What is a Writer?s Reference and How Do I Get One?
When you contact a literary agency seeking representation for you as a writer and your script, the response you often get is, ?Do you have a reference?? Or, ?Who is your reference??
What this means is: Who sent you to us? Why are you contacting us? What gives you the right to call us? Why should we read your script? Who are you? Who do you know? What makes you so special? Don?t waste my time if you are a nobody.
You very well may be the highest paid writer of some future destiny, like J.K. Rowlings, but at this juncture, without fame or a reference, you?re a nobody.
What are you going to do?
Rowlings, like every writer, had to jump through these hoops. Almost every writer was born a nobody, but somehow, every successful writer pushed forward to become a somebody.
Everyone?s path is unique. There is no one specific winning formula to get an agent or to succeed as a paid writer.?
Some writers are born into film or publishing connections. Some writers are born in the right town or state or country. Some writers have enough money to go to the right universities and make the right friends. Some writers are aggressive and outgoing and meet all the right people. Some writers never leave their small town and manage to succeed through the mail or the Internet or through a family connection.
No matter what, to succeed as a writer, you have to have an enormous amount of forward motion and ambition.
Most literary agents require a REFERENCE, ie someone in the business who knows the agent and recommends you as a good writer, worth taking the time to read your script.
As unfair as it sounds, keep in mind there are thousands, if not millions of people who would like to sell their scripts, so there has to be some way of narrowing the field because no one on earth has enough time in their lifetimes to read that many scripts.
References and connections are made in several ways.?You may know a family or friend who knows a literary agent. You may have gone to school or university with someone who knows a literary agent. You might work with someone who knows a literary agent. You may meet someone at a party who knows a literary agent. Your writer friend may have a literary agent.
You get the idea. These ?friends of friends? would be considered a writer reference, someone you know who knows a literary agent.
Getting a reference takes a lot of talking and networking to find that connection.
References are best when they have actually read your script!
Most people don?t want to read your script because they either do not have the time, do not care, don?t want to be the one to break the news to you that you are an awful writer, might not like the genre in which you write (like horror)? There are lots of reasons that your friends and family will not read your script or help you at all, which puts you in a terrible position.
Does that mean some great writers will be overlooked? Absolutely.
Just like painters, filmmakers, musicians, and any artist without promotion, publicity, and hype, great writers may fall into obscurity and never be known to the public.
What if I don?t know anybody who knows somebody? I live out in the middle of nowhere. I hate talking to people. How do I get a reference?
In this case, maybe you don?t get a reference. If you can?t afford to go to a well known film school, you don?t want to leave your town, you are socially awkward, but you are the greatest writer on the planet?. There are other options?
Read these articles for more ideas and information on how to succeed as a script writer:
TOP 5 WAYS TO GET NOTICED AS A SCREENWRITER (without a reference)
http://www.screenwritingforhollywood.com/film-forum/top-5-ways-to-get-noticed-as-a-screenwriter
DO I NEED AN AGENT (you must read)
http://www.screenwritingforhollywood.com/film-forum/do-i-need-an-agent
HOLLYWOOD OR NYC?
http://www.screenwritingforhollywood.com/film-forum/nyc-or-la-hollywood-where-should-screenwriter-liv
Getting an agent can be the hardest part about being a screenwriter.
When you are hot, you are hot, and when you are not, you are not. Your goal is to make yourself hot, make yourself a desirable commodity to the entertainment industry.
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