How Annie Hall helps me cope with rejection

Doggieane Keaton

Yesterday I posted about the fear most of us share that we will never reach our lofty goals. I got a lot of support, and I thank you all for that.

So as a sort of follow-up, I thought I'd add something that helps me sometimes when I face another round of rejections:

I hate Annie Hall.

I'm sure a lot of you are judging me right now. Maybe you're thinking you were too hasty in your support of me yesterday. How can I hate Annie Hall? Everybody loves that movie for a thousand amazing reasons. You're probably questioning my taste level.

This isn't an opportunity for me to explain why I hate Annie Hall. I have my reasons. It's not an opportunity for you to convince me to like Annie Hall or give it another chance.

The point is, it's a mantra I repeat whenever rejection gets me down.

I hate Annie Hall. Everyone else loves it.

So every time I put a script out into the world and someone doesn't like it, I remember how much I hate Annie Hall. Just because one person doesn't love something I create, that doesn't mean it's not a valid creation. That doesn't mean someone else won't come along and get it right away.

You have an Annie Hall. There is some movie that everyone raves about and you can't fucking stand. If that script had come across your desk you would have set it on fire, but somebody read it and believed in it and made it and the world loved it. You may not get it, but a lot of people did.

So if one person doesn't love your work, that's okay. Maybe it's Annie Hall.

Fear of failure

Time for some brutal honesty.

If you decide to be a teacher or an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor or a construction worker or most jobs in this country, you have a clear order of operations to make that happen. You go to school. You get an entry level job. You work your way up. You have a career.

It doesn't work that way for screenwriters. There's no prescribed degree that will qualify you for the job. There's no entry level position from which to work your way up. You have to wave your arms to get noticed, and then you have to hope that what you offer is what someone else is looking for.

I've been writing since I figured out what a pencil was, but here I am, a full-grown adult, and still not a paid writer.

Sure, I've been validated. I know I don't suck. I've been repped and won a highly rated contest and met with producers who tell me how much they like my writing. But that doesn't make me a professional writer. It makes me a talented hobbyist.

It's so easy to get demoralized. Half the time, you have no idea why you've been rejected, so you start to second guess everything. Did they think I was a comedy writer? Is it because I'm a woman? Are they looking for something more commercial? Do they not like my snazzy writing style?

Or the worst one of all, the one we all have to face down at regular intervals: What if I'm not as good as I think I am?

What if you're the kid at the American Idol audition who talks about how amazing he is, then opens his mouth and wails like an angry goat? What if every person who ever told you that you were any good was just trying to make you feel better, or trying to make you shut up, or had no taste themselves, or was making fun of you? What if you are just wasting your time?

You could throw in the towel and go back to looking for a job where your resume and an interview are all you need to get hired, where you won't be told constantly how amazing you are by people who won't hire you. It would be so easy.

People do it every day. They leave Los Angeles and go back home, often swearing to return once they've gotten their shit together. But they almost never do. Most people take one shot at this, and when it's over, they fold up their tent and get an office job.

I think about it sometimes. I was a good teacher. I didn't hate teaching. What if I just went back and made it my career and stopped trying to be something else? That wouldn't be so bad.

But I'm not there yet. I still think something is around the corner.

I've wanted to be a writer my entire life, so every time I think about throwing in the towel, I think of Little Me and what she'd say. She'd tell me to shut the fuck up and get back to work on the next script, because Little Me apparently had a foul fucking mouth.

So for now, as I seek new management, I put my latest script, Nobody Lives Forever, up on the Black List site. I'm very proud of this one. It's an action script with a white male 30-something lead and a strong hook with an emotional core. It's got bromance and fight scenes and a female villain. I believe in it. It's probably the most sellable thing I've ever done. And while I wait for the downloads and the reads and whatever they may bring, I'm going to keep working on the next thing.

Because I'm not ready to give up, no matter how many times the bastards try to get me down.

Be the Change

"The world is round, people."
(Yes, I know it was a Woody Allen movie.)

