advised me to do years ago: "Say yes until you have to say no."

As long as the hairs are not standing upright on the back of your neck - when an opportunity arises grab it by the balls and swing. Over the years i have been involved in some dire projects - but they were all learning experiences and in some cases, years later I have worked with the same people on projects that were much more satisfactory. In the end it all comes down to credits - and if you want to go where the credits grow, then you going to have to endure a bloody battlefield of failed projects, disappointment and films that you would rather your friends didn't see. So my two pence, is that Hal is a wise man. We have all heard stories - of the screenplay that went for big bucks but my experience has been - that all of the writers I know, who have a string of credits to their names - have clawed their way up out of the swamp alongside the monster.

Jump on inktip.com you may get your work optioned, which is more likely. They give you a small amount to see if they can get it off the ground. They may buy it if it has a chance. But again, only a small percentage of sales go into production. Your fee is the smallest expense in production 2% of the cost. So selling it cheap does not guarantee production. The only thing it guarantees is that you didn't get much money. Sorry for coming off like a jerk. Write a short and make it, or work with someone to get it made. It will give you a credit and the joy of seeing your work finished. I've down a few shorts and loved it.

If your script isn't worth more than $1,000, it's not worth producing. That being said, I did some research and the average disposable income (after tax) in Lima, Peru is $6,876. The median income in California is $61,933, about 10 times as much. So if you sold your script for $1,000 it would be like a California screenwriter selling it for $10,000.

That's not always the case, James. A first time producer working with a first time director may not be able to raise $300,000 for their first movie. But they may be able to raise $30,000. So buying a script for $1,000 from a first time writer may be the realistic option. The script itself may be worth producing even if it's only worth $1,000.

One more thing to consider. Most scripts are budgeted in at about 2-3%. Selling it cheap isn't much of a motivation for a producer. They still have to fund the other 98%.