I have a very heartwarming story from when I was a lot younger. Basically, i’ve been writing stories since a very young age. I eventually came up an idea that 10 year old me pitched to Cartoon Network with hopes of it becoming an actual show. I wrote in a letter, put in the artwork in the envelope, and waited for 3-4 months. Eventually I thought there was nothing to come of it. That was until I got a letter in my mailbox. I still have the letter somewhere, it went something like this. Dear, MineTherapist Unfortunately, we do not accept unsolicited work. However, we liked your idea, and we still encourage you to pursue a career in television or another media outlet. Signed, (Her name from what I remember) Jasmine Taylor (Head of Public Affairs) She also wrote her signature at the bottom. Needless to say, I was extremely happy that at least they saw it. To this day, i’m still encouraged to write stories, and i’m currently doing journalism, and writing a novel. Thanks, Cartoon Network.
Okay, so I'm guilty of sending something to Austin in a moment of bravery, but the next morning when I woke up, I was mortified that he may actually watch the video I sent, so I'm grateful that he will never open my email. #hiddenblessing
I have a childhood friend who's an aspiring writer. I remember them telling me a few years ago they were writing a Star Wars (basically fan fic) full length novel. One of the (many) arguments I had with this person was basically me telling them "No, you'll be hit with copyright if you self-publish, and they won't take it." and them responding with, "No no it's totally fine! I heard from my friend's brother's friend that his friend got his book published and they have like contests and stuff and we'll be famous and they'll make it into a movie..." In the end I felt bad, because one: I never heard about this supposed breakthrough novel again after they said they finished it, and two: the writer never learned from their mistakes. Even if your dream is writing for a specific universe, I think that you'll end up finding much more satisfaction in writing your own stories. They of course most likely won't give you as much success but you're at least making more progress than sending in your possibly amazing stories to be thrown away or sent back.
Yeah, it can be very tempting to write for an existing world that you absolutely love, because those kinds of worlds are always greatly inspiring, and fill your head with story ideas, but giving in to that temptation is pretty much always a dead end. Fanfics are cool, and they might let you develop some writing skills, but eventually you want to build something from scratch that is your own. I was messing around with stories set in the Star Wars universe a lot as a teen, but at some point I realized that it just isn't worth it. It's possible to stay within the magical-space adventure genre without ripping off established titles, and forcing yourself to be original is absolutely much more rewarding.
@@b1odome Plus by doing it yourself the story and universe become perfect as you can customize everything! I have written a very short fiction novel and I would recommend if you are competent in writing something and publishing it with Amazon. (DON'T WRITE YOUR DREAM NOVEL) As I am pretty sure they will kick off if they hear you have written it again because when they sell your book they gain publishing writes (SO SAVE THE DREAM FOR SELF PUBLISHING!!!)
@@totoze1956 Didn't seem to be a problem for Lego when they rejected a fan's idea, then used his ideas for the Lego Movie and said "fuck you" when he tried to fight back. So no. The real answer is $$$$.
I worked as an intern when I was 16 for a publishing company and part of my job to reject unsolicited manuscripts and artwork. If you send in an unsolicited manuscript to a publishing company they give it to a 16 year old work experience kid and that’s the only person at the company who will read it. Sorry to everyone who’s tried to get a book published by sending it in unsolicited lol.
Kopano Gabalebatse well if I ever write a children’s book about two molehills that is a thinly veiled allegory for brexit and anti- EU sentiments (complete with a protagonist mole called Nigel Farage, no I’m not kidding that was a real submission) I guess they could have grounds to sue.... but I’m hoping I won’t ever do that lol.
cenedra20 they weren’t asked to create it nor do they have any legal representation for their work. They just sent it to the company. That means it’s unsolicited.
Why did they even let you read it? They should have had you just tape a rejection note to the unopened envelope, stamp over the address with "RETURN TO SENDER", and drop it back in the mail.
Bonus hint for anybody: start very soon. This will allow you to improve at a much faster rate than others and make you capable of writing a great narrative at a really young age (like, 17 young). I managed to end up being a niche within my high school as one of the few people in the school that writes music and I had been directed to various contests for composition as a result. I'm trying to convince my band teacher (who also leads the drama club) to put on a musical I'm writing and it's opportunities like these that can help you develop an audience.
This reminds me of a Stephen Fry anecdote regarding JK Rowling where at Book Signings and fan events her security detail would always seize all letters her fans tried to give her. The reason being that if the last few books bore any resemblance to any fan theories she could assert in court that she never even touched the letters.