Sometimes in the morning when neither of us has anywhere specific to be, Beefcake and I lie in bed while I read interesting news articles on my phone. This morning, I read an article about a bill in Iraq that would make it legal for men to marry 9-year-old girls and illegal for women to refuse sex with their husbands. Then I read an article about the Pakistani 17-year-old who set herself on fire to protest the release of the leader of the five men who kidnapped and gang raped her. Then I read an article about the new law in Michigan that requires women to purchase special "abortion insurance" if they think they might be raped. Then I read about Terry Richardson. And we all know about Woody Allen by now. And of course, we can't forget about Roman Polanski.

This is about culture.

In each of these cases, someone in power sanctioned this behavior. Celebrities pal around with Terry Richardson all the time. They defend Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. Governments and police forces support laws that keep women suppressed and abused all over the world. And all of that speaks to a culture that subconsciously (or in some cases, consciously) believes that women deserve what they get.

We as artists have the power to instigate change. Making movies isn't like curing cancer. It's not "important work." Or is it?

A recent study showed that the MTV series Teen Mom helps to reduce rates of teenage pregnancy.

There are no statistics to back it up, but many believe that the magnificent David Palmer, the black president on the TV series 24, helped Americans open up to the idea of a black president. It seems likely that Will and Grace made being gay a more acceptable part of our society.

Art begets change. The Jungle changed the way the government handled meat processing in this country. Look what happened to fast food menus after Super Size Me. Black Fish is already having an effect on our perception of animals in captivity.

We can make a difference with what we write. We don't have to, but we can, even if we write the silliest B movie to hit VOD.

When every black person you see on film is a thug, you are more likely to believe that black people are plotting to shoot you. When every gay person you see on film is a sexual predator, of course you believe that the gay community is coming for your children. And when every woman you see in film is a wife/mother/victim, you're far more inclined to believe that we're not capable of anything more.

This is why I write female protagonists so often. I don't write them just because I'm a woman. I write them because I want to SEE women - women I can relate to, women who aren't just running scared or trying to please the male lead.

This is why Frozen and Hunger Games were so successful this year. Girls are starved for female characters who carve their own path. And guess what? Boys watch this stuff too. Yes, boys are capable of enjoying films about girls.

One year when I was a teacher, the Big Read chose The Joy Luck Club as that year's novel. I volunteered to lead the related activities at our school. As the English teachers were meeting to discuss our plans, one of our male teachers protested teaching his students this novel. "I don't think the boys will be interested in reading a book about women," he said.

Before I could even begin my angry response, the teacher beside me handled it much more simply. She said "Why not? Girls have been reading books about boys forever and they don't complain." And in my classroom, I had no such complaints. I taught a room full of first-generation Americans, and even those without immigrant parents could relate to the parent/child relationships raised in the book. There's more to being a woman than having a vagina. We have a lot of the same thoughts and feelings as men do. And sometimes, we have a different take on those thoughts, one worth hearing.

If you're a boy who can't dare to watch a movie about a female protagonist, you're a fucking idiot.

You don't even have to write a female protagonist to have interesting women in your film. Most writers default to male. The only characters who get to be women are the characters who MUST be women. But when you change a character's race or gender or sexual orientation to something other than the default, cool things happen in your story. Your characters suddenly become more interesting.

So do this for me today: find a character you defaulted to male and make that character a woman instead. Most likely, you don't have to change anything else. Don't make her a love interest or somebody's mom or a murder or rape victim. Just make her a person. Give her some good lines to say that have nothing to do with her gender.

If we all do this in every script, imagine the difference we could make together over time. Imagine the fate of the celebrity rapist. Imagine the rape victim who at least knows that these men are buried so far under the prison that they will never touch another girl again. Imagine the woman who doesn't have to carry her rapist's baby to term because she failed to buy "abortion insurance." Imagine the women who will know it's okay to stand up to their abusers. But most importantly, imagine the courage we give to girls all over the world to become the best version of themselves.

It kind of starts with us. People all over the world watch movies. It's the easiest, most subtle way to send out messages, to influence culture. We have that power.

It's not just words, you know. It's a decision that you make every time you write: BE THE GODDAMN CHANGE.

