Writer seeks writerFrequently asked questions
How do I become a member of ScriptBoulevard.com?
Now that I have one or several projects online what happens?
Can I revise my project once it is online?
What format should my project be in?
Can ScriptBoulevard.com help me sell my project to Hollywood?
Can other writers access my projects?
If I sell my project, will ScriptBoulevard.com charge a commission?
How many projects may I put online?
Will ScriptBoulevard.com ask for a fee every time I put a project online?
Should I present my project in English?
How do I increase my chances to sell a project?
My work has been online for quite a while but nobody seems to be interested. Is this hopeless?
How do I become a member of ScriptBoulevard.com?
Just click on the "sign up" button. You will find a form. Complete it and send it back to us. You will then receive a confirmation email that you are a member together with your password and connection informations.
How do I put my work online?
Once you are a member, you will be able to put any project of yours online. There is a form to complete for each separate project. Just log in, click "Put a new project on line", complete the form and put your project on line.
Now that I have one or several projects online what happens?
A number of production companies, talent agencies and broadcasters are members of ScriptBoulevard.com.
Each of these members is looking for specific projects: romantic comedies, kids animated series, reality shows, historical documentaries, and so forth. They often specialize in types of movies or TV shows. When they sign up as members, they fill in a form indicating what type of product they are after.
Now, when you as a writer put your project online, let's say a sci-fi movie or a sports show, each and every producer and broadcaster looking for a sci-fi movie or a sports show will be AUTOMATICALLY ALERTED that there is such a project online. With one click, they will be able to access your project and take a look at it. If they are interested, all they have to do is click on your email address and get in touch with you. They might even pick up the phone and call you immediately if they consider your project a hot property.
The idea is to make sure your project reaches the right people.
And of course, the idea is also to make the producer's or the broadcaster's job EASY so that they don't have to browse through thousands of projects before they find one that they may be interested in. Their time is precious!
Can I revise my project once it is online?
Once your project is online, you may revise it as many times as needed. For instance, maybe you only put a pitch and a synopsis online but you now have a completed script or development. No problem. Go to your project and add anything you want. You may revise, alter, improve your project at any time.
What format should my project be in?
Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf).
If you wrote your project with Final Draft, convert it to PDF before putting it online.
Warning: Many people still use former Word versions and will not be able to open Word 2007 documents (.docx). Therefore, if you are using Word 2007, please convert your document to a former Word version. Open your Word 2007 document, click on the big round Office button in the upper left hand corner of the tool bar, select “Save as“ in the dropdown menu, then select "Word 97-2003" and save. Your document is in .doc format now and can be put on line.
Why can't I sell my project?
How hard is it to sell a movie script? Or a TV series? Or a reality show? Or any kind of TV show? Or a short subject? Or a documentary?
Very hard.
As a matter of fact, it's almost impossible.
Why?
Because you have to get your project into the right hands. And even if you do manage to get your project into the right hands (through connections or by sheer luck) chances are, no one is going to read it. They have scripts and shows piling up to the ceiling and they just don't have the time to deal with them because they are busy doing other things, like working on greenlit projects, answering phone calls, making phone calls, having business lunches, balancing budgets, courting A-list talent, you name it.
Let's say you wrote this amazing action movie, or this groundbreaking sci-fi series for television, or this fantastic game show. You put a lot of work into that project. Took you six months or three years to write the stuff. So what are you going to do now? Try and sell it of course.
How?
Well, maybe you know someone who knows someone who knows someone, and they pass it on. You sit there hoping for the best, waiting weeks or even months for a reply. You keep calling the guy who passed it on, or the potential buyer to whom it was passed on. Your future as a writer lies on that very thin thread. And you'll wind up disillusioned, because more often than not your project won't even be read, or if it is read at all, you will get a reply (if you get one) like, "not what we're looking for right now", "too dark", "too shallow", "too artsy", "too costly", too this, too that.
Sounds familiar?
Or you try a different approach. You're going to flood the market with your project. You're going to send it EVERYWHERE. You somehow manage to get hold of a mailing list of production companies and agents and broadcasters - tens of names, hundreds of names! And they're all going to get a copy of your project, every single one of them! So you print and bind tens or hundreds of copies, you get someone to design a nice cover that really stands out in the hope of catching the recipient's eye, you buy expensive heavy duty envelopes, you print stickers with all the addresses (or you write them by hand), you buy stamps and stick them on, and off goes your project to those tens or hundreds of names! Of course, it was a little costly, probably set you back a few hundred dollars, or even a couple of thousand. But it was well worth it. Now you can sit back, enjoy a cup of coffee, maybe light a cigarette if you're one of the last rebels on Earth, and wait for that crucial phone call. You've done everything you possibly can and you know, you just know that you will soon be reaping the fruit of your labors.
Six months later, you're still waiting. And you're ready to give up. All this hard work for nothing! You probably received a few replies, some curt and formal written by a secretary, some encouraging, some downright nasty, but they all amounted to "sorry, not interested".
Why is that? Is it because you have no talent? Is it because all producers are stinking illiterate idiots who can't see a good project even when it hits them in the face?
No.
There are many factors, but the main factor is TIME. You are dealing with very busy people. They just don't have the TIME.
