Insider Entertainment Tips: How To Get A Literary Agent
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Do you want to know how to get a literary agent?
You might be interested to know exactly what literary agents are looking for in new clients in scripted TV, reality TV, and feature film (hint: each area is a little different…).
TV producer Chad Gervich
Chad Gervich, veteran TV producer/writer and author of, How To Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide To Hollywood Representation, interviewed dozens of agents and managers.
Chad asked them to rank the most important factors that led them to sign new clients (or not),and the results are revealed in this post.
The Literary Agent – Demystified
I was nodding my head in agreement so many times when reading How To Manage Your Agent and, I’ve given this book as a gift to many people. I think this is an invaluable resource for navigating the literary agent relationship and for getting a literary agent in the first place.
I asked Chad if I could excerpt one of the most important sections about what representatives look for and need in new clients, and he agreed.
Take it away, Chad!
Excerpted from How To Manage Your Agent: A Writer’s Guide to Hollywood Representation
By Chad Gervich
So you’re ready for re
presentation.
presentation.
You’ve got four great scripts under your belt, a desk full of brilliant ideas, and—most importantly—you’ve read this book, so you understand how agents and managers function: when they staff, how they find assignments, where they sell pitches and projects.
You could not be more ready . . . or could you?
Before spending time, energy, and possibly money hunting for representation, it may be helpful to ask yourself: “am I really ready for a literary agent or a manager?”
This is different than asking: “do I want a literary agent or manager?”
Lots of people want a literary agent or manager, but that doesn't mean they’re ready career-wise, to attract or have a literary agent or manager. And if you’re not ready to actually have representation, to participate fully in an agent-client relationship, your time is better spent gathering or building the tools, resources, and credits necessary to eventually attract and use representation, rather than pursuing it prematurely.
The question to ask then is: “what do representatives look for and need in new clients . . . and how can I fit the bill?”
Because television and film are such different industries, TV and film literary agents often look for slightly different things in potential clients.
What Television Literary Agents And Managers Look For In New Clients
While TV literary agents and managers are almost always open to signing new clients, they’re not always open to signing any type of new client. Namely, “baby writers.”
In fact, many TV literary agents and managers won’t sign baby writers at all. Not because they don’t like finding and nurturing new talent, but because “breaking a baby,” or getting a first-time writer his first TV job, is a near-impossible task with very little payoff.
“It’s very, very tough to represent someone who has never worked in this business before,” says agent-cum-manager Michael Pelmont of New Wave Entertainment. “To get them that first break, to put in all that work, to trust they’re going to appreciate that and not walk away—there’s a huge risk you take on as a manager or an agent.”
Let’s break down what exactly makes a baby TV writer so risky:
They don’t have tons of relationships.
Having a large network of professional relationships is essential—especially in television—for young writers hoping to work. Show runners tend to hire or promote friends and colleagues they already know; execs and producers recommend writers they've met and enjoyed. Unfortunately, baby writers may come brimming with talent, but they rarely come with a deep Rolodex of contacts.
Even those who have been working as assistants or P.A.s come with only limited connections—and while these connections are helpful, it takes as many relationships as possible, with almost every network and studio to really “break” a baby writer.
This means agents must begin introducing writers to all the relevant producers and executives around Hollywood. This not only takes time, but one quick meeting with an exec or producer isn't usually enough to lock down a staff job. So while agents and managers can make introductions, or plant the seeds of relationships, it’s up to writers to nurture those seeds, turning them into bona fide relationships, which takes even longer.
The focus is staffing, not selling.
In television, most writers’ work comes from staffing, but the biggest paydays, especially for agents, come from selling or packaging original ideas that make it to air. Unfortunately, most baby writers, even those that are extremely talented, don’t have the experience or skills necessary to sell a show.
So while a good literary agent or manager may believe a baby writer has the talent to eventually pitch and sell a series, it often takes years of work before a client can actually sell her own show.