Rep Relationships: An Insourced Post

See, the rabbits are the managers in this scenario.

Let's talk about managers some more. Just managers today, not agents, since for most screenwriters, this is the first stop.

In the beginning, you're just so excited that someone wants to read your script, you don't care who it is. And if someone wants to rep you - hot damn, now you're off to the races!

But it doesn't really happen that way. Having a rep can open all kinds of doors, but it is not a guarantee of success. And sometimes the rep you pick ends up not being the right one. That's okay. There are so many in this town that if one doesn't work, you try another. The comparison to a romantic relationship is absolutely apt. You go in hoping to make it work, but sometimes you have to know when to walk away.

I had a manager who was on her own, between firms. You'd think she had a ton of time to devote to me if she was basically her own boutique with few clients, but that wasn't the case. She was busy trying to find a new place to settle, and I was left wondering what to do.

I had a manager who was part of one of the biggest firms in town, and he was always attentive. He called me regularly, put me in rooms, returned my phone calls and emails right away. I feel fortunate to have worked with him. So the size of the company doesn't matter. Only the person matters.

And sometimes, even the best person doesn't work out. It's like a guy you know is really great and nice and wants to marry you, but you're just not feeling it. You have to walk away.

Many new writers get conflicting information on this, so I'm going to clear  it up right now: You must leave your current manager before finding another. Yes, it sucks. Too bad. Agents might be different, but no manager worth her salt will poach another's clientele. And that means you have to be confident that you'll land another before you leave the one you have. That's the part that's scary.

I'm in that process now - seeking new management. Now that I'm a little more experienced and have more confidence in the scripts I'm carrying around, I've gotten very picky about who I want to work with.

Managers are as individual as writers, and they all have different styles of operating, so you have to figure out which one works for you. This is what I do:

I watch TrackingB and The Tracking Board, both Internet script tracking sites. What's the difference between them? TrackingB is less flashy and more devoted to straight reporting of information. You can check out archived posts for free and decide if you like the format, and it boasts a widely respected contest whose goal is to get you repped. Disclaimer - I was a finalist in TrackingB's contest in 2011. Meanwhile, Tracking Board has a lot more going on than just script tracking, with the Hit List and a forum and its own contest. They just put out a comprehensive book looking at the past year's spec market.

Anyhow, I check the boards and the annual Black List (the list, not the site) and The Hit List, and if I see a great logline, I'll check out the manager associated with the writer of the project. I look for other projects that manager has gone out with. I check his IMDB Pro page to see who else they represent. I go to Done Deal Pro and search his name in the forums to see what others have said about him. I go to Deadline and check on what kind of news he's made. If I recognize a client's name, I'll contact the client and ask about what the manager is like to work with.

I do all this before I even ask them to read a script.

There are things to be aware of as you search. Tracking Board frequently reports options as sales, so often a manager looks like he's sold a ton of projects, when in fact, he's negotiated options galore and not so many outright purchases. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but beware that sometimes the managers with the most glamorous looking record are not as amazing as they seem. You also frequently see managers who go out with a lot of specs that never sell. In that case, could be those managers believe in using specs as writing samples and concentrate on getting their clients assignment work rather than a splashy spec sale, or it could be they just throw everything at the wall. Deadline is helpful in figuring out which managers are more interested in looking for material to produce. But these are things you need to be aware of when you decide which kind of manager you want.

Then there's the level of participation you want from a manager. Some are completely hands on. They want to go over your ideas with you, give you notes, consult with you before all major decisions. With some - you hand them a finished script and they decide what to do with it. There are many in between. You decide what you want your working relationship to look like and then find someone who matches up.

In the end, it all boils down to trust. You trust this person to handle your career, and in return, she trusts you to write good work. You'll disagree sometimes, but as long as you trust each other, that's okay. If you're honest and open to ideas but not a pushover, you'll be fine. And if there comes a time when you no longer feel you can trust this person, move on. If you feel you are being neglected, move on. A successful screenwriter once told me "A manager who never calls is not your manager." Remember that. Don't cling to hope like a neglected wife; Just pack your bags and go.

