A feature spec sold for two million dollars at the end of last year.
A month later, another one sold for 1.25 million (with a potential payout of 3 million if it gets made) and was written by a complete novice.
Unreal.
Amid industry upheaval—where everything in the entertainment business has been doom and gloom, marked by consolidation, unemployment, and the toughest marketplace I’ve seen in twenty years—two feature specs sold for over a million dollars.
Congratulations to Julia Cox and Natan Dotan – What a huge accomplishment.
2024 was a pretty strong year for the feature spec market. After years of dwindling sales—and countless power lunch conversations and trade articles declaring how impossible it had become to make a big, splashy script sale—there were at least 20 to 30 announced sales last year. And those are only the ones I know about; there are always plenty more that don’t get the fancy press releases.
I think the strikes played a big role in some of the larger sales, since the studios and streamers needed things in production quickly, but I also believe this trend will continue.
While 2025 is still in its early days and only a few spec sales have been announced, every agent and manager I’ve spoken to remains optimistic that the market will stay strong. There was even a big comedy sale earlier this month, I Can See You’re Angry by Brandon Cohen, that Miramax bought in a competitive situation, which I have heard is actually very funny.
But you never know with these things. The spec market has always been unpredictable. On one hand, the top 20 movies at the box office last year were all based on big IP. On the other hand, by my count, at least 25-30 theatrical movies released last year by notable studios came from spec scripts or original ideas. So, original stories are still getting made—which is exactly what you want. I just wish they were performing better at the box office.
Things are looking much better on streaming, where more specs and original movies are being bought and produced. Of last year’s biggest script sales, at least half went to streamers. Just look at some of Netflix’s biggest hits of 2024—Carry-On, Damsel, Lift, The Union, Atlas, Back in Action, Rebel Ridge, The Deliverance—all original, all successful. My guess is that most were written on spec (though some may have been sold as pitches or developed through meetings and relationships with streamers), but overall, this is a very positive trend that will help more writers sell original work.
Another positive sign is that many spec sales from last year, such as Mercy by Marco van Belle and After the Hunt by Nora Garrett—both of which sold to Amazon/MGM—have already been made and dated. I bet that many others will go into production this year. This is always nice to see, especially since historically, so many high-profile spec sales get a big announcement and then are never heard from again.
How the 2025 spec market does will obviously depend on the material. But by studying the marketplace, analyzing what is being bought and why, paying attention to which original movies are successful, and, of course, reading the spec scripts behind the big sales, you can get an upper hand on what types of scripts you should be writing next—and how to make that big sale in 2025!
And look, I am a big believer in the notion that Hollywood never knows what it wants and that a lot of the time its not a good idea to be chasing trends, but after you have been doing this as long as I have been, and have read thousands of scripts and listened to on average five pitches or more a week for the past decade, you get a good feel on the type of projects that are being bought and what executive gravitate towards.
I’ll use both Love of Your Life and Alignment as examples before diving into my top ways to make a big spec sale in 2025.
Why Love of Your Life Sold for Big Money
The Timely And Emotional Screenplay Is Incredibly Moving
Love of Your Life and Alignment have almost nothing in common… and yet, they share many similarities. At face value, they are completely different—one is a female-centric drama/romance about a woman trying to reclaim her life after a tragedy, while the other is a fast-paced AI thriller.
However, both are very producible (likely budgeted under $50 million, possibly as low as $20 million), feel incredibly timely, offer great roles for major actors, and should attract top-tier filmmakers (Joe Wright just attached to Alignment). Most importantly, they are reminiscent of successful films from the past without feeling like carbon copies. Meaning, you still have to come out with an original story, fresh characters and perhaps a unique tone, but if it can evoke certain qualities of a past hit, studios love that sort of thing.
Always keep these things in mind when writing your spec!
Julia Cox’s Love of Your Life landed at MGM/Amazon after a massive bidding war. Even more impressive—it was a naked spec. Meaning, it didn’t have a huge A-list director or movie star attached when it was taken to market. Yes, Ryan Gosling’s new production company is attached to produce, but unless there’s a major rewrite, there isn’t a role for Gosling to play.
Naked specs are becoming much more common after years of A-list packages inflating budgets, which led to mediocre films due to rushed development since all the elements were already in place. So I think this is a positive trend. Although, I am writing this the day after Apple picked up a massive pre-packaged project ha.
