In submitting your script to a given company, do not address it to
individuals, unless there is a very good reason for so doing--and
there seldom is. Address your letter either to the "Editor, Blank Film
Company," or to the "Manuscript Department." Most useless of all is
the practice of sending to some person who is known to be associated
with a certain company, without knowing just what his position is.
Once the photoplaywright has begun to sell his scripts, he will
usually prefer to do his own marketing. If, he argues, he is able to
write salable photoplays, why should he share his checks with authors'
agents or photoplay clearing houses? Yet many writers find an agency
to be advantageous. But you had better take the advice of an
experienced friend before committing your work to an intermediary--not
all are capable and not all are honest.
One thing the writer should remember: _Send a script to only one firm
at a time._ There is one company at least, and there may be more,
which announces that no carbon copies of scripts will be considered.
The implication, of course, is that they are afraid to pass on carbon
copies for fear that at the time they are looking over a script it may
have been already purchased by some other company. If you _do_ send
out a carbon copy of your script, make it plain to the editor in your
accompanying letter that the original script has gone astray or been
destroyed, and you are sending the carbon in its place for that
reason.
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