For more on this topic, I recommend you read Craig Mazin's recent post on the subject over on Done Deal Pro.

Rep Relationships: Outsourced Post #3

After receiving this question about rep/writer relationships:

 Is it true that managers and agents will only do something for you twice---after you give them the first spec they like and if that doesn't sell then if you are generating income for them----otherwise they won't do anything for you because they have 35 plus other clients (managers) or (70-80 for agents)... Would a new writer get lost in the shuffle at a big management company like Anonymous Content or Benderspink if they aren't hot right away...or is it better to go with a medium manager who's a hot spec seller.... How do you figure out which managers will take time to develop material and build a new client's career from ones that are strictly going for the one off quick deal?

I asked several of my writer buddies to help out by giving their perspective, since every relationship is different and I haven't had that many. You can find Part One HERE and Part Two HERE 

Writer #5 is just getting started, but after a high profile introduction his script got passed all over town:

I have both agents and managers. Fortunately, I love 'em. They're exactly the people I thought they were. They work their asses off, and they fight for me. However, the road to figuring out the question of representation was full of hiccups. It was very challenging. My situation was fairly bizarre.

I was fortunate enough to have a few options, which was wonderful and surreal and humbling. It's also taxing and stressful and terrifying. As someone who wasn't based in LA, I wasn't able to meet the majority of the reps in person. This only complicates matters. It's hard to really read someone based off a Skype session, a phone conversation, etc. I encountered a wealth of intelligent, incredibly talented, and admirable people. This only made things more difficult. A large part of the equation is figuring out who genuinely believes in you. Will this agent/manager work hard for you, not just in five minutes, but in five years? Because ideally, that's what these partnerships will be: long term ones.

A manager is your creative partner. Let me correct that - a good manager is your creative partner. As the industry has shifted, some agents have found footing in the managerial world. These people are plenty talented, but in some cases, their strong suit is not in the development of material. For me, that's the purpose of a manager. A manager is the person you're in the trenches with through every step of the creative process. They are your sounding board. They are someone with whom you're incredibly vulnerable, as you share your most embryonic ideas and early drafts.

For those lucky enough to be in a situation in which you're forced to choose between agencies or managerial firms of various sizes -- the behemoths and the smaller, boutique shops -- like everything in our business, there is no concrete rule to guide you here. So much of this comes down to your gut. You must absolutely be mindful of your agent/manager's client list, the size of their company, and how you fit into the equation. Do you want someone who is hungry? Always. Unfortunately, the hungriest are also, most often, the youngest. However, if you believe that Giant Agent/Manager X from Big Company Y, with a client list full of established writers, adores your writing and truly believes in your potential, that person may be the right rep for you.

I'd be lying if I said I haven't heard the horror stories. A talented young writer signs with a big agent/manager off the strength of his/her script, and then finds themselves marginalized over the next year as their "heat" fades. The phone rings less. The inbox isn't as full. The rep senses that you won't cash a check in the very immediate future, and backs away. Hell, I once met a rep who said something astounding. When our conversation shifted to a discussion of a young writer, who had broken in with a massive spec sale just three months earlier, the reps words were: "well, what has [the writer] done since?" With the wrong reps, Hollywood can become a business of "what have you done for me lately?". If you don't immediately sell the next spec, or land the OWA you've been chasing, the attention you receive can dwindle. It's important to note that this can happen anywhere. This type of behavior isn't restricted to the largest agencies & firms.

With the right agent/manager, you'll find someone who isn't utterly inconsolable when your spec doesn't sell, or you lose out on that big studio gig. You'll find someone who understands that the next opportunity is right around the corner, because at the end of the day, talent does win out. (Or...at least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night.) You won't feel like you're in this alone, because you won't be. That person -- the sherpa that will guide you up this mountain -- may work for a behemoth of an agency/managerial firm. That person may also just as easily may work for a smaller boutique.

Make an informed decision. If you're unsure about a rep, try to find someone who has worked with them. Hollywood is an incredibly small town. Seek out a fellow writer, or an exec. Ask them about their experiences. Listen to everything, and dismiss nothing. Don't let one overly enthusiastic or aggressively negative opinion sway your decision. Another useful little trick: read their clients work, and see if it speaks to you. There's no one trick to the trade. Do your research, and then follow your instincts. After all, they've carried you this far.

