Selling Ideas Before Selling a Treatment

Finding news quotes from successful treatment writers can give you insight to amend your working plan accordingly and possibly improve the odds of selling a treatment. For example, one writer who has successfully sold more than on screenplay said this: “You don’t sell a treatment … you sell an idea and try to get them to pay you to write the treatment.” This aspect is lost on many fledgling treatment writers. You may end up wasting time finishing a story in entirety, as opposed to first selling the concept and later finishing up if a director or producer indicates interest.

Another statement carries the same weight. “I didn’t know that writing samples was the game. I thought you write a treatment, you sell a treatment, but I didn’t realize that most of the work was done on assignment and you’ve got to have samples to show. So none of the work ends up being a wasted effort even if you can’t sell it.” Some writers break into the industry with a bit of luck, then end up making a career writing adaptations of books and novels. You may not be able to control where or how you succeed in selling a treatment.

Examples of Angles Used to Sell a Treatment for the First Time

Yet another struggling treatment writer said, “Selling a treatment is like winning the lottery. No, wait. It’s like buying a winning lottery ticket and having someone else claim it and take your money.” This writer did something rather unusual to crack the industry. She and her writing partner put a treatment out on eBay to try to sell it. If you’re struggling or perplexed in your quest to sell a treatment, know that you most definitely are not alone. As you can see, some writers are turning to auctions and contests to try to sell a treatment. Another writing pair turned to writing a short sample and pitching that, instead of trying to sell a finished treatment. “We’d worked about six years trying to sell treatments for lots of money, which is what everyone is interested in. ‘OK, I can quit my real job once we sell a treatment.’ ” But what does that mean? You keep trying to write a treatment that someone will buy and you keep failing because they don’t even know what they want and how can you hit a target that doesn’t exist? So we just wrote (’First Snow’) and I definitely wanted to direct it, and this was the writing sample that allowed us to get an agent and start getting adaptation work. It had a big impact even though we couldn’t get it made for another six years. Finally we were working writers.”

Turning to Contests to Sell a Treatment

Then there are those who focus on contests to crack the industry’s nearly impenetrable outer shell. Nick Sherman was a graduate of Air Academy High School in Utah, who was living in Los Angeles when he won a screenwriting fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. When trying to sell a treatment, it can’t hurt to be involved with the organization that gives out Oscars. It didn’t take long for Sherman to reap the benefits. “It literally changed everything overnight when the announcement came out,” he said. A newspaper account stated, “As soon as Sherman, 29, and his writing partner, Andrew Shearer, were named as finalists for the academy’s Nicholl Fellowships, the phone started ringing. They got an agent and had studios interested in their treatments.” Aside from industry interest, the winners received $30,000. Sometimes you should think outside the box in terms of getting engaged with the industry and ultimately selling a treatment.