I had somebody steal the very basis of my video and submit it to a film festival. Stole it premise for premise, joke for joke, character for character, only not good at all. I hate bragging on myself but at least we put thought into it while they ripped my friends and me off. This was because my digital media teacher innocently showed her teacher friend our video who in turn innocently showed her students who in turn dickishly ripped us off because they have more money and better cameras with the mindset of “$$$=BETTER”. Their video didn’t place at the film competition by the way. So yeah watch out for people like that because if it can happen to my dad joke filled video it could happen to you.
atlantic games We really couldnt because we’re in high school plus we have nothing on our video except “copyright 2017 by” then my channel name It wasnt beat for beat the same but it was to the point everyone who was at the festival/competition noticed right away
I had no idea about those agent scams. My mother used to write and submit stories to TV Writers Vault who charge a monthly fee for the service. At first it was more for fun and no one was expecting anything to come from it, but then the pitches started getting “reviewed” by production houses so she kept paying. We stopped after a few months because it never went further than that. I never would’ve guessed it was a scam though, since it featured a lot of big name production houses.
A few years ago my dad brought a script in an italian movie production company and they rejected his idea, a few years later the same company comes up with the same story and even some of the lines are identical (including half the title of the film) he filed a lawsuit and somehow they got away with it, they made more than half million euros in the first weekend and 1.5 million in 6 weeks, I'm still pissed.
It's funny how the Universe works...Austin, I've been subscribed to you for about a year, love your content because it's so eclectic...I have been sitting on good movie ideas for 15 years, but just recently decided to dig deep and become a screenwriter, realize my ideas, you know? I needed this advice and it only happened because i just so happened to be subscribed to you. Funny how the Universe works. Thank you, my friend.
I understand it, my dad works for a production company that actually accepts unsolicited material, he had to sort it out and I swear, the company had tons and tons of thousands sent to them everyday, they just couldn't handle it, and now if you look at their website, they now refuse to except unsolicited material Did I mention that usually whoever sent the unsolicited material would expect a response and when they never got one, they would send millions of angry letters, almost as if expecting that this company could see and develop all of these ideas when they already had many projects on their hands Honestly? It's better this way
compared to the shlock that Hollywood is turning out, which is failing, indicating it is not what fans want, perhaps they should consider fan fiction, since, if one wants it, others may, too, and they may actually put out a hit movie for once
Hi Austin, i have a friend who wrote a post-apocalyptic neo-western and a studio was interested in it (this is in Australia and during covid so they wanted tourism). The studio wanted to make the film but wanted to change a lot of his ideas and characters to suit current social issues. He disagreed (he’s a bit of an artsy guy and wants his work to be how he intended it). The studio and him went back and forth, he wanted a specific actress to play the main villain of the movie and they disagreed, and so he just gave up and cancelled everything. He wrote a novel instead and now he’s getting it published, and plans on writing like 11 more novels of the same series. I’m happy for him and also happy that he’s happy, i’m glad he didn’t let the studio ruin his work as so many do with indie filmmakers these days.
This was really informative. I've had this idea for a comic book character bouncing around in my head for quite some time now and seeing stuff like this really inspires me and has me hope that I'll one day see my character up there with the likes of Batman or spider-man. Keep up the good work and know you're helping and inspiring people to live out their dreams.
"I have this great Star wars Story but Lucasfilm won't take it. What do I do?" "Find an agent and create you own, original world." "But what about my star W..." "Establish your own franchise, how hard can it be?!" Edit: Don't take this seriously, my God... Why is is so hard to make jokes on the Internet without pissing someone off?
As hard as it is to post your story online, one chapter at a time. He DID give an example or two of people who did just that. Naturally it won't be easy, but that shouldn't stop you, nor should it mean you should keep trying to send a story to a studio who, by default, will refuse it from you at the beginning. "I have this great Star wars Story but Lucasfilm won't take it. What do I do?" You shelve the story, try to find the literary agent, and if that fails, try self-publications online, and if/when you get recognition, THEN properly submit the story idea to Lucasfilms.
"We do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard." You think anyone gives the time of day to people taking the easy route? "Establish your own franchise, it is very hard."
I remember meeting a guy at community college film class saying they stole his "The Last Samurai" story and he actually sued the studio showing me the paperwork.
Everytime I watch your videos it reminds me how much I want to write. I've always felt like my stories are worthless though so I haven't really pursued it
Why don’t we have a big old writing community, where all the subscribers here could submit their ideas to one another and have a group-analysis of peoples content :)
I am constantly surprised by how.. genuinely helpful and thoughtful and just... generally GOOD- your content is. Videos like this one, no doubt informed/helped a new/young aspiring writer... and I find that... so rare these days. No one is 100% GOOD. NO ONE. But (based on what I’ve witnessed as a subscriber for the past 2+ years), you’re far more kind and helpful than most. Thank you. RU-vid would be a much worse place without ppl like you. ❤️
unfortunately the public domain route is becoming less and less relevant/possible as time goes on due to changes in copyright law and retroactive removal of works from the public domain via copyright trickery by big names. i do agree with your premise otherwise though
Aye, that's a bit cynical. There's still loads of shit out there that has been so reused and ubiquitous that it's pretty much impossible for some company to try to hog it
I have an AMAZING movie idea. It's about a pet rock. It gets abandoned when the owners move out. No one finds the rock. No one comes back for it. It just sits there for 2 hours. There's no dialog, no commentary. Just a rock.