 Writer #6 is a TV and film writer who's had a lot of success and steady work over the years:

ME: Do you have a manager or agent or both?

Both.  These days, much more common.  One quick advantage of having both - when you're trying to get an actor or director on your script, an agent will be offering their own clients.  A manager works with all the agencies, so has more flexibility in trying to attach talent.

ME: What is that relationship like?

I think the underlying question here is "what should my relationship with my rep be," and people are trying to judge based on what pros do.  The truth is, I've been through three managers and probably ten different agents (I've been at the same agency for a long time, but agents move/teams change), and every relationship is different.  Some want to get involved and read drafts and give notes, some want to "sell it, don't smell it."  Some are behind you and keep fighting when they believe in you, even during cold streaks - some are heat seeking missiles.

I feel a rep is better than no rep, by a long shot. If you're a new writer and you get an offer, unless the person is a fraud, go ahead and give it a shot.  You can always change reps if it's not working out.  If you have multiple offers of representation, just listen to their pitch, ask what you can expect, and choose.  If you're wrong, it's not forever.

And thus ends the outsourced part of my post. Next time, I'll give my own answer, since this question has become increasingly relevant to me of late.  Thanks to all the writers who so graciously participated in this posting series. I know your insight has been very helpful to many.

Rep Relationships: Outsourced Post #2

After receiving this question about rep/writer relationships:

 Is it true that managers and agents will only do something for you twice---after you give them the first spec they like and if that doesn't sell then if you are generating income for them----otherwise they won't do anything for you because they have 35 plus other clients (managers) or (70-80 for agents)... Would a new writer get lost in the shuffle at a big management company like Anonymous Content or Benderspink if they aren't hot right away...or is it better to go with a medium manager who's a hot spec seller.... How do you figure out which managers will take time to develop material and build a new client's career from ones that are strictly going for the one off quick deal?

I asked several of my writer buddies to help out by giving their perspective, since every relationship is different and I haven't had that many. You can find Part One HERE and Part Three HERE.

I was going to keep everyone anonymous, but these guys didn't care.

Brian Scully:

For me, it breaks down to the reps who care and the reps who don’t. The reps who want a paycheck and to help a client’s career grow because they believe in said client… and the reps who just want a paycheck.

The relationship is one of mutual belief in each other, which is what I responded to more than anything else when COUNTERPOINT first got attention and I started getting emails and calls and responses to queries. A few reps who had responded favorably were great to hear from, and I was weighing some choices, but Kathy lost her shit when she got back to me. I didn’t sign with her because of that necessarily, but because when she talked to me about it, she just *got* the script, down to its details, and what it was doing and why it was doing it. I was sold from that moment on. She wanted me because she believed in me, and I wanted her because I believed in her. It’s been that way since. A second script she took out to a few select reps was one she also believes in very strongly, but it’s a very weird script with, like, six different genres and is not an easy sell by any means. MERCIFUL, again, is the same story, and it has only reinforced my satisfaction with our relationship so far. I feel the difference with her — I feel believed in. And I see and feel her dedication still, and it’s only grown in strength, even though, if one looks at finances, only 1 deal has been signed thus far, and from that only an option check distributed while financing is raised. Had I been with [REDACTED], I would have been thrown away as trash long ago because I didn’t make this person a quick buck right off the bat. The difference to me is immediately apparent and reinforces my preference all the more.

Of course, I’m assuming you wouldn’t post on the blog a direct quote from me saying out loud that [REDACTED] is a trashy fuckstick, because I’m not so retarded as to want to fire cannons directly at someone like that. Who do you think I am? John Gary?

John Gary:

I'm not going to answer the actual question - I'm going to answer the question behind the question, which is really "Hey who should I have represent me? Should I sign with a big manager or a small one? A big agency or a small one?" The answer is "I don't know, do you want me to pick what you should have for breakfast, too?"

