Experience with agents?

[mscherer]

Anyone here ever have an agent?
What did they do (or not do) for you?
Were you happy with them?
If you parted ways, how difficult was it?

ps: getting the ball rolling ;D

[namlexa]

If anyone needs advice in getting an agent, dealing with agents, or the process of getting your work considered, I will offer what I know. Former William Morris Agency senior vice president, retired, will be happy to advise.

[susanlbridges]

OK, I'll ask.

My husband and I are working on breaking into TV right now as writing partners. We have a lot of work samples and we've kind of put together an action-comedy-zombie package.

Right now we have a Parks and Rec spec, an action comedy pilot script, a Walking Dead spec that's been lifted into a dramedy sort of place (to show we can lighten drama without changing the overall feel of the show), plus an action-comedy-zombie screenplay and one other action comedy screenplay.

People have been telling me that I need to be careful because our samples could be seen as confusing (especially the Walking Dead sample). I think it'll be OK as long as we lead with the TV samples, but I'm not sure WHEN to convey that we have all of these samples. Do we query with just the Parks spec and action comedy pilot, or should we mention the other samples too?

[Mike Scherer]

Susan,

Not a TV writer, but from what I have read and heard it is much better to break into the biz with an original spec pilot. Also, don't mention the feature scripts (producers will take that as not sticking with TV for the long haul).

For more about TV specs, check out John August's podcast and thoughts about TV pilots at johnaugust.com/?s=television+pilots.

Good luck and always,
Keep Writing!

[susanlbridges]

Thanks. We do have the action comedy pilot as I mentioned. So we should lead with that particular sample? One of our writer friends did submit the TV pilot to her agent's assistant. So thanks for that.