Going out with a naked spec means that writers won’t be sitting around for months waiting for attachments before sending the project out. The studios and streamers all have different taste, algorithms, and mandates these days, so it makes more sense for them to want to have a bigger hand in development, casting, attaching filmmakers.
Another remarkable feat? The script isn’t a high-concept tentpole, a hooky action film, or a four-quadrant family movie—the kinds of specs that typically sell for seven figures. Instead, it’s a straight romantic drama—an execution-dependent idea.
Even the logline is incredibly low-key: A young woman retreats from her life and travels abroad after her husband tragically passes away. Through a series of relationships, she rebuilds a meaningful life.
But Julia Cox knocked it out of the park.
This script is the equivalent of Freddie Freeman hitting a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series.
In my twenty years in the business, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a $2 million spec sale. I’m sure it has happened—especially in the streaming era, where big packages have sold with production commitments and hundred-million-dollar budgets. But a naked spec going for $2 million? Unheard of.
I grew up reading about the heyday of the spec market as a kid obsessed with Entertainment Weekly and Premiere magazine. The Shane Black and Joe Eszterhas era, where scripts were supposedly selling for a million dollars every week—or so I was led to believe.
But even in the early 2000s, anyone working in Hollywood would tell you those days were over. Yes, you’d still see trade articles every week about specs selling, but my guess is most were going for $150K–$450K, and the majority were never made—especially as Hollywood became more risk-averse and big IP and comic book films took over.
But Love of Your Life feels different—not just because it sold for an insane amount of money. So why did this particular script set the marketplace on fire? Let’s dive in.
Julia Cox has been working in Hollywood for around a decade. Her most high-profile credit before this was writing the Jodie Foster and Annette Bening Netflix film Nyad in 2023. I first met her in 2016 after reading her Black List script Do No Harm, about a doctor having a steamy affair with a colleague. It was a great script, and from both her writing and our meeting, I could tell she was destined for big things.
She wrote Do No Harm while working as a writer’s assistant on NBC’s Parenthood and used that momentum to land her first staff writing job on Reservation Road, a short-lived Freeform show created by one of my favorite writers, Karen DiConcetto. As crazy as it might sound, those two jobs—working on emotional character-driven dramas—may have had the biggest influence on Julia as she wrote her future lottery ticket: Love of Your Life.
That’s because Love of Your Life makes you feel SO MANY different EMOTIONS while reading.
When I read a script, the #1 thing I look for is whether it makes me feel something. If you can do that, I’m automatically engaged and eager to keep turning the pages.
Yes, plot and characters are important, but if you can convey emotions on the page—happiness, grief, love, excitement, surprise, cathartic reconciliations—you’ve already won half the battle. And this script makes you feel every imaginable emotion throughout.
I’m sure sitting in the Parenthood writers’ room for two years—a show whose mission statement was to make you feel all your emotions every week—and learning from master storytellers like Jason Katims, Sarah Watson, Julia Brownell, and Jessica Goldberg must have been a masterclass in how to convey emotion in a script. Katims, who also created Friday Night Lights and half a dozen other shows, is one of the few bona fide creators from the peak TV era to have multiple hits where characters wear their emotions on their sleeves. He’s also known for mentoring and teaching writers, often giving them their first shot at creating their own shows.
The plot of Love of Your Life isn’t overly complex, but its simple structure is one of its greatest strengths. That’s another valuable lesson to take from this script. Movies are all about taking a journey with characters and getting the audience invested in their worlds. Most of the time, it’s unnecessary to make the plot overly complicated or rely on excessive twists and turns. I can’t tell you how many scripts I’ve stopped reading over the years because the story was too difficult to follow, or the writer was more interested in crafting a puzzle than telling an engaging story.
The script begins with a meet-cute between Charlie and Maya when she buys a table from Charlie that won’t fit in his new apartment. Maya is an ER nurse, and Charlie is an academic who studies auditory environments (a classic screenplay trope—a niche, almost-too-perfect career that emotionally resonates with the movie’s themes).
Over the first 31 pages, we watch Charlie and Maya fall in love. The first third of the movie is essentially a series of snapshots: romantic dates with deep conversations about life, house parties, awkward sex scenes—just a pure romantic drama, but always engaging.