These kinds of questions are what I like to call "role playing game" questions - they're questions that ignore the realities of the business and what happens when you go looking for a rep and what it's like to actually have one.

The fiction here is the notion that you can choose between a big manager or a medium one, a big agent or a small one. I've had this same discussion with different writers for 15 years. It used to be fun to talk through "Oh well I'd totally choose the small agency over the big one!" but when push comes to shove, it's about who you sit down with, what they say, what they offer, and the other connections the reps have.

Until you are in that room sitting across from the rep wanting you to be a client, this is a useless conversation. Send your material to anyone who will read it. The material will make the decision for you.

Rep Relationships: outsourced post #1

A while back, Paul asked a question that I and other repped writers get a lot. My experience is limited, and the truth is that every writer’s relationship with his or her rep is a different animal, so I decided that instead of answering the question myself, I’d farm it out to several writers I know and ask if they had any advice for Paul. I got some great responses. I intended to put them together much sooner, but I got a little side tracked on account of writing a new screenplay.

So here is Paul’s original question:

Is it true that managers and agents will only do something for you twice---after you give them the first spec they like and if that doesn't sell then if you are generating income for them----otherwise they won't do anything for you because they have 35 plus other clients (managers) or (70-80 for agents)... Would a new writer get lost in the shuffle at a big management company like Anonymous Content or Benderspink if they aren't hot right away...or is it better to go with a medium manager who's a hot spec seller.... How do you figure out which managers will take time to develop material and build a new client's career from ones that are strictly going for the one off quick deal?

Writers tend to be verbose (and then apologize for being verbose) so I’ve got a lot of words. I decided to split the responses into three posts.
Today's responses come from two writers: Writer #1 is a writer who’s been in the game for a long time and makes a living at this, and the second is a writer who’s just beginning her promising career.

Writer #1:

I have a manager and an agent. I’ve had both almost since the beginning and while the agents have changed many, many times, the manager has stayed the same since he became my manager.

The relationship with an agent or manager is going to depend entirely on the personality of the rep. I’ve had agents who are all business and distant whom I talked to once every two weeks (they never take your call—always call you back end of day between 6:00 and 7:00), and agents who take my call right away and whom I spoke to a couple times a week. But in either case, no agent is going to spend the time with you that a manager will. No agent is going to take a half hour on the phone to hear your list of ten things you want to accomplish. Or let you run a dozen ideas by them. They’re just too busy. So a manager will always have more time for you, and you should develop much more of a friendship with a manager. Or at least close to one.

Also, agents must be managed. Not necessarily by your manager, but by someone. That is, you can’t be negative all the time, complain about shit, and not deliver new material. At least not if you’re not A-list. Once you start making serious money, the relationship flips and they start managing you, but even a mid-six figure writer can be more trouble than they’re worth, so tread lightly. Thus, a conversation with one’s agent must always be short, positive, and focused. It’s a highly artificial relationship. You can’t call them up to talk about your depression. You can’t talk about six different things. And you can’t talk for forty minutes.

It’s a continuum, naturally. An agent at WME is going to tend to be less hands on than one at APA, but that’s not necessarily so. Again, it depends on the agent’s style. But it’s a mistake to think your agent is your friend. You’re in a business relationship and they will cut you if you don’t generate income but do generate headaches.

And to answer the question posed directly, there are no hard rules for who might drop you or after how many failures. Some agents may be in a volume business and cut clients all the time who don’t earn. Others, believe it or not, actually believe in their clients’ writing and will stay the course for years without income from you. But only if you’re pleasant, hard working, and keep delivering quality material. With the way the spec market is these days, it’s hard to expect a new writer to actually sell anything. But what about the follow up general meetings? Is he willing to collaborate on new ideas? Is he good in a room? Is the feedback good? These are reasons to keep a client who isn’t earning. Conversely, pain in the asses with multiple mental issues who write one spec a year are going to get cut.

Writer #2:

The story and idea of reps is a lot more complicated and harder that it seems sometimes. I know a lot more writers who are unhappy with their reps than ones who are completely happy. I also know a few that are happy with their manager but not agent, and vice versa, it happens a lot. Maybe many writers won't admit to their rep troubles because it's kind of like a marriage. You are all smiles even when things are rocky, and when things are bad you aren't running around telling all your friends that it's terrible and sucks -- you just keep smiling sometimes so nobody knows what you're dealing with but deep down you know it shouldn't be this way, or there is better out there.

