Will My Agent Lose Interest In Me?

Question:

I am a new writer represented by one of the big agencies.   However, I’m worried it’s more of a writing sample than a big-concept seller. Still, my agent believes in the script and has targeted 10-15 Oscar-type producers who he thinks may dig the material, and will hopefully take it to studios.  My question:  how long does this process take?    How quickly will a producer read a script submitted by an agent from a well-known agency?

More importantly, if these producers all balk at the script, will my agent totally lost interest in me as a client?

ScreenwritingCompass:

A lot of great questions here. The first thing to address is that you should be feeling comfortable asking your agent these questions, and he or she should not have any problem answering them.

I can tell right away that this is an independent film since your agent is targeting Oscar-type of producers. You should feel lucky that a big agency took this on. Remember, agents at big agencies have a lot of big clients and have to focus on projects bringing in money. This sounds like it’s going to take a lot of work, which means your writing must be really good.

In terms of how long is this process going to take… it will vary. Had you told me you wrote a comedy, a thriller, an action, something commecial, I would have told you that all of this will take one week. However, with an independent script, it’s going to depend on the strategy your agent takes. Your agent may be targeting 15 producers, but since it’s an independent script, your agent may want to approach one producer at a time so that if they respond, he/she can lock in that producer and then get the producer to package the script with talent. If this is the case, get ready to wait several weeks to several months. Now, if your agent decides to treat this script as a usual spec, then it will take around a week to get responses. In terms of the length of time it takes for a producer to read doesn’t vary that greatly. A smaller agency can get the reads approximately the same time the bigger agency can, because it’s all about the material. Of course, if your agent has a reputation for sending out garbage, then you may be waiting a bit longer.

I hate to break it to you, but that’s the price you pay for being at a big agency. If the producers balk at your script, your agent most likely will lose interest in you, since he/she has so many other clients to attend to.