Maya’s best friend, Jason, becomes Charlie’s best friend. There’s a great scene where Maya meets Charlie’s close-knit family and their tough but loving matriarch, Ruth. Another standout moment is a surprise wedding party held in the middle of a blackout. I was engaged for 30 pages, but I still found myself wondering—what made this script so special that it sold for such a huge sum?
Then… on page 32, Charlie gets COVID.
Since Maya is a nurse, she most likely brought it home with her. I’m sure every reader of the script—and maybe even you, if you’ve made it this far in the article—had the same reaction: Oh no… is this going to be a COVID movie? I definitely had those feelings. It’s hard to pinpoint why. The pandemic was five years ago, and of course, it’s incredibly relatable since we all lived through it. But it doesn’t seem to be something people want to be reminded of or see portrayed in movies and TV.
It’s probably the same reason the wave of 9/11 films that came out never really resonated with audiences. When was the last time anyone watched Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center or Adam Sandler’s Reign Over Me? It’s that classic We all lived through this; we don’t want to be reminded of it conundrum.
But Julia makes a lot of smart choices in how she portrays the COVID scenes. The best decision she makes is that they don’t last very long—only 13 pages of a 120-page script. She also makes the scenes extremely relatable, taking the reader back to that confusing and horrific time. The portrayal is both poignant and gut-wrenching as Maya watches Charlie get sicker, unable to save him—even though saving lives is her job. Then, she has to deliver the devastating news to Charlie’s mom—all while in shock and dealing with her own trauma.
The script then cuts to three years later, where Maya has been drowning her sorrows in booze and fleeting relationships in Portugal. I won’t go into too many spoilers, but the trades described the script as an Eat Pray Love-style story, and that’s mostly true.
Beyond being a compelling, emotional, and well-written script, Love of Your Life has a few other factors working in its favor—factors that likely contributed to its massive sale. These are important to keep in mind when writing your next spec.
First, this isn’t a big-budget film, but it has significant upside and could be very profitable if executed well. Most of the scenes take place indoors, primarily featuring characters talking. There are only four major speaking roles, two of which have limited screen time. Even the European scenes could be shot relatively inexpensively in Prague. So, when you think about it, spending $2 million on a script for a film with a budget under $50 million isn’t all that extravagant. There’s still plenty of potential for a strong return on investment.
Second, the script is already in great shape. From my perspective as a development executive, Julia could likely get this production-ready in just a draft or two. That means the studio won’t have to spend a fortune on rewrites. I’ve worked on films where script fees totaled $5 million before production even began, and I’ve heard of projects racking up $10 million in fees. I definitely have notes, but I won’t bore you with them since I’m not involved in this particular project.
Another major factor in its success? The lead role is a dream part for the rising generation of A-list actresses. Maya starts the film in her late 20s, and because of the time jumps, she finishes in her early 40s. I imagine MGM/Amazon’s wishlist includes names like Zendaya, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sydney Sweeney, Elle Fanning, Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh, Jodie Comer, Phoebe Dynevor, Joey King, but there’s also a possibility they go a bit older with someone like Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, or Brie Larson—without the script needing to change much at all. Studios and streamers are definitely looking for films that can attract talent of this caliber, especially projects like this, which will likely have a theatrical release but also hold significant value when streaming on Prime.
There are also three great roles for male actors in their 20s or 30s. For Charlie, for whatever reason, I pictured Joe Keery—who plays Steve on Stranger Things and was fantastic in the last season of Fargo. He’s poised for a major feature film role once Stranger Things wraps.
But there’s also a great opportunity for a “sexy Brit” type—a Charlie Hunnam, Daniel Kaluuya, or Dev Patel. Alternatively, they could go older and cast someone like Tom Hardy. And then there’s another role that practically channels the man of the moment, Glenn Powell. Why not? He would absolutely crush it, and he could probably film his scenes in two weeks, squeezing it in between the ten other projects he’s juggling. I’d be all for a Twisters reunion for this film.
Writers should always be visualizing actors when writing their scripts—there’s nothing wrong with channeling the voice of an A-list star.
One final reason why this script sold for $2 million? Hollywood is always chasing whatever just worked while also drawing inspiration from the past. I’m sure many in the industry pointed to It Ends With Us as a key reason for the excitement surrounding this script. That film, marketed almost exclusively to women, grossed a staggering $350 million worldwide this past summer. However, It Ends With Us was based on a bestselling book with a built-in audience, so the comparison isn’t perfect. This script actually has more in common with the recent A24 film We Live In Time, which grossed a respectable $55 million worldwide but didn’t exactly set the world on fire.
