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January E-Track Meeting: Heidi Wall How to Create Meaningful Relationships with Agents
by Ed Proudfoot
(January 2001) |
Great News. The code has been broken. Scriptwriters Network members have seized the precious three-letter cryptogram that opens agency doors and ensures success: YOU. On January 21, the Scriptwriters Network was again fortunate to have Flash Forward Institute's creator Heidi Wall as our E-Track guest speaker. Heidi delivered on her promise - "How To Create Meaningful Relationships With Agents" - and also dropped a few hints on how to find representation.
"Working with agents cuts to the core of how our industry works," Heidi says. The problem is, many writers misunderstand the agent's function. The first question to ask is, "What is the agent's agenda?" If you answered, "To get me work," you're not alone. But the truth is, the agent's objective is the same as yours - to develop a career and make money. The agent does this by representing working writers, which begs the second question: "How do I make the agent money?" The hard truth is, agents promote those writers that make them money and understanding this is fundamental to a successful writer-agent working relationship.
By dispelling the myths that: 1) YOU need an agent to get work and, 2) That the agent's job is to make YOU successful, you've already taken the first step toward empowerment and career advancement. Bottom line, YOU are 100 percent responsible for your career; YOU are 100 percent responsible for your relationships with agents; YOU are responsible to make the agent successful.
Put yourself in the agent's shoes for a moment: After yoga and coffee, you enter the office at seven a.m., make a hundred telephone calls (on a slow day), field a dozen clients' complaints, leave the office at eight p.m. having not made a single sale, walk the dog, eat greasy take-out and gear up for another full day of rejection. (And you thought it was tough getting three rejection letters in a single week!) An agent's life is, as Heidi says, "Mostly bad news, all the time." This explains why the most important clients are those that make the agent's job easier - by working.
There are four stages to a successful writer-agent relationship:
Stage 1 - Develop a Personal Relationship
What do you know about your agent? Where do they live? When is their birthday? What's their dream? Despite those vicious rumors, an agent is a person - and enjoys being treated like one.
What does your agent know about you? When answering, be aware that this question is not just about your career. Despite those vicious rumors, a writer is a person and has a life beyond the keyboard: Let the agent in on your secrets. What makes you unique? What is special about you? What personal information could pique the agent's interest and make them think, "Wow, I never would have guessed. This writer is interesting." (And no, submitting all of your scripts in Jokerman font is NOT unique! Remember, in this stage, the agent is a person who couldn't give a hoot about Hollywood.)
Stage 2 - Keep Them Excited
Get the agent excited about you! How? Go work; Be an easy sale. Nothing excites an agent more than a client who works to generate work so they can work - so get to work.
Focus is an extremely important element that is often overlooked. Consider the writer who hands the agent two features, a one-hour drama spec, a sitcom pilot, a stage play and a novel set in sixteenth-century Finland. How will the agent know where to position you in the market? What buyers will the agent pursue first? Diversification in an effort to blanket the market and make some money somewhere--anywhere!--is counter-productive. By choosing one form, and producing multiple scripts in that single area, the writer accomplishes two things: 1) The writer establishes a "brand name", i.e., "My client's a hot feature writer," and 2) The writer proves serious commitment to a single form, which earns respect in the agent's office and credibility in the studio board room. Once you're successful in one arena, you can consider branching out in other areas.
There are two relationship techniques often overlooked in this heated and oh-so-serious city of industry: Be fun; give something back. As Heidi says, "Agents' favorite clients (all are working) are the ones that make them laugh and are fun to be around." Stop slouching! That's fine at home, but not in an agent's office: Have fun, smile and let the agent know that life is so good, it'll probably rub off. Never take your relationship for granted: Give as much as you get; let your agent know that you are working as hard (though you should be working harder) as the agent to find work and that you appreciate all she or he has done on your behalf. Remember, if the writer loses the agent, more than likely, that writer has failed to create excitement: Always keep the heat on!
Stage 3 - Create a Strategy
How will the relationship work between the agent and the client? Strategy is key: Identify your goals with your agent and then establish short and long term strategies to accomplish those goals.
Stage 4 - Agree to an Action Plan
This is the forgotten art of requests and promises, which will help to ensure a pro-active and productive writer-agent relationship.
Make a specific request: "I'd like you to send Titanic II to James Cameron at Lightstorm by Friday and I'd like you to submit Glad He Ate Her to Ridley Scott at Scott Free by tomorrow afternoon." Two things to remember when making requests are: 1) Be very specific, i.e., name + company + time frame, and 2) Make reasonable (not to be confused with conservative) requests and keep the number low - two or three at the most.
Make a specific promise: "I will contact name + company by a specific time to pitch Spider And The Fly Ball and will call you on Monday, to report the results and--keep your fingers crossed--ask you to submit the script." Don't forget to give back. And smile while doing it.
You might be thinking, "If I do all the work, why do I need an agent?" Here's what you can, and should, expect your agent to do for you: - Negotiate deals
- Set up meetings (that you've identified and requested)
- Give you inside information
- Help guide your career
- Provide credibility-establishing cache
- Be a powerful ally, lobbyist and friend in a cold and competitive world.
Now that you know how to maintain your relationship, you might want to know how to actually get an agent. By now, YOU should know the answer. Heidi lists four ways to find representation: The best way is to GET A DEAL; then arrange for an agent to represent you and, bang, you're already to Stage 1. Three other ways to get an agent are: 1) Write a funny, creative, professional query letter, which "sells" the agent your script. This doesn't often work, but if the letter is strong enough, it may well garner the agent's attention. 2) Referrals! Scriptwriters Network and Flash Forward are great places to find folks who are willing to read your script and, having loved it, are willing to refer you to an agent. 3) Be creative. Befriend an agent's assistant (perhaps by targeting your dream agent), take them to lunch, ask them to read your script, buy them chocolate, let them know how much you appreciate all of their support and hard work. In three months, when the assistant is promoted to Junior-Agent, they'll probably sign you, because you treated them with kindness and respect. But the best way to get an agent, which cannot be repeated too often, is YOU get work; if YOU get it, THEY will come.
Thanks to Heidi Wall, Suzanne Lyons and the Flash Forward Institute, for helping to break the code. For more information on the business and up-coming events, check out the Flash Forward Institute at www.flashforwardinstitute.com or call 323-850-7392.
The next Flash Forward One Month Intensive is February 24, 25 and the evenings of March 9 and 22, with a $100 discount if you register before February 9.
Ed Proudfoot is a screenwriter and playwright and is a partner in the writing team of Proudfoot & Proudfoot.
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