Blah blah, your site is entertaining and fantastic, blah blah I’m a new screenwriter trying to get myself out there, blah blah, I have a quick question.
The services provided by Scriptblaster sound pretty great and are offered at an affordable (to me) price. I realize there are loads and loads of “services” and companies out there that make their living off the aspiring writers of America (AWA) and this certainly seems to be one of them. But still. My question to you, who needs not a service such as this, is whether you know anything about it, have heard anything, or could just tell me your thoughts on using Scriptblaster to get my queries out there?
— Eric
Boston, MA
“Dear John — This seems like a scam, but it’s soooooo reasonably priced…”
I’d never heard of Scriptblaster, but a quick look at their website leads me to believe your money would be better spent elsewhere. Such as Vegas.
Let’s start with the testimonials. There are a lot of them, such as…
After beating my head against traditional Hollywood screenplay agents’ doors for almost a year, I tried your Blaster Package. Within three weeks, I optioned an original screenplay and have another producer looking at my novel, “Five in the Future”. You guys are simply super! — R. Malcolm Dickson
I’m happy for R. Malcolm Dickson, but who the hell is he? I’m not saying he’s made up; his testimonial could be completely genuine. But without details, how are we to know? For instance, which producer optioned his screenplay, and was it a free option? Has a single movie gotten made that was set up through this service?
Looking at the “blast” part of Scriptblaster, I go from dubious to a little bit outraged:
The Blaster Pack combines the Full Blast & the Agents Blast for just $89! When you choose the Blaster Pack, your query letter will be emailed to over 900 producers, agents and managers. A great saving – and a great way to get connected!
Allow me a quick rewrite…
When you choose the Blaster Pack, your query letter will be spammed to over 900 producers, agents and managers. What a great way to piss off hundreds of potential employers and representatives for less than $90!1
What Scriptblaster is selling is a mailing list of producers and agents, and a web script that generates email from what you type in a form. Yes, it’s affordable, but it’s essentially a query letter mailbot. I don’t know any reputable agent or producer who would bother to read one of these emails.
If I’m wrong, I’ll happily be corrected. So write in if you’ve had a good experience with this service. But please provide some independently verifiable facts to back up your praise.
- For the record, I don’t know that Scriptblaster’s emails are unsolicited — maybe they really do have legitimate opt-in process for agents and producers. But I see no link for it on their website, which leads me to believe their email addresses are culled from other sources. And are therefore spammy. ↩