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HOW THIS LITERARY AGENCY CAME TO BE
Over the last ten years, we have jointly developed a number of contacts on both coasts and around the country. As students have completed the Boot Camp, they've wanted help in getting their material sent out and read. Some projects were unique enough, or done well enough, that we were willing to use our contacts to help these students get credible reads with industry professionals.
This turned out to be a lot of work, involving a lot of time away from our own projects and a lot of money in phone calls, postage, shipping and travel.
So finally, what had been an informal arrangement was formalized into The Write Touch Literary Agency . . . building careers and connections between artists and the world.
Prior to formalizing this informal activity, Shirley held extensive, cordial discussions with WGA, confirming WGA standards and requirements. All was well. Then she posed one final question, "You understand that I am writing, marketing, and producing my own projects."
The answer: "You must choose. You must be either a fulltime WGA agent or a screenwriter -- marketing and producing your own projects."
"Well, that's easy," she said. "I cannot give up the thing I love most -- writing and launching projects." We agreed to maintain cordial and warm relations, and have spoken numerous times since.
She has thought of writing another article for Eric, sorting out the issues and "definitions" on this changing landscape of "writers," "producers," "marketers of screenplays," "independents," and people who work with the L.A. "establishment." The overlap is tremendous. I know many, many people who wear all these hats and who regularly work with the L.A. "establishment," part of the time and write and produce their own independent projects part of the time. Lloyd Schwartz, writer-producer (Brady Bunch satire, Gilligan's Island satire, as well as the originals) does a dynamite seminar on the advantages and disadvantages of working with the majors AND working independently.
So, the purpose of this literary agency is to help seminar and Boot Camp writers, and other writers WHEN AND IF WE CAN. We are upfront about the fact that we are writing and producing our own projects. We consider that a strength, and it is, in fact, the source of many of our contacts. Most important, all writers we work with in the Boot Camp, or through story editing, are free to be represented by anyone they want . This agency came into existence only at the request of many writers -- and we are now also representing books written by some of the screenwriters we work with, again at their request. NEXT - A FEW ARTICLES WE'VE WRITTEN
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