GET AN AGENT or GO VIRAL!
In order to achieve success, persevere like TJ Newman!
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make it as a screenwriter today.
It’s so different than it was 20 years ago. It’s different than it was 10 years ago! You talk to a dozen different dealmakers in Hollywood and ask them how they got their last streaming movie greenlit, you’ll get a dozen different answers. There’s so much information that’s shrouded in mystery these days that it can seem daunting to a screenwriter.
Heck, it’s daunting to EVERYONE trying to get a job in Hollywood these days. Are visual effects artists even going to exist in five years? Everything is up in the air.
That confusion extends to the people in charge as well. I’ve learned that almost every successful person in Hollywood is successful at ONE SPECIFIC THING. There’s the person who’s successful at making low-budget horror movies. There’s the person who’s successful at getting dramedy TV shows on air. There’s the person who’s successful at limited series.
But if you ask any of those people how to do anything else, like get an action movie made? They look at you sideways.
Which is frustrating because you assume success = expertise. But it turns out everybody’s expertise is so narrow, the original equation no longer applies. Honestly, if you asked James Cameron how to get a TV show on air, I don’t think he’d know the answer. Sure, he’d be able to call a friend. But *he* wouldn’t know because he’s never had to do it.
So, I thought, “Who are the people most knowledgeable about getting feature film deals done?” That answer is agents. And to a slightly lesser degree, managers. It is their job to understand how to navigate this Gen Z iteration of Hollywoodland. So they truly have become the gatekeepers to the new system, a system that seems to have 10,000 entry points, yet not a single one visible.
So, if you’re trying to break in as a screenwriter in 2025, one of your best options is to secure an agent (or manager). Which begs the question, how do you do that?
The answer is simple: You must query agents and managers. Or query agents and managers’ assistants. The best way to do this is to give your script to everyone you know who’s even tangentially involved in Hollywood and, if they like your script, ask them if they know any agents or anyone who might know an agent, and if they can send it to them.
If you don’t know anyone – and I know a lot of you don’t – you need to get that 1 month subscription to IMDB Pro and you need to get the e-mails of every single agent and manager in the system. If you have time, you want to narrow those contacts down by the types of writers they represent. You can do this by looking at movies similar to your script, clicking the writer on IMDB, and then clicking the writer’s agent and/or manager.
You then need to come up with a good e-mail query and query these agents. I can help you with this. I do both logline and query consultations. E-mail me at carsonreeves1@gmail.com. The point here is that e-mail queries are important. I receive more of them than probably anyone in town and I can dismiss 90% of them right off the bat due to sloppiness, bad grammar, being too long, etc. If you don’t have a good query, nothing else you’ve read in this post will matter.
I know this stuff isn’t fun, guys. But this is one of the necessary tests in Hollywood that eliminates people who aren’t serious. If you aren’t willing to do everything at your disposal to find success, then do you deserve success? I would argue you don’t.
This is the stuff writers like TJ Newman did – getting rejected query after query after query – until she finally found someone who believed in her manuscript. You’ll never feel more lost than when you’re in the middle of this process. But if you’ve done the work on the writing end and written something good, this part of the process will eventually pay off.
As for what agents respond to, it comes down to two things. Either MARKETABILITY or VOICE. Literary agents don’t make a ton of money. So they’re looking for writers WHO CAN MAKE THEM MONEY. Therefore, you want to write a marketable script. That means keeping tabs on what’s selling (or what’s always sold) and writing that kind of script. If you can find a fresh way into the guy-with-a-gun genre, for example, you’ll have a lot of agents eager to read your screenplay.
The other option is to have a unique voice. There are a lot of agents out there who subscribe to the theory that if you give them a good writer, it’ll be easy to find jobs for them. By “voice” I mean you have your own unique style, so much so that, when someone reads your script, they know it’s you without having to check. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Taika Waititi, Brian Duffield, John Hughes, etc.
The tricky thing about a “voice” script is that, technically, the concept doesn’t have to be marketable. You’re not promoting your script. You’re promoting your writing ability. However, since you’ll still have to query agents to get them to request the script, you probably still want to pick a premise that has some pop to it. Think more along the lines of “Blink Twice,” “Civil War,” and “The Substance,” rather than, “The Iron Claw,” “Thelma,” and “Conclave.”
Now, let’s say that you’ve tried to query people and you’re not very good at it. Or you’ve been down that query road enough times to feel like it never works for you. If you don’t believe that’s your avenue forward, then the only other option for you in 2025 is to go viral with your screenplay.
I use the term “viral” loosely. Cause I’m not asking you to post your script on Instagram and get 20 million likes. What I mean is that you use the power of the internet and screenwriting competitions to build as much buzz around your script as possible.
Try to get your script reviewed on this site. Pay for a couple of reviews on The Black List site. If you get two 8’s, you’ll get featured. Do this new “Gauntlet” challenge I keep hearing about. And if you do have social media, promote your script, promote your logline, and ask people if they want to read it. Tell them you’ll read their script in return.
What you’re trying to do is get as many eyes on your script as possible. The more people who see your script, the better chance it has at being given to someone who can change your life.
You also want to enter as many of the major screenplay contests as you can afford. If it’s a big contest and you finish in the finals (top 5 or top 10), your chances of getting representation off your script skyrocket. For the smaller contests, you’ll have to win them to get any capital with agents. But it’s still worth it because you’re trying to create some buzz around your screenplay. You’re trying to be that script that is known amongst a relevant group of people.
If you do those three things – get featured online somewhere, promote your work through social media, enter a lot of contests – you have a chance of going “script viral.” And if you have any doubts that this can work, ask Elad Ziv (Court 17) or David L. Williams (Clementine), or our own Joseph Fattal (Bedford). Elad won a small contest, which got him his manager, which helped him get on the Black List. David got two 8’s on the Black List, turning Clementine into a highly desired screenplay around town. Joseph made several strong contacts off of Bedford. Oh, and just today the writer of The Best and the Brightest, Michael Wightman, e-mailed to let me know that he’s teamed up with a producer to produce his script. So, it can happen.
While every successful writer has a different “break in” story, the “break in” story I hear the most is that a writer kept sending his scripts out until someone finally said yes. You need lots of eyes on your screenplay. Even good writers will not get that automatic yes by sending their script out to 5 people. You have to get a lot of people reading your script to get that yes.
Some of you may be wondering about the official Black List. Should getting on that list be a strategy? Honestly, I look at the Black List like I do a major screenwriting competition these days. If you make the Top 5, that’s worth something. But the quality of Black List scripts has plummeted so severely in the last five years that most people in town just make fun of it. So I still think it’s an avenue but getting 10 votes isn’t going to cut it anymore. You gotta be one of the top five vote-getters.
If all else fails, BE ACTIVE. You should always be working on a screenplay WHILE promoting another screenplay. It’s impossible to score unless you take a shot. And I want you taking a lot of shots! :)
