Sunday, September 21, 2014

Fingers crossed

Ana talks about her daughter's experience at IFP Film Week.







My daughter just attended IFP's Independent Film Week as a finalist in the webseries category. Representatives from film festivals and production companies made appointments to meet with her. She was greeted and feted, wined and dined, exhilarated and exhausted.

As soon as the hoopla ended, she sent thank you notes to everyone who met with her. Now she is preparing to send content to the people who requested it.

We talked this weekend about what she should say in her cover letter and what she should expect next. I was struck by the fact that I (her untheatrical, unpublished mother) could offer some advice that I had gleaned from reading blogs (including this one), taking workshops, visiting websites, and participating in online romance writing groups.

The process of pitching novels, getting requests, sending content, waiting for responses, hoping for
The Call seems to be exactly the same for books as entertainment.

When my WIP is polished, I will mail my query letter pitch, hope for a full or partial request, send the manuscript with a cover letter, wait for a reply, hope for The Call.

Amazing (to me) similarities.





6 comments:

  1. I'll keep my fingers crossed for her, too, Ana!
    Today's pitching involves cover letter, blurb and synopsis that stands out from the rest. It's a far cry from my very first submission in the 60s when I sent M&B the whole novel (by snail mail) with a cover letter that, as far as I remember, simply said something to the effect of 'I'm submitting this and hope you might be interested' LOL No blurb, no synopsis - but it was accepted. A different world then! But at least it gave me something to put on my CV when I started submitting again five years ago! And with my query to my publisher about the re-release of His Leading Lady, I actually got a thank you for trusting them to re-publish this one!

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  2. Another plea to put your name at the TOP of your post, as the first sentence of your post is shown in the link on FB. PLEASE remember, so that my FB friends don't think I am writing every HWH post when the link appears (automatically) on my timeline.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Ana - but of course it had already gone onto my timeline!

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  4. Good luck to your daughter, Ana!

    In both businesses it seems to be a lot of hurry up, get things out, and then....wait.

    Whatever come of it, it sounds like she made a lot of great contacts. Which is always a good thing.

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