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Your odds are astronomically worse with Amazon, actually, because by submitting to them you grant them an exclusive option on your work. Hollywood works in the

Your odds are astronomically worse with Amazon, actually, because by submitting to them you grant them an exclusive option on your work. Hollywood works in the opposite way, with studios competing (and, thus, cutting bigger checks) for good scripts. There are hundreds of ways to sell a script in Hollywood. There's only one way to sell a script on Amazon. So, if your script's been floating around for a year or two and hasn't gotten any traction -- no agent, no options, hasn't made The Black List, hasn't placed in any notable competitions, etc. -- then sure, submit it to Amazon. But the hard truth in that case is that the script is likely just crap. On a side note: the point of writing a spec isn't necessarily to sell it. Specs are to screenwriters as GitHub is to coders. That said, 2011 was actually a banner year for specs, with at least 109 sold.

jonnathanson 15y ago
All good points, but as you've said -- and as I agree -- it's not like you're expecting your first screenplay to get made, one way or the other. So the exclusive option being granted to Amazon, functionally speaking, would be no different than having your debut spec bought and sent into development hell with a studio. After that point, the spec becomes your calling card and resume. You might earn more money selling the spec in a Hollywood bidding war, but only a small handful of all spec sales inspire that kind of frenzy. (I do agree, however, that if you have even the slightest suspicion that you've written a killer script, you should try Hollywood agencies first). To your other point, I do fear that Amazon has basically engineered a system whereby the good catches swim the Hollywood, and the flotsam floats into Amazon's net. Time will tell.
- FreakLegion 15y ago
  Re: spec as calling card. The thing about tying your script up with Amazon is that it handicaps you social proof-wise. If your script is in development hell, that means someone actually bought it. If your script is on Amazon, that just means you have an Internet connection. An Amazon script won't work as a calling card because nobody wants to read a script they can't buy -- unless the reason they can't buy it is that someone else already has. When submitting scripts, you want to be able to say either "This amazing script can be yours for the low low price of 1 million dollars," or "Time Warner bought this script for 1 million dollars. I'd love to work with you on my next one." With Amazon's current terms, there's just a much higher chance that all your work will have been for naught.
danssig 15y ago
Well, Hollywood also has a reputation for simply stealing a script if they like it.
- FreakLegion 15y ago
  It's true that this is a common belief among outsiders, but it's not true that it's actually...true.
  - onemoreact 15y ago
    Do you have a better expiation for how often multiple studio's put out near identical movies at the same time?
    - FreakLegion 15y ago
      By near identical do you mean, say, Armageddon and Deep Impact? Because there's a world of difference between two movies having the same high concept and actually being near identical. Parallel development of premises is bound to happen, particularly with ones as obvious as catastrophic events and casual sex. It's not even that there are ethical reasons people in Hollywood don't steal scripts. The reasons are practical: if your script is good, it's going to cost me a lot less to pay you for it than it would cost to pay some other more established writer's quote to develop a new script from the same premise.
      - onemoreact 15y ago
        That's a reasonable first approximation. But let's say two studio's both like the script and only one wins the bidding war. What stops the other studio from farming out the 'high concept' to someone else to write an also ran. As far as I can see nothing, so the value of a script is basically limited by what it costs someone else to create the same basic concept. Toss in the fact that scripts tend to mutate after production anyway and the 'we can always steal it' must be at the back of all negotiations. Which is oddly similar to the buy vs. pirate internal debate I have seen several people go though on hard to find content. EX: Underworld did not use any of white wolf's IP. There was a negotiation, but in the end the studio 'went in another direction' that just happened to look the same as if they had used their IP.

jonnathanson 15y ago

All good points, but as you've said -- and as I agree -- it's not like you're expecting your first screenplay to get made, one way or the other. So the exclusive option being granted to Amazon, functionally speaking, would be no different than having your debut spec bought and sent into development hell with a studio. After that point, the spec becomes your calling card and resume. You might earn more money selling the spec in a Hollywood bidding war, but only a small handful of all spec sales inspire that kind of frenzy. (I do agree, however, that if you have even the slightest suspicion that you've written a killer script, you should try Hollywood agencies first). To your other point, I do fear that Amazon has basically engineered a system whereby the good catches swim the Hollywood, and the flotsam floats into Amazon's net. Time will tell.

FreakLegion 15y ago
Re: spec as calling card. The thing about tying your script up with Amazon is that it handicaps you social proof-wise. If your script is in development hell, that means someone actually bought it. If your script is on Amazon, that just means you have an Internet connection. An Amazon script won't work as a calling card because nobody wants to read a script they can't buy -- unless the reason they can't buy it is that someone else already has. When submitting scripts, you want to be able to say either "This amazing script can be yours for the low low price of 1 million dollars," or "Time Warner bought this script for 1 million dollars. I'd love to work with you on my next one." With Amazon's current terms, there's just a much higher chance that all your work will have been for naught.

danssig 15y ago

Well, Hollywood also has a reputation for simply stealing a script if they like it.

FreakLegion 15y ago
It's true that this is a common belief among outsiders, but it's not true that it's actually...true.
- onemoreact 15y ago
  Do you have a better expiation for how often multiple studio's put out near identical movies at the same time?
  - FreakLegion 15y ago
    By near identical do you mean, say, Armageddon and Deep Impact? Because there's a world of difference between two movies having the same high concept and actually being near identical. Parallel development of premises is bound to happen, particularly with ones as obvious as catastrophic events and casual sex. It's not even that there are ethical reasons people in Hollywood don't steal scripts. The reasons are practical: if your script is good, it's going to cost me a lot less to pay you for it than it would cost to pay some other more established writer's quote to develop a new script from the same premise.
    - onemoreact 15y ago
      That's a reasonable first approximation. But let's say two studio's both like the script and only one wins the bidding war. What stops the other studio from farming out the 'high concept' to someone else to write an also ran. As far as I can see nothing, so the value of a script is basically limited by what it costs someone else to create the same basic concept. Toss in the fact that scripts tend to mutate after production anyway and the 'we can always steal it' must be at the back of all negotiations. Which is oddly similar to the buy vs. pirate internal debate I have seen several people go though on hard to find content. EX: Underworld did not use any of white wolf's IP. There was a negotiation, but in the end the studio 'went in another direction' that just happened to look the same as if they had used their IP.