Monday Morning Editor Picks: Breaking In with Adaptations, Loglines, & Unusual Contests

This weekend I was pondering the different ways you can break into the industry with writing samples, great loglines and a contest that is so unique it just might be what you need to get noticed. Here are my editor picks for products to help:

1. Learn how to obtain source material: Using Adaptations as the Perfect Source for Your Script On Demand Webinar.

Hollywood loves adaptations of already existing intellectual property. Why not add one to your arsenal to make yourself more marketable as a writer for hire? You don't always need to pay for the rights to a book; you can adapt one that's copyright has expired (see Alt-Script: The Screenwriter and Public Domain).

2. Logline and Query Letter Strategies that Work Webinar with Danny Manus

Not only are loglines the one-line pitch you need to grab an exec's attention, I always start my scripts by crafting a logline to get my ideas focused. Danny Manus is teaching a webinar Wednesday, June 19th, offering a critique of your logline as a perk! As long as you sign up in advance of the webinar time (1:00PM PST), you'll receive both the critique and a recording of the webinar, in case you can't make the live event.

3. Screenplay Replay Contest Where Your Winning Script Gets a Publishing Deal

You've already gone through the efforts of crafting a compelling story, so why not publish it as a novel? I am a firm believer in published writers having more clout in Hollywood. With the Screenplay Replay Contest you can have a chance at having a ghost writer adapt your screenplay into a novel and getting a publishing deal, increasing your odds of selling that script! After all, as we already know, Hollywood is addicted to adaptations.

4. Breaking in Outside of Hollywood On Demand Webinar

This one is my personal tips on breaking in when you live far away from L.A., specifically the best way to use the Internet to increase your network and your odds of success.

I love creative ways to break in, and this contest is at the top of my list. The early bird deadline is June 30th and the standard deadline is September 30, 2013. Get those scripts polished!

Jeanne Veillette Bowerman is the Editor and Online Community Manager of Script Magazine and a webinar instructor for The Writers Store. She is Co-Founder and moderator of the weekly Twitter screenwriters’ chat, #Scriptchat, and wrote the narrative adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Slavery by Another Name, with its author, Douglas A. Blackmon, former senior national correspondent of The Wall Street Journal. Jeanne also is President of Implicit Productions and consults with writers on how to build and strengthen their online and offline networks as well as face their fears in order to succeed in writing and in personal peace - a screenwriter's therapist. More information can be found on her blog, ramblings of a recovered insecureaholic. Follow @jeannevb on Twitter.