your manager can't even read your script?
WTF are you doing with that manager??
find someone else....

Scott,

I'd be happy to contact you directly I just can't find your email anywhere on the blog. Maybe I'm blind.

Regardless, thank you so much for the advice - you really confirmed what I suspected: submitting to others isn't worth damaging the trust developing in the relationship. Sure, I'm definitely a "low man on the totem pole," but my sense is I need to sit tight, allow this guy (who happens to be extremely nice and professional) time to read my project, and not appear too desperate for attention. It's beginning to sound like a dating game.

And regarding Anonymous' comment... I understand where you're coming from, but finding someone else isn't as easy as it sounds. Even if I did, my emerging sense, once again, is that these things take time. There's a "hurry up and wait" pattern emerging... things heat up, submit this, do that, sign this... and then you don't hear back for a while. But then things heat up again.

I guess in the interim all we can do is write, right?

My question to Ted is, how long does it take for your manager to read your scripts? I'm just wondering if what feels like forever to you is "timely" to your manager.

As a writer who is repped (agent and a manager) but who is "low on the totem pole," both my agent and manager read my new scripts fairly quickly; usually over the first weekend after I turn them in with notes the following week.

That being said, this is not my first manager and it took time to find the right one. I agree with Scott, a sit down conversation with your manager would be beneficial. That face time is incredibly valuable and often gets your manager excited about you again. (And don't do this over an email or a phone call, face to face is your best bet.) If your manager doesn't have time to sit down with you, find a new manager.

I know it's easy to feel like you are lucky to have representation (every writer feels like that at some point,) and that finding new representation is harder than it seems, but ask yourself this, if your manager isn't doing anything for you, what is the point of having one at all? Don't you owe it to yourself to find one that is excited to work for you? Being nice and professional is certainly great but wouldn't you rather have one that is attentive and motivated?

My email:

scottdistillery@gmail.com

Anon,

Solid advice - thank you. Here's the catch: I'm in NY, he's in LA and a sitdown is, well, challenging. You are absolutely correct about wanting a rep who is attentive and motivated... and his turnaround times have been, in the nine months we've been working together, excellent, except for this last round. Maybe a bad sign... gulp. Or just a busy time for him (he produces too). But your point is well-taken and I will certainly take it into consideration in the coming weeks.

I guess I'm struggling with the choice of having a rep, any rep, vs. being in the wild again. But as you say, what's the point of having someone who isn't doing it for you? Thanks.

Hi Ted;

I’m going to wade in with advice from the other side – sort of.

When I was a stock broker (12 years), the majority of my clients had other relationships – everything from bankers, to insurance agents, to other brokers. I had no objection to my clients having other relationships and in some cases encouraged it. It was when I was blindsided that I got upset and sometimes fired clients for what I perceived as their dishonesty with me.

Now let me put this into talent management terms.

If I was your manager, I would hope that you had other relationships – and in your case being on the other side of the country I’d value your other relationships because they’re ones I would probably never have. BUT, I would want to know about those relationships if at all possible.

Since a sit down face-to-face meeting is difficult, schedule a short conference call. Make notes ahead of time and let him know in advance that you’d like to talk to him about the relationships you have in NY. On the call ask him what course of action he would like you to take. Offer to meet with your other relationships, get business cards for your manager (let the relationships know that’s what you’re doing) and send them to him. Drop an email summarizing each meeting and if it’s okay with your other relationships, encourage him to call and use your contacts.

That will make you much more visible on his radar screen and if he knows you’re working your end of things, he will read your scripts and he will work his end.

Scott is correct in saying 15 percent of nothing is still nothing, but 15 percent of nothing with new contacts for me as your manager is worth more than nothing and depending on the contacts, it may be a heck of lot more valuable than 15 percent of a low six figure deal.

If your manager isn’t amenable to this, I’d start looking for other representation. Just like a job, the best time to get other representation is when you still have some one representing you.

Tom