Screenwriting : Cold emailing? by Shara Ashley Zeiger

What's wrong with face-to-face? I know I'm old... bur am I that old?

I “cold emailed” Joel Silver Prods and the VP replied back on iphone, “send script.”

I don’t discuss selling or making movies. I just send my spec scripts as writing samples. Make yourself unavailable and people want you more :)

I sold my first two scripts via email does that count? I got my agent by calling the different WGA Agent off a list. I did email a lot of them but my calling is what paid off.

Dan MaxXx Do you remember what you said more or less in your email or what you subjected it? Thank you for sharing.

Dan Guardino That's awesome. Do you remember what you said more or less in your emails? Or what you said on the phone to get someone to listen to you? Thank you for sharing this. It's really helpful. Trying to figure out how to be ballsy, but how to do it well. I have a few scripts, and my work's been in a bunch of festivals, good festivals, and have a few pitch decks, and have gotten some great meetings on my own with networks and production companies, but know the next step is rep to package it all.

Shara Ashley Zeiger I’m using my iPhone so I don’t have the original email to review but it was short and to the point, Silver makes movies in my wheelhouse, I said I have writing samples similar to their brand. That was it (I think). This was a year ago. So now I have a new script (same concept as the other spec I submitted) and I get to do it all over again. Insanity! :)

Shara: Query letters work but you have send out a lot of them and they need to be well-written:

I sent out about 70 a few weeks back and received a script request from Zero Gravity and another studio that's made films with major talent.

Basically, I did the same thing Laura described. I just sent out a query letter that consisted of a logline, three very short paragraphs. One for each act. There was nothing I could say about myself except for the number of scripts that I wrote. Laura is right the odds of someone reading a query letter and the person optioning or buy your script is slim. However, is someone rejects your screenplays doesn’t mean they are rejecting the screenwriter. I would let anyone who read any of my screenplays be the first people I would contact when I finished my next one. The first one I sold was to John Travolta’s Manger/Producer. The next one I sold was to a producer who previously passed on two of my other screenplays I sent him.

When calling agencies, they tend to try and blow off new screenwriters, so you really don’t want to start off by saying, I’m a new or aspiring screenwriter. You don’t want to lie if asked but I would just start off by telling the person on the other end of the phone that I am a screenwriter and I just finished my whatever number I just finished and would like to know if any of your agents are accepting new clients and if I could send them a brief synopsis. My goal was just to get a name I could send a brief synopsis to or the screenplay itself. If you try that be prepared to make a pitch over the phone if they person that answered connects you to an agent. That is how I got my agent. I told her about two screenplays and she just told me to send her the two or three I thought were my best. She signed me up about a year later. If some does ask you for your material always make sure you put “ REQUESTED MATERIAL” in the subject line.

It sounds like you already have some contacts in the business, so you might ask them if they can refer you to a literary agent. Also, if you have a bankable actor or director attached to one of more of your screenplay their agent might rep you or recommend you. Anyway I got to get back to my stupid screenplay so I wish you luck.

Thank you to the people on this that answered the question I asked. Appreciate it! I've written 7 short films, 5 that have been made, a full length play that's been produced, many short plays, a feature film, and am developing 3 TV shows. 2 of my shorts are in the circuit right now and doing well, and I'm trying to capitalize on that and both have longer plans. I have plenty to say, just want to find the most effective way to say it so people will listen.

IMO the logline is the key part of any cold query. So I tend to lead with that, cut to the chase about what I'm offering.

Eric Christopherson so what if you have multiple log lines?

I assume you mean what if you have multiple scripts? Well that can work too. In fact I emailed a producer recently with three loglines and he requested one of the scripts.

Thanks Eric Christopherson ! Can I ask what you put in your subject for the email that got it opened? This is realllly helpful!

I've been cold emailing for the past few weeks and I've so far gotten two requests for my script. Brevity is key. I'm sending from my iPhone so I make sure that the body of the email is short enough so that when they open the email, they don't have to scroll down to read the entire email. Everything is there at first glance. Most reps just scroll down to read the log line first anyway, so I make sure that's it's right smack-dab in the center of the email.

Also, I make sure that the preview of the email (in their inbox before they opt to open it) is clear, concise, and leads them to wanting to actually open the email. It's a lot of playing with the first sentence and characters like crafting the perfect tweet.

For the actually text of the body of the email, I simply write an intro sentence with why I'm specifically pitching them. Then Introduce my project with one other short sentence. Then it's the genre, log line, and my contact info. If you have contest wins/top 5% placements (of major contests like the Nicholl) then you can add that in your intro paragraph. But not all reps care about contests, even the prestigious ones.

My subject line is always: "Genre (with detail). Interested?" I make sure when researching the rep that the genre is something they are familiar with/looking for/rep people who write in. For an example of the detail, I could do: "Female-led action comedy. Interested?"

Believe it or not, Shara, my subject line was simply "Loglines." IMO you can use any words except "query": let 'em hear the idea of the script first before really processing that the email is just a cold query, which can get their defenses up, prejudice their initial response.

Eric Christopherson no way! I might try your approach!

Thanks Amber Brown for your insight!