“If I have a kid [with a show idea] right out of college, I can’t go to a network because he’s never produced,” says N.S. Bienstock agent Ra Kumar. “That’s like going to an architectural firm with a drawing of a house and saying, ‘Okay, now we can start construction!’ You have to have people that know what they’re doing and have done it before.”
Competition is high.
There are thousands of baby television writers clattering on keyboards across America, and only a handful of entry-level jobs. In 2012, broadcast networks aired only ninety-six scripted shows, and not all of them offered staff writer positions.
While cable shows also offer other opportunities, there are fewer scripted opportunities on cable than on broadcast. And because cable shows have smaller budgets, many staffs don’t staff writers at all. So these thousands of writers are competing for—in all of television—less than 200 openings a year!
Not to mention, most shows get canceled early or don’t last past a first season. So staffing a baby doesn't mean a literary agent’s job is done. The odds are that writer will be unemployed again in a few months, and the agent will have to start all over again.
Baby writers take a lot of time and earn little money.
“I've heard of [writers] taking seven years to get their first job,” says one entertainment lawyer, and all that time, “you don’t know if you’ll ever get paid as a representative. Ever!”
Plus, when a baby writer does get his first job, it’s fairly low-paying. Let’s say a lucky staff writer makes $100,000 during his first year on a TV staff. $100,000 may not be spare change, but that writer’s literary agent or manager only pockets $10,000—which certainly isn't enough to sustain business or put food on an agent’s family’s table.
Even if that agent or manager staffed four baby writers, that’s only $40,000 in commission; but let’s say that literary agent staffs four upper-level writers, each making close to $500,000 per year. Now that agent’s bringing home $200,000 in annual commission—and seasoned upper-level writers are much easier to staff than inexperienced babies.
Baby writers don’t earn agents or managers a promotion.
While literary agents and managers love and promote their clients, they also have their own careers to manage; they want to get their own promotions and raises.
Yet while breaking a baby may be personally gratifying, it usually generates little money—or press—for an agent or manager’s company, which means it does little to further an agent or manager’s career.
For all of these reasons, literary agents and managers think carefully before signing a baby writer.
“We’ll take on someone that’s really special,” says WME TV agent Richard Weitz, “but we’re not going to take on a ton of people who will collide against each other. Maybe one or two or three. Not more than that.”
Thus, most writers need to have more going for them than just phenomenal writing samples.
In fact, “they actually don’t have to be great [writers],” says manager Jeff Holland of The Cartel. “[I won’t sign] a bad writer, but I will sign someone who is solid [if they’re] working for an individual, a show runner, who is known to promote from within. If they’re on a show like Justified, which is going to go a couple more seasons, or a comedy like How I Met Your Mother, and you know they’re going to get promoted from within . . . sometimes you’re willing to work with somebody who you don’t feel has material as good as somebody you already represent, but they have connections and networking.”
What, then, are the most important elements for a TV writer to have in place, in order to attract representation?
To find out, I asked feature lit agents and managers, scripted TV agents/managers, and reality agents/managers how they would rank 9 qualities they might find in prospective clients.
What Literary Agents Want In Scripted TV Writers
- Great writing samples
- Good in a room (personality/attitude)
- Professional TV writing credits
- Well-positioned to get their own work
- Interesting life experience
- Professional accomplishments in a related field
- Professional connections
- Living in Los Angeles
- Professional TV experience (non-writing)
What Literary Agents Want In Reality TV Producers
- Professional reality TV producing credits
- Good in a room (personality/attitude)
- Professional connections
- Living in Los Angeles
- Well-positioned to get their own work
- Interesting life experience
- Great reality producing samples (demo reels, etc.)
- Professional accomplishments in a related field
- Professional TV experience (non-producing)
What do the results tell you about TV literary agents and managers’ priorities and values as they hunt for new clients? Does this surprise you? Do the results change your feeling about whether or not you’re actually ready for representation?
What Feature Literary Agents and Managers Look For In New Clients
The world of feature screenwriting is just as competitive as television.
