Why don't you offer reports with e-mails, addresses, faxes, and phone numbers or sell lists with this information?

We used to provide this information on our e-query reports and lists, but no longer do so, because we found that many agents, producers, and production companies don't want this information distributed.  In updating our databases, we have obtained many private e-mail addresses, so we can't give them out, but these contacts will give them to you themselves when they respond to your query.  Usually individuals give you their company name or you can email them back to provide further information for sending out your responses. 

Another reason we no longer provide e-mails is because if these e-mails become circulated and used widely for queries by a number of writers, particularly if they have poorly written manuscripts, many editors will start to regard these queries as spam.  Then, they will become less receptive to read any e-mails and may change them.   The system works because we only send out occasional e-mail queries, and so we need to protect them.  Otherwise this could undermine this service for others.

Also, because of the ease of copying now, we have been advised not to provide any lists with contact information, since anyone could copy our hard to put together lists.  Then, they could start promoting a similar service, without the many hours and high expenses involved in putting together these databases and keeping them regularly updated (about 100 hours and counting!).  Plus this would contribute to the spam problem and undermine the value of this service for everyone.

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What is your "success rate" for sending unsolicited query letters to major publishers? Do these publishers read them and are your clients getting results with this strategy? 

It depends how you measure success.   Virtually all of our clients have gotten responses, showing that contacts do read these queries -- some as many as 40 to 60, even 100 responses, and about 80-90% of our clients have gotten requests to send their manuscript or script.   And many have signed with agents, syndicates, publishers, and producers.  Go to our kudos section to see some of their comments (from 20+ clients).   We can open the door for you and help you write a strong query letter that will be read.  But then your success depends on the strength of your manuscript or script.

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While you have posted the responses of many clients who have gotten good results, how representative are they of your clients generally?  How many actually get an agent or get their project developed?

This is really difficult to quantify, because we have so many different types of clients with different types of projects (ie: nonfiction and fiction books, children's books, articles and columns, and screenplays) seeking different types of results (ie: an agent, publisher, producer, syndicate, or publishing company).  Also, while we can open the door for you with a compelling presentation, then your success depends on the quality of your manuscript or script.  Then, too, some of the final results are still pending, since it sometimes takes a few months to finalize a deal with an agent or publisher -- and after you sign with an agent, it takes more time for the agent to place the project.  Not every client keeps us posted on these long-term successes.  Plus films can be in development for months if not years before they get produced. 

But if you want to see more examples of client successes, visit our companion site for writers of books, articles, and columns at www.publishersandagents.net and visit the "kudos" section there.  This site was launched about a year ago, so we have had many many more clients, though by choice, we have limited our service to only a small number of clients, so we can provide a personalized service.  Primarily, we use these queries to market our own projects, get referrals from people in the industry and past clients, and work with the occasional client who contacts us by finding us on the Internet. 

In short, we know this approach works from the many successes we and many  clients have experienced.  But there's no way to put an exact percentage on these results, because there are so many variables involved and different measures of what success means to clients with different types of projects.

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I'm not sure whether to send an e-mail query, postal query, or both?  What do you recommend?

A good way to start is using an e-mail queries to those contacts with e-mails and see what kind of response you get.  Then, you can send a postal query to selected contacts who didn't respond to your e-mail query or who don't have e-mails or accept e-mail submissions.   There is great variation in who is open to e-mails in different fields, and sometimes contacts who say they don't accept e-mail submissions do when you send a compelling query with a project that interests them.   However, we have dropped some contacts who have made it clear they never accept e-mails.

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How do you select the contacts for your queries?

In the case of agents, we contact the WGA agencies to find out the name of the agent or agents who are open to receiving queries from new writers.   In the case of producers and production companies, we use the names of the individuals who involved with acquiring new scripts -- most typically the Director of Development, Director of Acquisitions, Creative Executive, Literary Editor, or Story Editor.  At smaller companies, it may be the Director, Producer, President, or CEO.  The titles vary.  

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Where do you get the names of your contacts and why can't I just get them myself?

These names come from the major industry sources which are available to anyone either through published directories or online -- and sure, you could gather these names, type up lists, and organize the mailings yourself.  But we do this for you and put them in our own database, so we can quickly and easily select the contacts who would most likely be interested in your project and query them for you. 

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Can I contact producers and production companies myself or do I need an agent? 

