How to write a query letter for a screenplay

An email to someone who doesn't know you

A query letter asks whether someone would like to read your script. It goes to an agent, a manager or a producer who has never heard of you, and these days it is almost always an email.

Whoever opens it, often an assistant who sorts the inbox first, will give it a minute or so. In that time it has to show that the story has a hook and that the writer can put a clean sentence together, and it has to give a reason for writing to this person in particular. If it manages that, the reply asks for the script. A query doesn't have to tell the whole story or explain what the film means, so a good one can afford to be short.

Who takes queries, and who doesn't

Many agencies and production companies do not accept unsolicited material, meaning anything they didn't ask for. The largest agencies find new writers through referrals from people they already know. Some companies delete unrequested scripts unread, because a company that reads a stranger's idea and later makes something similar can end up in court, whether or not it used the idea.

Plenty of others do take queries, especially managers, smaller agencies and independent producers. Many explain how on their websites, and whatever they ask for there overrides general advice, this page's included. Some ask for a logline only, and others for a page of synopsis or the opening pages of the script.

A company that agrees to read your script may first ask you to sign a release form. It confirms that you are sending the work by choice and that the company may already be developing similar ideas, which limits what you could claim if it later makes something close to yours. Release forms are standard and don't hand over your script, though you should still read one before signing and keep a copy.

In the US, agents negotiate the deals, and those franchised by the Writers Guild of America have promised to charge writers nothing beyond their commission. Managers guide a career, often help develop scripts, and tend to take writers on before there are credits, so many new writers find a manager first. Be wary of anyone who asks for a reading fee.

The shape of a query

1. Why them. One true sentence that fits this person and nobody else: a client whose scripts are close to yours, a film they produced, something they have said they are looking for. A referral goes here, by name.
2. The logline. Who the story is about, what happens, what they must do and what stands in the way, in a sentence. Our logline guide builds one step by step.
3. Two or three sentences on the story. Where it goes after the setup, in the tone of the script, with the ending held back.
4. A line about you. What makes you the right writer for this script, or a result chosen by someone outside your family: a competition placing, a produced short, a job that taught you the world of the story. If there is nothing yet, leave the line out.
5. The ask. Would they like to read it? Name the script again, with its format and page count, so that a one-word answer will do.

Sign it with your full name, your email address and a phone number. The whole letter should sit well inside a page, and the best queries stay under 200 words, which is short enough to read on a phone.

The subject line, and what to attach

The subject line says what the email is before anyone opens it, so give the word "query", the title in capitals and the kind of script. With a referral, the referrer's name goes first. If a submissions page asks for a particular subject line, use theirs word for word.

Attach nothing unless the submissions page asks for it, and treat a link to the script the same way. Many companies have a rule against opening attachments they didn't request. Write in plain text from your own address, to one person at a time, with their name in the greeting, and leave out logos, poster art and your dream cast.

An example, and a weak version

This query is for Low Tide, the 12-page short drama that is the sample project in Scriptopus, sent to a manager invented for this page. A short is a harder sell to a manager than a feature, so the writer offers it as a sample of her work and mentions the feature she is writing.

It runs to about 180 words, and nobody but Daniel Moreau could have received the first sentence. The logline is the one built on our logline page. The story paragraph adds the turn and keeps the ending back, and the line about the writer explains why she, of all people, wrote about a sound recordist.

What goes wrong, line by line:

• "Dear Sir or Madam". The greeting tells the reader the same email went to a whole list.
• A childhood where the story should be. Two sentences in, the reader still knows nothing about the script.
• It reviews itself. Whether a script is moving is for the reader to decide.
• Two famous films stand in for the plot. Comparisons can help once the story is clear. Here they replace it.
• Themes in place of a logline. Grief, family and memory describe hundreds of scripts.
• Four attachments and six more scripts. Nobody asked for any of them, and offering everything suggests that no single script is ready.
• "Fully protected". It hints that she expects them to steal the idea.
• A request for notes. Agents and managers don't give free notes, and the question should be one they can answer with a yes or a no.
• A first name and nothing else at the end, with no surname and no phone number.

Making it personal

The opening line is the only part of the letter that changes from one person to the next, and the part writers most often skip. It needn't flatter anyone. What it has to show is that you know what they do and that your script fits beside it. Look at the films and series their clients have written, which many agencies list on their sites, and at what their company has produced. Interviews, panels and submissions pages often say what they want to read.

Keep it to one sentence, and make sure it is true. "I love your work" means nothing without a title. If you can't find a reason to write to someone in particular, they may be the wrong person for this script.

Following up, once

Queries wait behind clients, deals and meetings, so a few weeks of silence is normal. If a month or so passes, send one follow-up in the same thread, with the original underneath. Three lines will do: when you wrote, the title and logline, and the question again. If that goes unanswered too, mark it as a pass and move on. Where a company says it replies only when interested, its silence is the answer, and a follow-up isn't needed.

When someone asks for the script, reply in the original thread the same day or the next. Send it as a PDF, named with the title and your surname, with a title page that carries your contact details. Reading it can take weeks as well, and one polite check-in after a month or two is fine.

Keep a tracker

After twenty queries, nobody remembers who was sent what. A tracker stops you querying the same person twice and tells you when a follow-up is due. Over a few months it also shows whether the letter works. If plenty of people have seen it and almost nobody has asked for the script, rewrite it before you send more.

Two more columns help: where you found the person and how they want to be approached, and which script you offered. Query one person per company at a time. At many agencies a pass from one agent is shared with colleagues, so let a few months go by before you try another.

In the UK and the rest of Europe

Agents in the UK take queries too, and many publish their submission rules online; the Personal Managers' Association, the membership body for UK agents, points writers to those pages. The rules differ. Some agencies want a covering email, a short CV and the full script, others a sample of a few pages, and a few open their lists to new writers only at certain times of year.

The letter itself changes little, though a UK covering email often says a bit more about you. Literary managers are far less common outside the US, and in the UK the agent usually does the whole job. The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook lists UK agents every year, with what each one handles.

Elsewhere in Europe, practice varies by country. In some, screenwriters more often reach producers directly, or through film funds, development labs and broadcasters' writing schemes. Where agencies do represent screenwriters, check whether they read scripts in English, and write to them in the language they work in. Our screenwriting events pages list competitions and labs across Europe, and a place on one strengthens the line about you.

Common mistakes

• Querying too soon. Most people will read a given script from you once, so wait until it is the best draft you can write.
• Querying the wrong people. A company that makes horror is unlikely to want a quiet family drama, however good the letter.
• One email to everyone. Fifty addresses in the Cc field tell all fifty that nobody was chosen.
• Following up every week. Once, after a month or so, is as much as anyone expects.
• Arguing with a pass. Thank them or say nothing. The assistant who passed this year may be running the company one day.
• Getting the name or the company wrong. People move between companies often, so check before you send.

Download the query template and tracker

The email with each part as a gap to fill and a note on what belongs there, as a Word file or as plain text to paste into a new message. The tracker is an Excel sheet with the columns above, a list of responses to choose from, and a follow-up date that fills itself in a month after the day you sent the query.

Questions

Sources and further reading

1. Writers Guild of America East, List of franchised agencies, on approaching an agency, fees and registering a script.
2. The Personal Managers' Association, FAQs, on how UK agencies ask to be approached.
3. Writers' & Artists' Yearbook (Bloomsbury, published every year), for UK agents and what they handle.
4. David Trottier, The Screenwriter's Bible, on query letters and marketing a script.