Trust me, dear reader, there is an endless supply of charlatans lined up waiting to separate unwary screenwriters from their money.
I strongly advise you to run, not walk, from any so-called manager, agent, or producer who asks you for money. I also believe most screenwriting contests are rip-offs, too. I have never been to one of those paid pitch-a-thons I see advertised online. I can't believe they are worth the money either. Who wants to be the 97th person in line to pitch some poor schmuck from a production company five log-lines? Not me. That said, I do believe it is worthwhile for a screenwriter to invest in a good reader.
I have always been blessed to have friends and associates who were both willing to read my scripts, and qualified to offer an intelligent opinion. Screenplays are not books. They are not an end product, but rather the blueprint of a film. People without an knowledge of screenplay form and structure may be able evaluate the quality of your story, but not necessarily the quality of your script.
For example, I recently read a script from a promising young screenwriter. She had been getting generally good feedback on the script, but she knew something was wrong with it. I read it. The script indeed featured the kind of lively characters that production companies want to see, but it had a glaring structural problem that relegated it to the "Thanks, but no thanks" pile. She was very grateful for my feedback, and made the necessary corrections. She only wished someone in her immediate circle who could have provided the feedback earlier.
My main reader today is my friend Trish, who worked in Hollywood as an assistant to well-known directors and producers. In addition to the knowledge necessary to evaluate scripts, she also possesses the honesty necessary to express it. That's what you need: Honesty. Brutal honesty. Remember, when you pitch your script, you won't just be competing with the local schlubs from your screenwriting class. You will be competing directly with pros like David Koepp, Shane Black, Ron Bass, and Joss Whedon. You better really make sure your script is honed.
One of the reasons I rarely read scripts is because most unproduced writers do not really appreciate or want honesty. They often get defensive and fight every little criticism and suggestion. I think most them have this fantasy that I will be so blown away by their writing that I will shower them with praise and send their script along to all of my contacts as is. Ain't going to happen. Sorry.
(Just as an aside, I never use readers for commissioned work. The producers who hired you are the readers!)
Aside from some reviews I had to purchase when I put a script on The Black List, I have not bought reviews from any of the multitude of script reading services online. I am sure there are many good ones. If my friend Trish wasn't available, I would certainly trust the opinion of my friend David Warfield, who consults via his website
StorySolver. He is a successful writer with great Hollywood experience and a skilled teacher.
I am extremely skeptical of readers who claim to connect screenwriters with whom they have given a "recommend" with Hollywood producers. These services are factories dependent on repeat business to make a profit. They only get repeat business by encouraging their clients with recommends, and the more recommends you give, the less credibility you have. How many scripts do you think these companies can recommend to producers and still be taken seriously? Not many. If they do actually forward their recommends to producers, it must be in the form of a mass emailing that goes straight into the spam folder. Don't pay for that. You can email those same producers yourself.
One final word of advice: Don't believe everything everyone tells you. Sometimes you have to go with your gut. I ignore the opinion of the mighty Trish when I disagree with her. I realize that if she has a problem with something that other people will too, but sometimes you have to follow your vision.
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