While movie executives aren't filling positions on staffs like TV execs and producers, there are thousands of aspiring scribes clamoring to make the next big sale. One feature agent estimated he received 4,000 unsolicited queries per year.
Wannabes are fueled by stories like that of Brad Ingelsby, who, in 2008, was living with his parents in Pennsylvania, working at his dad’s furniture company, when Relativity purchased his spec screenplay The Low Dweller (later renamed Out of the Furnace) for $650,000 against $1.1 million. Inglesby has since gone on to become one of Hollywood’s top screenwriters.
Brad Ingelsby’s first screenplay sale was to Relativity for $650,000 against $1.1 million
In 2012, he sold The All-Nighter to Warner Brothers, The Signal to Indian Paintbrush, and was hired to rewrite Gareth Evans’ award-winning Indonesian martial arts film, The Raid: Redemption, for Screen Gems.
Yet while stories like Ingelsby’s are inspirational, they’re anomalies. The vast majority of writers don’t sell million-dollar screenplays while living hundreds of miles from Hollywood. Most screenwriters get their start by slaving away in Los Angeles and selling their first screenplay for something closer to WGA minimum—about $125,000 on the high end (on the low end, about $35,000).
Sure, $125,000 is nothing to sneeze at for a writer, but for a feature agent commissioning ten percent, it’s less than $13,000 (or, if you sold a low-budget, non-original script, about $3,500). Again, like with baby television writers, this hardly sustains an agent’s business.
So do feature agents look for the same factors as TV literary agents? Yes, although not necessarily in the same order of importance.
Here’s Verve agent Zach Carlisle:
“Staffing and development on the TV side is very much about getting into the club. There are a lot of fantastic writers out there, but getting into that first room or getting that first piece of development is hard without the relationship. On the feature side, if you have a great script you can gain a lot of heat quickly. One executive reads, two executives read, they start to pass it around, it makes its way to a studio [or] studio president; [suddenly] everyone wants to sit down with this person.”
What Literary Agents Want In Feature Writers
- Great screenwriting samples
- Good in a room (personality/attitude)
- Interesting life experience
- Professional screenwriting credits
- Living in Los Angeles
- Professional accomplishments in a related field
- Professional connections
- Well-positioned to get their own work
- Professional film experience (non-writing)
Of course, literary agents and managers don’t actually use a quantifiable test like this to determine whether someone is worth representing. Much of it is instinct, gut reflexes, and personal connection. If an agent is blown away by a brilliant script from a first-time writer living in Houston, will he sign her? Maybe—if he truly believes he can sell the script.
Will a manager sign a baby writer who’s a bit raw, but works for a great show runner and has tons of industry friends? Perhaps, if he thinks that writer can mature and has a viable opportunity to staff. The problem, unfortunately, if you don’t have enough of these qualities working in your favor, is even getting representatives to look at you.
So what do you do? You have talent, and you have some (presumably) terrific scripts, but you don’t live in L.A., or you have no Hollywood connections, or you've never had any writing published or produced. Does this mean you can’t attract representation? Not necessarily. There are two other ways you can garner the attention of an agent or manager:
1) Make something. Write, publish, or produce something fantastic that forces people to sit up and take notice. Stage an original play at your local theater and work hard to get positive press and reviews. Shoot an indie film and submit it to festivals, or rent out your local theater and screen it for your community. Publish (or self-publish) a best-selling novel! Put together a sketch group and perform at local comedy clubs or community functions — then shoot your material and post it online! Make a music video!
2) Move. If you already live in L.A. (or, to a lesser degree, New York City), ignore this one… but if you don’t, I’ll say it again: Move. If you’re serious about pursuing a writing career in Hollywood, it’s a career transition you’re going to have to make.
Thanks Chad, for sharing your research and experience with us!
How To Manage Your Agent is full of excellent advice for established writers who want to have a better relationship with their representatives, and aspiring writers who want to find representation.
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