As for me, I firmly believe you HAVE to find someone you click with and is passionate about you and your work. Here's the thing you should know when you get signed -- you constantly have to prove yourself -- I don't think that changes for those even making money. You are only as good as your material and if you're not producing the goods then you aren't doing your job as a writer, and reps can't do anything for you. They only make 10-15% because they should only be doing 10-15% of the workload -- that's where my first manager came in...

Let me give you an idea of my specific situation so you can maybe relate to a portion or maybe all of it. When I signed with my first manager at a very very reputable management company, I was the ripe old age of 21... Insane, right? I was so green and thought I had it made on those one or two scripts. But here's the reality of what I did in two years: I didn't write a lot, the ideas I sent weren't good, I emailed a lot about nothing, and spent my time dreaming of dollars that would never come... Don't be that person. That is when you see managers not sending out your stuff, not emailing on your every whim, or calling you weekly. You have to remember it's their reputation on the line in a town where opinion is everything. Why would they send out something subpar? They shouldn't have to. I interned at a production company for a summer and it opened my eyes to the other side from submissions, phone calls to talk clients up, coverage, etc. A rep can certainly be "that" guy or girl who sends over junk all the time. The execs begin to take them less seriously as opposed to those they know ONLY send amazing samples... Anyways, that's another lesson, but ultimately it wasn't a fit anyways with that manager, but I certainly learned what not to do the next time around.

I firmly believe it's the agent, not the agency -- find someone who gets you. Sure the big three agencies have a lot of resources, big teams, big actors, but if you can't get an agent working for you there then it's just a name to throw around and it's all for nothing.

Long story short, I was largely ignored for my two and a half year stint with [my rep]. Sure when I emailed or called, I'd get responses, but I wanted to know if my stuff was being sent out, was it read, what did that person think? I will say I got a fair amount of attention my last few months with him, but I had to be vetted by other people in the industry or his other big clients before he would put in some time due to his other 100 clients -- and truth be told, I felt extremely under serviced. I didn't know at the time if I was being a whiny girl or if it was justified. I look back now and think it was justified, but I saw so many writer friends go through the same thing, the same frustrations, the same shit. It was either their reps don't respond, their reps don't read in a timely manner, their reps are cold on their material, their reps are giving bad advice, their reps ignore them, the list goes on -- frankly it sucks ass sometimes.

So as you can see it's tough to blanket every situation. I've seen writers screw up a good thing with good reps whether they don't write anything worth a damn, they don't write at all, they pester their reps, etc. I've seen great writers with the wrong reps. They could easily be going on tons of meetings, maybe getting jobs, but their rep is so high profile, has too many clients, doesn't care, or are too busy servicing their big money makers. Then I've seen writers go through reps like toilet paper... whose fault it is doesn't really matter, it's like dating, if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be. Staying in it just for the sake of having a rep isn't what someone should be doing. When I left my manager I had no new material so the next year I sat down and wrote... and in that year I wrote something that would get me my next set of managers….

 I didn't want to leave a rep again because it's like breaking up, it's not fun. So I had my bullshit meter on super sensitive when I went on these meetings. I didn't want smoke blown up my ass, I didn't want the dog and pony show, I wanted to have someone I believed could love me as a writer. So when managers started talking about "this pilot" and how great it was and what they could do, I started to fade because I am more than this one thing I wrote that you loved, I have so much more to say about so many things that you don't even know about yet. But when I met with my current managers (which at the time there were four of them, that was a big change on its own going from one to four), I immediately noticed they didn't lead with fireworks. They hardly even talked about my pilot. Instead we talked about our backgrounds, life, dogs, cars, everything under the sun -- that told me right there they were interested in me as a person and as a writer... I was sold. I signed with them March 2012 so it's still relatively new, but it's been great.


PART 2 IS HERE. 
PART 3 IS HERE.