The what and when of screenplay coverage.

It is tempting to give screenplay coverage more validity than it deserves. After all, someone read your script and wrote their reaction down.

It feels formal. Official almost. A proclamation!

This is especially true early in your writing career when your confidence stems more from what you believe you’re capable of than what you have accomplished.

But this is precisely why we must be careful who we listen to here. That fragile confidence can be swayed in all kinds of directions.

What is coverage?

Well, coverage, in the simplest terms, is a review of a screenplay. There are too many screenplays circulating that can actually be read, so producers, executives, and agents created “coverage.”

Someone reads the screenplay for them. They type up a synopsis and some general thoughts on the script’s merits, and a recommendation of whether it’s worth anyone reading.

That is coverage in a nutshell.

Due to demand, services have popped up that will perform coverage for the writer.

Why it’s important.

Coverage is popular among early screenwriters because not everyone has access to actual feedback. A writer may not have a writer's group, a community, or a mentor. Or perhaps they just want an opinion outside of those things.

Maybe the idea of “score an 8 and we will give you things” is tempting.

Whatever the case may be, a market has emerged for these services. Unfortunately, the economics do not align.

What screenwriters are willing to pay for these services cannot actually provide the services people think they’re paying for.

This misalignment creates a lot of trouble.

Coverage is not development.

As I explained, coverage was not designed for the writer. It was designed to better allocate an executive’s time.

With coverage, the executive could pass on a project while pretending to have read it. If their reader did like it, the executive could decide if it’s worth reading the first 10 pages.

Being the first person to read a screenplay was considered a low-level task. Everyone else’s time was too valuable.

Which brings me to the most important part of coverage that most early writers do not think enough about:

Who writes the coverage?

And this is the thing. You don’t know.

Many are still in school. Most just got out. The person reading your script is likely an aspiring screenwriter with all the baggage or empathy that may bring. You are at the mercy of their mood, schedule, and just how seriously they take their job.

But most of all, their skill level.

And how high is their skill level?

In traditional coverage, the entry-level employees writing the coverage aspire for advancement within the company. One of the ways they did that was to prove they could recognize worthwhile scripts.

Assistants and readers are paid a pittance in Hollywood, but it is under the promise of being paid an extraordinary amount later. That’s why smart, talented people are willing to do it.

But the coverage services are different.

What is the incentive for the freelance reader to do their job well? I am sure they aspire for more, but they won’t get there by excelling at coverage. It’s a gig. That’s all.

Why are they willing to do such monotonous work for so little?

Currently, it pays $25 to $50 for a minimum of three work hours. That’s not a livable wage. They are almost certainly shrinking those hours down to one or two to get by. They would have to, wouldn’t they?

The reader at a production company or agency reports to their boss.

If they do their job well, they are promoted within the company or to another job. They move up the ladder.

If they don’t do their job well, they remain stagnant, or they are let go. But now they have their time reading for this agency on their resume, which allows them to…

Be a reader for a paid service!

Now they’re being paid less, with no promise of advancement and without supervision. They answer to no one.

Here, the incentives are actually working against you.

At its most base, the freelance reader’s ultimate job is to appear to have read the script.

That’s it. That’s what they’re accountable to. They may choose to do more, but that’s all they really have to do.

I don’t mean to bash readers here. It’s a genuinely thankless job, and I am sure many of them are sometimes in the mood to do their best.

We are simply speaking to the economics here.

As Charlie Munger once said, “Show me the incentives, and I will show you the outcome.”

It’s why so many writers suspect AI has stepped in to save readers the effort!

The math ain’t mathing, as they say.

To do this job well requires more skill, time, and effort than most writers are willing to pay for, so the sellers hide the lack of skill, time, and effort to keep the cost down to marketable levels.

Remember this the next time you attach emotion to the coverage you paid for.

It doesn’t mean what they write about your screenplay is wrong. It just means you don’t know if they’re right or if they’re wrong.

Do not grant them credibility they do not deserve.

Judge every single thought on its own individual merits.

Better Alternatives to cheap coverage.

To get a good idea of whether a script is generally working or not...

Trusted readers are your best option.

I have my agents, my manager, and some professional relationships I value. Agents and managers also benefit from an additional reader, usually their assistant. The more readers, the better.

Of course, agents, managers, and other professional screenwriters are not a luxury everyone has!

This is where trusted friends are invaluable.