Everyday, they have scores of things to do, scores of problems to solve, and the last thing on their mind is to sit down and read a script or a TV show project. Okay, they have assistants and secretaries and underlings to handle most of the stuff. Some of them even have readers who select material for them to read. But readers are just readers. They don't run the show. The top notch producer, the top notch agent, the top notch TV executive has a nose for good projects or good scripts, and he's usually the one who picks them. That's why he's a top notch producer, agent or TV exec. They are a rare and very special breed. They're the money makers. They're the prime movers.
So how do you get such a person's attention?
Through ScriptBoulevard.com.
Can ScriptBoulevard.com help me sell my project to Hollywood?
Yes, of course.
But if you as a writer focus only on Hollywood and the US, you are in for a life of bitter disappointment and utter despair. Okay, maybe you will have Hollywood knocking on your door one day. Who knows? Anything is possible.
But first reach for the writer's REAL ultimate goal, which is to make a living. Trust me, that's very sound advice.
How many writers are millionaires? Not many.
How many writers make very good money? Quite a few.
How many writers make a decent living? Lots.
Now, if you shouldn't focus only on Hollywood, what you should focus on?
The planet.
The globe.
The whole darned world.
Remember, there are hundreds of thousands of production companies, talent agencies and TV broadcasters in the world. And they are all looking for new movie scripts and TV shows.
So, maybe you can't sell that talk show or that romantic comedy to Hollywood, but maybe you can sell it to some company in Sweden or in Argentina! That wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?
And if your project proves successful in Sweden or Argentina, chances are that other countries will suddenly be interested and the next thing you know, your work is all over the planet!
Should I protect my work?
ScriptBoulevard.com strongly advises each and every writer to protect their work. There are a number of dishonest people out there who won't think twice about ripping off other people's creations. So yes, do protect your work.
How do I protect my work?
Whenever you put a project online, there is a preliminary (and optional) step to protecting your work.
Many countries have a Writer's Guild where one can protect one's work for a small fee.
If there isn't a Writer's Guild in your country or if it is complicated to get your work protected locally, you can do it yourself on the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) website for a very low fee. It only takes a few minutes. Go to WGA Registry and fill in the form.
WGA will then mail a certificate for your work to your home address. This WGA certificate ensures worldwide protection of your work.
If needed, ScriptBoulevard.com can do this for you. Just send us an email requesting that we protect your project with the WGA. Note that we charge a $20 handling fee for this operation. So our advice is that you to do it yourself if you can.
If you put an unprotected project online, it will be at your own risk. Be smart. Protect your work.
Can other writers access my projects?
No writer who is a member of ScriptBoulevard.com can at any time access any other writer's projects or account. A writer can only access his or her own account/work.
On the other hand, producers, talent agencies and broadcasters who are members of ScriptBoulevard.com with a verified account and password can access any writer's work at any time.
If I sell my project, will ScriptBoulevard.com charge a commission?
When you sell your work, ScriptBoulevard.com does not charge a commission!
Other sites take commissions whenever a writer sells his project. Well, we don't. We are not agents.
If you don't have an agent and you feel you need one to complete a deal, we provide links to a number of reliable talent agencies who look after writers' interests.
Basically, once you have sold your project, it is all in your hands. ScriptBoulevard.com will never interfere with negotiations between writer and buyer.
The only thing ScriptBoulevard.com will ask from you is that you share your success with us so we can include it in our monthly newsletter.
How many projects may I put online?
The sky's the limit! You may put any number of projects online.
However you may not group several projects. For instance, if your projects include a romantic comedy, a kids TV show and a horror movie, they will each come under a different heading so that potential buyers don't waste their time reading material they are not interested in.
Therefore each project is put online separately.
Will ScriptBoulevard.com ask for a fee every time I put a project online?
For a limited period of time, you will be able to put your projects online for free! This will help us build a substantial script/project archive.
After that period of time, there will be a yearly fee for each project – to be determined. We will of course keep it as low as possible. We do know that you ain't rich – yet.
Should I present my project in English?
The movie and TV industry's main language is English. Almost everyone at international film and TV festivals speaks English, whether they're from Brazil, Denmark or China.
We strongly advise you to have your pitches and outlines both in your native language and in English. This will increase your chances of being read everywhere in the world.
ScriptBoulevard.com offers a translations service for those members whose English is poor or inadequate.
Our fee is $0.18 per word (18 cents). We can translate your pitch, your synopsis, your outline, your treatment, or your screenplay. All our translations are polished by a professional screenwriter before they are sent back to you.
E-mail us for a quote.
How do I increase my chances to sell a project?
Each member will receive a monthly newsletter with useful tips, do's and don't's, success stories, and so forth. Our goal is to help you sell as many projects as possible.
My work has been online for quite a while but nobody seems to be interested. Is the situation hopeless?
There are of course a number of reasons why your work may not sell. They will be covered in our monthly newsletters. Don't get discouraged. Very often it's just a matter of being there "at the right time". You often read about a script or a show that had been sitting in a drawer for several years. And then all of a sudden, bingo, someone unearths it and you're in business although you've long since given up and even forgotten about it!
Never write off a project that doesn't sell quickly. You never know! Someone somewhere may pick it up someday.
