Magic Bullet: Query Letters

First, some terms defined:

What is a Query Letter?

A query letter is usually a one page letter or email that you send out to agents, managers, and producers, etc. to try and entice them to read your script.

What is a Logline?

A logline is usually the first thing in a query letter and is the most vital piece of the message. It is usually 1 or 2 sentences long.

You query can rock all night… n’ party everyday

Okay, so let’s talk about query letters. First of all, the most important question is: are they still relevant? Do people still read them? And in what format? It’s important to first understand this aspect of the process in order to better write the query, and better your chances of a response. And as with everything else, it all depends on who you’re sending it to, and what your goal is.

First, are they still relevant and do people still read them? Absolutely. If you send them to the right types of people. Let me give you an example: if you email a query letter to a Steven Spielberg or Scott Rudin, it’s more than likely not getting past the assistant or intern, who upon seeing the email, will more than likely delete it without reading. High powered industry players get thousands upon thousands of these emails every year, and if they stopped to read any of them, they wouldn’t be able to do the actual work that makes them the megabucks. So while I won’t say “don’t bother sending it to high powered industry players”, just know that it’s an incredibly tiny chance that they’ll even read it. For every story about Brett Ratner mailing a letter to Steven Spielberg to help finance his student film, there’s thousands of other stories of people who never even got their mail/email read. Remember this snail mail thing for later though – we’re going to get into that in a bit —

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