Tragic love stories can be a hard sell. I might be one of the only people who saw Universal’s All My Life, Spoiler Alert, and Netflix’s Irreplaceable You, and Good Grief which all share DNA with Love of Your Life. But the films I think Amazon/MGM were really looking at are their own hits, such as Challengers and Saltburn, which did well enough at the box office, featured a young and sexy up-and-coming cast, and went on to pierce culture and blow up on Amazon Prime with Gen Z. You can even point to their direct-to-streaming features The Idea of You and Red, White, & Royal Blue, both of which performed very well on the platform and attracted a younger demographic.
A majority of specs that sell never get made. I would be really surprised if this one isn’t in production within the year.
Alignment: Couldn’t Feel Timelier
If Love of Your Life was all about making you feel emotions throughout the script, Alignment is all about constantly raising the stakes, introducing twists and turns every few pages, in order to keep the reader flipping to the next page.
If there’s one rule I can give to newer writers, it’s that the goal of each page is to get the person reading to want to turn the page and keep going. It sounds simple and obvious, but it’s not. I would bet that 75% of scripts that executives and producers sit down to read are never finished. It’s probably closer to 90%.
Alignment is one of the fastest reads I’ve had in recent memory. Much has been written about how Natan Dotan was a complete newbie to the world of screenwriting—how he reached out to the only two people he knew in Hollywood, and how they connected him to managers Ben Rowe and Faisal Kanaan at Grandview/Untitled. He’s a lucky guy, because Rowe, aside from being a genuinely nice person (a rarity in this town), is one of the best in the game. He’s probably a big reason why the script caused such a frenzy.
But the big reasons this script sold are similar to Love of Your Life. It feels incredibly timely, is very easy to produce (the draft that sold takes place in just 2 or 3 rooms), has roles for big movie stars in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and has a great hook.
It also draws comparisons to other successful films. The trades mentioned Margin Call, and I absolutely believe that script and film were studied religiously before writing this one. But, for better or worse, it also reminded me of The Net with Sandra Bullock, which was a decent hit in the ‘90s and I doubt it holds up well, but 12 year old me really dug it… That film was all about a computer threat in the very early days of the internet, which is reminiscent of where we are with A.I. The script also very much felt like Dumb Money, which I enjoyed but was a pretty big financial disappointment, especially considering its timeliness.
Yes, Alignment is about A.I., and there have been countless movies and TV shows about A.I. in the past few years, but Alignment still manages to feel different and original enough. This script is more in the world of Open A.I. and ChatGPT, rather than anything physical like M3GAN. The main characters are all Sam Altman- and Elon Musk-type figures and much of the conflict feels like boardroom scenes from Succession.
Again, yes, you’ve seen many tech bros and startup culture on screen, but mostly in biopics. Seeing it in the world of A.I., which everyone in the world is talking about, made the script feel fresh—and I’m sure that’s a big reason it sold.
The basic premise follows a large A.I. company with a massive number of users that is in the midst of a major deal with another tech company. The deal is set to close in a few days, right around the start of Christmas vacation, however, one of the board members, with the help of a young engineer, discovers that the safeguard for the newest model of the A.I. is broken.
A conflict arises between the head of the company and the board member, who share a deep history and disdain for one another. They must decide whether to take the A.I. off the system (which they will need the board’s votes) and determine the next steps on how to deal with the situation.
Meanwhile, the A.I. may be responsible for an alarming amount of chaos that is starting to pop up around the globe, including airport delays and the crashing of stocks and currencies—all because one of the A.I.’s main functions is to make the company’s investors richer. As the script progresses, the stakes keep getting higher as more devastating and deadly crises involving the A.I. come to light.
Look, I can’t lie and say that the script was amazing or deserving of the hefty payday, but Hollywood is all about taking bets, and that’s exactly what Fifth Season and Makeready, who bought the script, did. The screenplay reads like it was written by a new screenwriter—there are a lot of silly things in the script, requiring a lot of suspension of disbelief, and there is practically no character development. BUT it definitely FELT LIKE A MOVIE, and the problems I had are easily fixable with some development.
When you’re reading a script and your mind is already coming up with fixes and solutions, that’s a sign you’re reading something promising. When you can’t come up with any notes on how to save the script, you know there’s nothing there.
