Monday, November 13, 2006

Q. I've posted my TV series idea online... Would you like to take a look at it?

I don't generally read other people's work, unless they're friends, or someone hires me to.

I would not recommend putting your series proposal on your website. If it's brilliant, someone might steal it. If no one steals it, TV execs might wonder, "If this is so brilliant, why hasn't anyone stolen it?"

Putting your series proposal up for all to see does not establish a connection between you and someone who puts out a similar proposal months later, since you can't prove that they ever went to your site. And you can't even copyright an idea, only the specific way you set up the idea. So if they steal your idea and twist it, it's not your idea any more.

Q. But I'm in [name of town], and no one will read it.

Right. Because TV is a different animal from the movies. Someone can buy your spec feature script for its idea alone, and then happily have someone else rewrite it. In other words, your newbie-ness doesn't make it impossible for you to sell your script, assuming you can get people to read it. But in TV, even assuming you are clever enough to come up with a pitch-perfect TV pitch (and that is much harder than writing a sellable feature spec), they are not just looking for a pitch. They are looking for a killer spec pilot script, and an experienced writer who will turn the pilot into a series if it's greenlit.

To repeat: series are sold off pilots, not pitches. In Canada they'll take pitches, but ABC wants to read a finished pilot.

Your best bet to sell your series, I think, is to write a spec pilot and a respectable spec episode of a current hit show; get an LA agent to send them both around as writing samples; and hope someone says, "Wow, I actually want to buy this pilot!" If it's brilliant enough, someone will. And if it's almost brilliant enough, you might get hired onto a show.

Labels: rights, spec pilots

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