These are usually other emerging writers, and what they do best is give you an emotional reaction to the script. If they don’t know how to volunteer that emotional reaction, you ask a lot of questions.

Does this work? What did you think about this? What about this moment? Was this satisfying? Where did it get slow for you, etc…

This kind of inquiry is best when you are worried about possible weak points or whether big moments are hitting as hard as they need to.

Getting and implementing notes is a conversation for another time, but it is a skill in itself.

Here is another evergreen bit of advice: find a community.

One of my favorite circles of trusted friends came out of the improv community in Los Angeles. There is a culture of trust and support that naturally emerges from improvised comedy that I haven’t found anywhere else. I highly recommend it!

Find something similar close to you.

You could also join our community: Story and Plot Pro.

Once you enroll in Mastering Structure and Idea to Outline (and why haven’t you yet? Jump into The Whole Bundle), you can join the Story and Plot Pro Community.

We have events every single day, workshops, writers groups, special guests and The Writers Lab, where I work with you personally to develop your screenplay.

We all know each other, we like each other, and we have a blast.

One fine point: Note how I wrote trusted friends above.

Trading scripts with people you don’t know is not free. It looks to be free. It sounds free. But it can be costly. It’s sometimes worth a shot because they might one day move into the “trusted friend” category, but you need to be prepared to kiss a lot of frogs to get there. And some of those frogs can be toxic.

Last but not least, there is always:

Serious Screenplay Development

This is more expensive. I obviously recommend Garrick Dion and me. Garrick charges $397, and I charge $795.

Why so much more expensive? Because we are experienced professionals who have learned our jobs over decades. We put in the hours to read your screenplay and work through a skilled process to get the script where it needs to go.

Early on, I suggest Garrick over me.

I am simply not a good deal unless you’re further along in your career. I read one screenplay a week and tend to work with other professional writers and those approaching that status.

I honestly do not want you to spend $795 while the courses would have been a much better investment. (To encourage taking the courses, I offer a $200 discount to those who have taken them.)

That said, we are two of the very best at this, and we are worth every penny.

Cheap coverage is not useless.

If these alternatives are not available, or maybe you just want more choice, coverage can be part of a tapestry with other data points.

The weakness of coverage can be an asset if you understand it going in.

The most important thing paid coverage can help you with is what information is absorbed and what isn’t in a non-careful read.

Your trusted friends will (at least they should) read your script carefully. The person performing your coverage did not.

So what did the reader miss in their quick read? Are there important plot points that confused them?

For example, I had an accidental self-inflicted shooting in a script. My agents and managers knew this from the earlier treatment.

But those reading the script cold ALL thought it was a suicide, which changed the story's second half. All the readers? That’s my fault. Not theirs. And I had to fix it.

Coverage can also give you a good idea of whether you successfully established your main premise in the first act.

It can also reveal if the reader is emotionally engaged with the protagonist and the world you’ve created.

If you’re going to employ coverage, I recommend at least three different readers so a consensus can emerge.

Notice that all of these things are about the first half of the script. Remember the economics of the job?

Whether they love your script or not, there is no incentive to read the whole thing.

At some point, they will start skipping pages to get to the end so they can feel like they can comfortably claim they read it.

This is one of the main reasons why paid coverage services do not excel at recognizing the value of the script as a whole. They are unable to discern the full emotional impact of the project.

If you recognize all this going in, paid coverage can be a worthwhile addition to your project’s development.

But this is an important point. Coverage is not development. It’s not even close.

Consistently developing material for the better is one of the most difficult tasks in Hollywood.

Do not take notes or suggestions from coverage unless you 100% agree with it. Sometimes they see something you don’t, but they are no better at developing material than you are.

If a note feels wrong, it is wrong. Knowing what you are trying to do and using your gut is your best barometer of whether something works or not.

What you absolutely cannot do is let coverage influence how you feel about a project or yourself as a writer.

This can be challenging, of course, but it’s vital. I have received poor coverage on projects I’ve sold for six figures.

Is this a reflection on me or my skill level? Nope. It is simply the economics of the task.

That doesn’t mean low-end coverage is useless, or evil, or even unworthy of our resources. It doesn’t even mean they're wrong.

It just means we keep the information nice and compartmentalized. It is a data point for the bigger picture. And that’s all.

That's a wrap for this week!

Thanks for being a subscriber. I hope that one day we see you in Story and Plot Pro so we can visit more often!

See you next week.

Tom

PS - Don't forget to jump into a writer's sprint this week!