A lot of my colleagues and friends read Alignment and said they didn’t get it, or that the writing wasn’t very strong, but so much of the time, that doesn’t matter. Concept is king, and many other factors come into play.
I definitely would have taken a meeting with the writer, shared with my boss, and sent the script to my studio if I had a deal. If I was a buyer or independent financier I probably would have bowed out when the script price got to 500k, but I still would have felt extremely anxious that I missed out on something great when it ended up selling for so much. I’m probably just repeating myself, but this is a script that feels easy to make at a low cost, something that will attract filmmakers and actors, is easy enough to market, is timely, and subverts well-worn concepts and genres through a new lens.
If I had to guess, this will be made for a streamer—unless the scope is expanded. Maybe a NEON or Focus will end up distributing it. There’s always the chance of A24 or even Sony getting involved. But it’s a small movie. It feels like something that could get rave reviews at Sundance or Toronto and then be picked up for distribution in a bidding war. That model is similar to something like Fair Play, where MRC footed the bill and then sold it to Netflix for $20 million, but hopefully, this one won’t get forgotten so quickly.
Other Big Spec Sales of 2024
Mercy – Written by Marco van Belle – Chris Pratt plays a cop accused of a crime he didn’t commit and must prove his innocence in court while going up against an AI judge. A courtroom thriller with a grounded sci-fi twist, Mercy feels like John Grisham meets Michael Crichton. It will be released theatrically on January 23, 2026, through Amazon/MGM.
Hit the Gas – Written by Chris McCoy – Sold to Paramount. This is a real-time thriller where a scuba diving couple must find oxygen when a rip in the sky releases an alien species that affects the air. High-concept, grounded sci-fi with not many locations, a very small cast, and some DNA with Open Water, Jaws, Nope, and Shyamalan films.
Over Asking– Written by Caroline Dries, who secured a seven-figure deal.
A sexy thriller that shares a lot of DNA with Indecent Proposal, Over Asking follows a couple who gets propositioned by the owner of the home they want to purchase.
After the Hunt– Written by Nora Garrett – Produced by Amazon/MGM and Imagine, After the Hunt stars Julia Roberts as a college professor with a mysterious past who gets embroiled in a scandal when her star pupil accuses her close colleague of sexual misconduct. It’s very timely, very filmmaker-friendly (everyone was chasing it, but Luca Guadagnino won the job), and has a small number of locations. It also offers three great lead roles and juicy supporting roles—perfect for awards season. Going by the script, in which the Roberts character was much younger, audiences will be in for a treat with some steamy scenes between Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. It will be released later this year theatrically.
Hurt People – Written by Melissa Hilfers – A very talented writer and lovely human, Melissa Hilfers sold her legal thriller Hurt People to Netflix for just under seven figures. The story follows a wealthy New Yorker accused of killing his wife who hires his estranged daughter from a previous marriage to represent him. It’s very John Grisham-esque and reminiscent of great ’90s thrillers.
Clean Break – Written by Ryan Brennan – Fox Searchlight bought Clean Break at the end of the year. It’s about a pool shark who finally meets her match in a fellow hustler, but their destructive relationship soon turns deadly… or so it seems. This script offers a great role for an actress in their 30s. It’s the most unconventional of the sales I read, but there’s no denying it has a distinct voice and tone. It was even found on the Black List site!
Top Ways to Make a Big Spec Sale in 2025
Be Producible
I hear over and over that no original movies are being budgeted at over $50 million. Streaming is slightly different because of upfront payouts if you have an A-list cast and top filmmaker. There will always be outliers, but $50 million or less is something you should aim for, especially if you are a writer without big sales under your belt.
Movie Star Roles
This is another big one. Before writing a script, take a look at the actors who starred in the top-grossing films last year, have won or been nominated for major awards recently, starred in the hot streaming series, or just have that cool cred and are tipped to be the next big thing. Are there roles in your latest idea that would attract these people? Even if they are unattainable or have ten projects lined up, write with an actor’s voice in mind. The characters in Alignment were its weakest element, but I could easily picture at least ten big-name actors in every role. Love of My Life only gets made if they can get one of ten actresses who are big enough names for the lead role.
Great Elevator Pitch/Hook
I’m sure I’ll write an article about loglines, and yes, loglines are important, but I think the elevator pitch is more essential. No one rambles off the logline when you’re telling your buddy about your latest idea or even when you’re shooting the breeze with an exec in a general meeting. The elevator pitch is really just the basic hook and maybe some comps—super informal, just a way to get people excited and want to read it.
