First Draft: Step Up Your Game With These Seven New Year’s Resolutions For Screenwriters

5. Don’t Market More, Market Smarter

Like writing more, a common New Year’s resolution for screenwriters is to market more. They’ll come up with a list of big-name production companies, agencies, management companies, and talent and they will then bombard them with a blanket marketing push of query emails.

It’s a waste of time.

You need to market smarter. Answer these following questions by studying the trades (Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, The Tracking Board, etc.) and utilizing IMDBPro.

Who is making movies like your script?

Who is representing the writers that are writing those movies?

Who do you have personal connections with, no matter how many times removed (friends of friends, alumni of your schools, those who share the same home city or state, etc.)?

Who is representing up-and-coming writers from The Black List and who is looking for talent through major screenwriting contests (mentors and judges)?

Sending an endless barrage of blind queries to names you recognize won’t get you anywhere. You need to be very smart as to who you approach and you need to learn who the many, many players are beyond those you recognize, because there are so many managers, producers, and development executives that are making film after film after film, and many of them are those whose names you don’t recognize.

So pay attention to the trades. Pay attention to the movers and the shakers. Do your research through IMDBPro. And then finally, create a smart plan of approach and write some smart and streamlined query emails to connect with them.

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