How do you get an agent?

While it’s great to work on your art and plug away endlessly on specs and pilots, the truth is this is a business and if you want to make the jump from baby writer to pro, you are going to have to SELL your work (not that art and business can't mix).  That’s where agents usually come in.  Agents have relationships with just about everyone in Hollywood and they send their clients’ work around town to be seen/admired/bought and send their clients on meetings/auditions/interviews to book jobs, or, they'll negotiate deals for their clients once they’ve booked a job.

Now, I don’t have agent, but I have an opinion on this subject after working in the industry a few years. But, rather than just tell you what I think, I decided to go to the source and ask my friend who is an actual agent at one of the Big Five (or I guess it’s Big Four since William Morris and Endeavor merged).  Anyway, I asked my friend a bunch of questions like “How do you find new clients?” and “What do you look for in a new client?”  This was the answer:

I feel like the reason we take on clients is pretty standard but hopefully it's helpful.  Basically, agents just want to make money so if they're taking on clients it's because they foresee making money with the client.  They need to feel like other people are going to want to invest money in this client.  It's obviously easier to get representation once you're already making money (aka booking your own jobs, etc.).

The best way to get an agent is through a referral.  So people should really be networking and meeting people in all different facets of the industry.  If some development exec at some studio tells an agent about you he/she'll probably be more inclined to look into who you are.  Unsolicited material is definitely not the right way to get an agent since most agents never read it.  Lastly, being out there and working on your craft is important because you never know when an agent is going to go see a play, read a magazine article, watch something online, etc. and the more exposure you have the better the odds of an agent running into you.

So there you have it.  I think the most common frustration with the whole “get an agent” thing is the Catch-22 of: "You need an agent to get paid work, but you can’t get an agent unless you can get paid work."  Doh!  And yet, people get agents all the time.  How do they do it?  Well, like my friend said, usually through referrals and through working on their craft (having their work noticed online or in festivals, contests, etc.).

I think working on your craft to help land an agent is important for another reason as well.  I had a friend send a (good) screenplay to a lit agent at a big four (then five) agency through a connection/referral.  That got my friend a meeting with the agent who said they liked the script, but the genre wasn’t an easy sell (it was like an indie comedy drama).  Anyway, the agent asked if my friend had anything else (maybe something more commercial, like just a comedy) and…nope, they didn’t.  That was the ONLY thing my friend had written.  The agent told them to go out, write a few more scripts (they recommended doing a comedy next), and to send those along when they finished.  So yeah, work on your craft so you have more than one thing to show when you get that referral.

I mentioned festivals/contests as well.  If you win a contest as prestigious as say, the Nicholl, you will have agents knocking on your door because they know those scripts often sell to production companies/get made and they want in on the action (plus they figure you are talented since you won a prestigious contest).   In that case, you can probably get scooped up by an agent if you’ve only written one script, but you’ll do way better careerwise if you have more to show.  That’s a whole other thing…getting scooped up.  If you are in the position where agents are coming after you regardless of your level of industry experience, choose wisely.  Some large agencies will try to sign clients who have heat or are experiencing some success just to keep them away from competitors.  Sometimes having an agent at a large agency is best, sometimes having an agent at a slightly smaller agency who is hungry, is best.  I have a friend who described their relationship with their big name agency agent as “I only hear from them after I’ve booked my next job and then they step in to sign the deal.”