Everyone has to sell up to their bosses in Hollywood, and the elevator pitch is the first thing execs will tell their bosses. It’s the sales hook that gets people excited to read your script. For Alignment, it’s Margin Call in the world of AI—what if ChatGPT were responsible for the destruction of the world by manipulating the market, and the tech bro creators in the midst of a power struggle had three days to stop it. For Love of Your Life, it’s the ultimate Gen Z love story told over a twenty-year span. Part love story, part tragedy, part European adventure, three incredible romances. What if COVID killed the love of your life before you were even 30?
Practice with your favorite films. Write down the hooky two-sentence sales pitch you would use to sell the film to get it financed.
The Right Genre
At the end of the day, you have to write in the genre that you feel is your strong suit and what gets you excited to write. But if you really want to sell your script for a nice paycheck, you have to write in the genres that are being bought.
- Action/Thriller (Read The Beekeeper, Rebel Ridge or Cary-On) – Super successful 2024 movies that execs are all chasing. Hooky concepts, not a lot of locations. Die Hard on A Blank is making a comeback for better or for worse.
- Grounded Sci-Fi (Read Alignment, Mercy, The Gorge, Companion) – Strong concepts, great roles for actors, and not expensive to produce.
- Horror (Read Barbarian, Weapons, Megan, Smile, and anything Blumhouse has made in the last five years) – Still one of the most cost-effective and reliable genres that everyone is always looking for. What’s something that feels familiar but new? Megan was Child’s Play for a new generation, even though I still feel like it was really The Good Son with a robot.
- Psychological Thriller/Erotic Thriller/Courtroom Thriller – The mid-tier ’90s movie genres are back. Go back and watch those Grisham movies, Indecent Proposal, Basic Instinct. A movie like Primal Fear or Ghost would be a top Netflix movie of the year, no doubt.
Don’t just copy old films and structures, do your own spin, evolve, modernize it. It should evoke past films or ones that recently sold, but have very different stories. I am sure there were a ton of writers who decided to writer AI scripts after Alignment sold – which is one of the sillier things you could do. Sure, you might find one exec who lost out on that script still interested in the space, but most will pass because they feel like a great AI script is already set up and probably getting made.
Keep the Execs Turning Pages
There’s still a lot of truth to the cliché that you have 10 pages to hook an exec before they move on. I’m the rarity that gives at least 20-30, depending on the concept and who sent it to me. But the fact is, you usually know if you’re engaged within the first few pages. Use every weapon in your disposal to get the exec to keep reading: introducing mysteries, having big reveals, establishing a clear concept in the first ten pages, creating dynamic characters, having a real voice on the page, adding surprises, and continually providing reasons why they NEED to keep reading. That is the job of the script.
Having the Right Rep
I’m sure I’ll write a whole article about this, and while this step may not be quite as important as the rest, (because I do believe good material has a way of finding homes) it’s still very important. If you look at the big sales from the past year, most came from notable reps. It doesn’t have to be a big-time agency or top management company, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. You need someone who knows the game and has had success selling. A rep that producers and studio execs know, and think has good taste or a reputation for selling big pieces of business. These are people who know how to build urgency.
There are definitely agents/managers who, if they call me with a spec, I know I’m reading it that night or weekend, regardless of whether I dig the concept. And there are also reps who call me, that I know before they pitch me a concept that I’m not going to read the script for at least a month or more and will most likely only read the first 15-20 pages, simply because they never send me good material or have decent clients.
Obviously if they pitch a concept I really dig it will move up the reading order, but it is so seldom that a rep who always sends you bad material is going to suddenly send you something good.
I know many writers are desperate for any reps, but a bad rep can be more detrimental than having none, and can waste your time, possibly burning a viable script in the process. A new rep would probably not want to send out an old script that already went out wide. Do your due diligence, study the managers making the big sales, the ones who get their clients on the Black List each year because that means they hustle for them.
Make sure the agent/manager has a plan and knows specific producers and studios they want to send the script to. Just because you get along with your rep and like their notes doesn’t mean its enough. The writer and their rep need to be aligned. They need to make sure their agent/manager is going to do the work, and all the things they promised, because the writer has dedicated a lot of time to their script and doesn’t have unlimited chances to go out with it.
