In the end, selling a screenplay is all about perseverance. If you are the type of person that likes to quit after they fail one time then selling a screenplay will likely remain out of reach. In fact you could have a well written screenplay and still fail at selling it simply because you haven’t had the right people reading it. You just have to believe in your work and your ability to write a great screenplay. If you think your screenwriting skills are lacking then give your screenplay to other experienced screenwriters and have them review it. They will tell you what you are doing wrong and how you can improve it. Then you can keep on improving yourself while trying to market your screenplays in the process. After awhile, you will get more familiar with how the screenplay market works and you will better understand the process of selling a screenplay.
The Right Documents to Pitch and Sell Your Screenplay
When you pitch a screenplay to a potential buyer, you need to have the right documents available for them to read. These documents are referred to as selling documents. With these documents, selling a screenplay will be more attainable because they will tell the buyer what the story is about and what the overall style of the film will be. The style is basically the theme of the movie, which tells the reader how they would feel if the script were translated into film. In order to convey this important feeling to the reader, the screenwriter needs to have great writing skills. Another thing your documents should contain is the estimated production costs. In other words, a breakdown of how much it would cost to produce this script and make it into a film.
When selling a screenplay, you should also include the logistics of the production such as the audience demographic, size of the cast, settings & locations, actors, music and so on. Now you might not be able to convey all of this information in your documents because nothing is official yet. Sometimes this logistical information is discussed after the script is optioned, but you’ll still want to give the buyer a sense of as much of this information as you can. However, if there is a piece of logistical information that makes a good selling point, such as an A-list actor attached to the project, then you will definitely want to include that in your selling documents.