The answer is it depends.  With some of the larger companies, you usually need an agent.  But if you hit an executive the write way with a compelling e-query or letter, you might still break through directly.  Alternatively, with some of the smaller and independent companies which are most open to new writers, you may be better able to contact them yourself, since the major agents may not contact them.   Also, if you can get your foot in the door with a smaller producer or production company, you start building up your credibility which opens up the door for consideration by larger companies and agencies when you submit your next script. 
 

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Even though I'm a writer, I'm still not sure about how to write the best query letter. Though your samples for clients are helpful in indicating what to write and about how long to make it, I'm still not sure about how to write this to be most effective.

Many writers have asked us about this, since these are essentially marketing pitch letters, and they require a different type of writing. Accordingly, we can write a powerful query letter for you. You send us a draft of what you want to say or 2-3 pages with a concept statement, synopsis of your project, and bio about you.  Then, we'll come up with a finished letter ready for you to review, and once you give your final okay, we'll send out your letter. The cost of this service is $80.  Generally, your letter will be ready within 24 hours.
 

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Why should a successful agent want to get e-mails from unknown writers? Aren't most good agents already swamped with queries from the slush pile?

Good agents might well be receptive to such e-mails, because they see them as a way to get promising new writers, and they can quickly decide if they want more information. A good short query letter is the key to getting your project considered by an agent - as well as by a producer or production company. 

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Won't good agents, producers, and prodco execs be turned off by getting e-mails from you, if they get a lot of e-mails from writers with unsalable projects or poorly written queries? And if they get such e-mails, won't that make it difficult for me to query them myself?

First, the e-mails come from the writers, with their e-mail addresses and not from us. Secondly, we provide a preliminary screening, and if someone has a project that sounds terrible, we would turn them down. Also, during this screening, we can advise a writer if they have a poor query letter, so they can fix it or bring in a professional writer - or we'll refund their fee. But if we do get clearly unsalable projects, we're prepared to screen out such clients, because we know the continued success of this service depends on us sending out e-mails that our contacts want to read.  Then, too, as we grow, we may limit the number of clients we accept, so we don't send any one contact more than 1 or 2 e-mails a day for our clients.

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How can a scattershot approach to a group of agents, producers, or prodcos work, since different companies are looking for different types of projects.

Yes, we absolutely agree.  That's why this isn't a scattershot approach. Rather, we have categorized agents, management companies, producers, and prodcos by their  major areas of interest, so we target those that match your type of project when we do our mailing. Also, it doesn't matter if the writer knows nothing about these agents or editors. What's important is that we do know, so we can target your screenplay for you. 

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I'm looking for an experienced agent, who already has a strong network of connections; not a wannabe who has never made a significant sale. A search for such an agent certain takes some effort, and often takes some time to expect a response for such an agent. Why should an experienced agent want a flood of miscellaneous queries? So won't only the wannabe agents with a lack of significant sales respond?

Unfortunately, your question is based on a lot of assumptions that aren't the case. First, our service includes many experienced agents, as well as newer and eager agents working with the larger agencies, since we direct our queries only to WGA agents or agents working with WGA-registered agencies.  In the event we learn that any agents don't meet this criteria, we will drop them from our database.

Your question also assumes that it has to take a very long time to get a response from an agent. However, we have found that agents who are receptive to e-mail queries generally reply in 1-2 days -- some in a matter of hours. Now that the technology has changed, there is an easier and faster way to get an agent - though the secret is having a good project and a powerful query letter that gets read!

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How do I know these agents, managers, producers, or executives at prodcos are still in their positions?  What if they leave their company or go out of business?  How do you keep your lists up-to-date?

We constantly keep our lists up to date in several ways.  First, whenever we add new contacts, we do a test mailing to them and drop any listings if we get return e-mails or the contacts advise us they don't want to receive e-mails.   Secondly, each time we do a mailing, we use any returned e-mails to clean our list.  Thirdly, we regularly check industry sources to get new listings and make changes accordingly.  We also make phone calls direct to these companies or check Web sites to check on additions.  Then, we send all new listings an e-mail to test them out. 

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I'm a member of a writers' group and can get referrals to an agent from other members.  Why would I need your service?

If you can get a great referral from a personal contact, great.  But often someone else's agent may be busy or may not be right for you.   Also, our service will give you a greater range of interested agents to choose from than relying on your personal network.

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Why can't I simply do my own mailing to editors or agents myself using their e-mails?  Why do I need your query service?