Q: How do you deal with it if you are really passionate about an idea that your agent doesn't get behind?
Have It Your Way…A: You write it, and they sell it.
This question comes up a lot. Agents exist to sell the work that their writing clients create. It’s only natural, then, that they’ll want input into the kind of product you’re designing.
I was actually thinking about this the other day. My father-in-law was in town, and we were chatting about his days spent in the Burger King business. He owned a few BK’s, which made him a “franchisee”. The franchisees are responsible for selling the products that the corporate folks invent. This occasionally led to tension. The franchisees loved big sellers like the chicken parmigiana sandwich, but they hated failed experiments like one year’s formula change in their french fries.
And still, when push came to shove, it was the content provider that won the argument. Bill grumbled and complained (as did they all), but in the end, he put it up on the menu and did his best.
In the world of screenwriters and agents, we’re the content providers. We should listen to what our agents say. They have their ear to the ground, and they have (hopefully) a good sense of what the market is responding to. On the other hand, their sensibilities are entirely reactive, and their skill sets as sellers does not particularly qualify them to evaluate material the way a buyer would.
Listen to your agents. Hear them out. Keep as open a mind as you possibly can. And then make your own call. If they refuse to sell the work then get new agents, because the ones who have are clearly not interested in representing you. They’re interested in representing the writer they want you to be.
Reminds me of the Lyle Lovett song, “If I were the man you wanted”… I would not be the man that I am.
Nice in theory, but a perfectly good agent may not get behind one or another of your pieces, and realistically they’re just not going to sell it as well, or at all. It is sometimes your job to sell your stuff to your agent before they sell it to anyone else.
Also, you should check with your agent before you start writing. They can tell you if they think they can sell it. In other words it may not be that your agent doesn’t get it; the market may not get it. I always pitch my stuff to my agent before I write it. If I get a cool reaction, I often go and write something else, and then see if time and some kind of recalibration changes their minds.
Alex:
Always assume that I’ve practiced what I preach. :) So far, so good.
“It is sometimes your job to sell your stuff to your agent before they sell it to anyone else.”
I’m curious, isn’t it sometimes (often, even, for those like me who are just starting out) your job to sell your stuff, period? If so, wouldn’t it be a good idea to write something that you could get behind?
I think it is important to find out WHY they don’t like the idea?
Is it that it won’t sell? In that case, is the genre/idea one that the market is glutted with, or one that hasn’t been done in forever? Each of those situations need to be dealt with differently.
Is it that the agent thinks the idea isn’t strong enough to support a marketable script? In that case, I would seriously think about trying to improve the core idea, is there a better way to tell the best story for this idea? Or I would focus on making the characterizations, the suspense, everything… absolutely top notch.
I would see the agent’s lack of interest as a warning flag that I needed to up my commitment and quality level, not a no on the project.
well, bk restaurants are owned by bk. as a franchisee, you must sell bk’s product, not your own. however, agents are not owned by the writer. they do not have to sell what the writer wants them to
if i were an agent, and one of my clients had some script that was not marketable, but he demanded i went out with it, i wouldn’t. i’d win that one. he’d be free to get other representation. i would not put my reputation on the line for a bad script just because it was written by one of my clients
Alan:
Actually, the franchisees own the Burger Kings. Sometimes Burger King will insist on owning the real estate, but the business itself is owned by the individuals.
You’re right, though, that if a client demands that a bad script be sold, the agent would probably just terminate the relationship. That’s the price we pay for being at odds with our clients or our reps. If we are that seriously at odds…it’s probably best that the relationship end.
Craig -
That’s a tough one in real life. I left my first agent because they didn’t take an idea seriously, even as a TV producer was negotiating an if/come deal for a pilot bible and script. Then when I called them and told them a deal was on the table, they didn’t follow through - they didn’t take the offer seriously either. I left them, made the deal, produced the pilot and 5 shows and got into the WGA on the deal.
But I find agents always want to hear ideas before I spec them, and because they are businessmen, often don’t get them - not the good ones - and can be very discouraging. I know all this but it’s still taken the wind out of my sails a number of times, and I’ve abandoned specs that I otherwise would have banged out full of enthusiasm. I always regret it. You know best because you can see it - they can’t.
JT:
To be honest, this is why I don’t really discuss this stuff much with my reps. I’ve gotten to a point where I think I know what I and the buyers I’m close to want better than they.
However, there’s nothing wrong with a reality check. Sometimes the wind goes out for a reason, and it’s worth thinking about what anyone has to say. My wife, a friend…anyone. After all, we write for an audience made up of 99.99999% non-Hollywood types, all of whom are supposed to like what we do.
To be sure, though, I’m kind of a hard-ass on the agent thing. Always have been. Something about that 10% that makes me feel like I’m entitled to be in charge. :)
Craig -
I’m with you. They work for me. But there are so many factors that come into play here. There’s legit feedback. Also, letting them vet an idea can help them feel invested. But some agents (not the best ones) know how hard it is to sell a script and won’t be enthusiastic for anything but an obvious ‘guaranteed sale’. Which may not exist. Or they may be wrong. Or they’re thinking too conventionally, in which case only an imitition of a previous hit will make them enthuse. It’s hard to know what will sell big and make no mistake that this is usually their sole criteria. First, it may not be your criteria. And second, if people knew for sure what would sell, then some of those people writing how-to screenwriting books would sell scripts. Despite their intent to know the market, they can’t really predict the market.
I factor their input in but I have to admit that sometimes they’ve managed to dampen my enthusiasm when I would have been better off just writing. I want to feel that initial unbridled enthusiasm and it can get dissapated in the telling of the story to people. Once you’ve told it, some people lose that desire to tell it - necessary to write. Add a less than warm response, and it can do as much harm as good.
JT:
I agree with everything you say. The “discouragement” factor has to really be considered. Typically, I don’t mind running stuff up the flagpole if I’m not sure about it.
If I know I like it, I hold it back until I’m ready.
So, you are saying that you are like the guy at Burger King headquarters and your father in law is the schmuck that has to follow orders. You are in deep shit if your wife reads these blogs. In this analogy I think Mrs. Mazin would see you as the franchise holder and Dad as the Chairman of Burger King Corp.
In terms of Hollywood analogies, it could be that the writer is the mid-western cattle rancher, the agent is the cattle auctioneer, the studio is burger king corp., Harvey Weinstein is the Hamburgler, the theater chains and Video/DVD chains as the Burger King franchisees, the theater usher is the burger flipper, the WGA is the FDA.
Craig -
Incredibly, you last post sums it up perfectly and pithily. If you love it, don’t run it past them, just build enthusiasm and expectation with ‘I’m specing this thriller/comedy/character story. It’s great. I think you’re gonna love it.’ Don’t give them enough to sway you.