Destined for Greatness

I'm gonna jump ahead some.

I can't recall how long it actually took before Amy and I went from "just fooling around with an idea" to "hey, maybe we really have something here." And a lot of that time would be boring to anybody except us, anyway.

So let's move to when the pilot script was done (in rough draft form, but basically done). We'd traded scenes back and forth in e-mails, and then had a marathon over-the-phone session one Saturday as we each held paper copies of our scripts and discussed and argued changes over the phone.

Somewhere around this time, Amy, who had done a lot of online investigating and even taken some classes (she can provide the details), suggested we should (a) copyright our script and (b) post a synopsis of it onto an industry website which would enable potential producers, studios, and anybody else with a potential vested interest to take a look at it and if they liked it, contact us and read the whole thing.

So we did. And, in the interest of covering all our bases, Amy also wrote about a hundred cover letters, addressed about a hundred envelopes, then handed 'em to me and said, "Okay, I've done my half--your half is to stamp these and mail them out."

I did.

Interestingly, our very first response back was from somebody who responded positively. He wanted to know more about our pilot idea. Wow, talk about beginner's luck! It was only later that we began to experience the bitter taste of rejection... the few dozen responses ranging from, "we're not accepting any new ideas at this time" to "your premise, while interesting, does not suit our present needs" to the dreaded no response back at all.

And here we thought writing and selling a script was so easy. We assumed you just wrote it and then somebody came along and bought it, and the next week, it showed up on your television.

(In case you are wondering, that last paragraph was a joke. I am naive, but maybe not quite that naive. I knew it was going to take at least two weeks before we would be rich and famous.)

So, the hundred letters of inquiry, while an important step, ultimately got us nowhere. Even that first guy who expressed interest, never got back in touch when we sent him further information.

However, interesting stuff was starting to happen with our synopsis, posted online. More about that next time...