Elliot A. Yeah, apparently he finally got an offer for it to be published by a corporeal publisher AND was approached about the eventual movie deal on the same day. Heady stuff!
Im not a dude aspiring to write a book, but I super appreciate a video that, instead of talking down to dreamers, it gives them some helpful tips on how to actually start progressing along the path they are aiming for.
I actually just finished collaborating with a contact Penguin Random House on a book and was about to send them some original materials for critique. Thanks for the heads-up. I won’t waste my time. Do you have any more tips for building a following?
Awesome video, Austin! I'm a small-time writer and have tons of other small-time writer friends who are always talking about making it big and how hard it seems to be with the market so crowded these days. I'll definitely be showing this video to them! Thanks for sharing your advice!
But, how can they know if you have send them unsolicited submissions in the first place? I mean, it's hard to tell if something contains a idea submission or a complaint by just looking at the envelope. Right?
One reason is probably because companies like Lucasfilm are media studios which have companies as clients and not individuals. So it's probably easy to differentiate a letter from Sony and a letter from some random dude in West Missouri... Also nowadays, most letters are sent through e-mail which have subject lines.
Just wanted to say, this is very inspiring! I have an original script I'd like to write but I've never written a screenplay before because I can't realistically see anyone reading it / adapting it. That's why I write mostly fiction. Who knows, maybe I'll give the screenplay thing a shot and see if I can get some interest in it.
I love that your videos use your face now, its really cool to have all your editing tricks and movements still there - but its much more personal now. Good job, keeping making great content.
"Work on your craft, take shots here and there" I always knew I was meant to be like Ernest Hemingway =D This was really inspiring, Austin. Thanks for this! I needed it to get out of my rut.
I've got this script idea for Charlie's Angels, only all the angels are men, and RuPaul plays the voice of Charlie. Can I run the first draft past you?
They don't want anyone sueing them for "stealing their idea." Some guy thought up an idea for a disney world fair (like at Epcot, a bunch of tiny models of cities. This isn't actually what Epcot is, they mostly just share a sort of similar concept.)
"The only thing keeping you from an audience is the quality of your work" is a nice sentiment, but is it really true in a world where influencers get creative opportunities handed to them on a regular basis? I'd wager that a very high percentage of rejected manuscripts are better than the first drafts of vlogger book deals and TV projects, and yet...
One could argue Quality is subjective so that big brain script some nobody just wrote may come off to pretentious bs to most people. Being marketable is part of a products quality as well, even if we don't want to admit it.
How did those influencers gets big in the first place? You don't get popular without having something people want. What defines "quality" is entirely subjective. Success in this industry is measured in numbers & dollars, and by that count those influencers are making better stuff than you could ever dream of. 🤷♂️ Don't hate the player, hate the game. What you think is "quality" is NOT what the mainstream audience thinks is "quality". Ignoring marketability at all just makes someone come off as a pretentious ass.
Interesting video, as always, thanks. You don't really need all the stock shots, though...you're an engaging speaker with great presence! Always fun to watch. Cheers.
@another damn tom Building connections with marketable original stories while having a reliable literary agent on your side is a good way to go about it :)
Serious question: why do these companies even have public mailing addresses that normal's can send things too? If they don't read the letters, they clearly aren't filtering based on content, which must mean that all mail sent to that address is returned. It seems like a money sink for them that could be avoided.
Is that the kind of post service it is? Or is it their 'global' post service where everyone, both the common man and billion-dollar companies can send stuff to
Makes sense, but I gotta say, it is a little disappointing that some of the best stories are never discovered, I guess you gotta be REALLY lucky to come up with a great story and have it ACTUALLY discovered
@@mu2thehotness a lot of directors in Hollywood have last names ending like that. An example Steven Spielberg. Or the one who raped a lot of actresses, Harvey Weinstein :)
Thank you very much Austin! I'm planning to be a screen writer when I get older (and no this isn't one of my "hmm maybe I'll work as this when I'm older". No this is something I've been thinking about a lot very long time on and I hope to succed it) So this video was very helpful! I just wanted to say thanks and I'm so glad I've been watching you and getting advice from you! Keep it up Pal!
