BREAKFAST WITH SHARKS: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood!

By Michael Lent

 

Publisher: Three Rivers Press (May 2004)

 

Breakfast with Sharks gives a rough, broad overview of the business of screenwriting. The author, Michael Lent, spends a good portion of the book speaking about how a career is born, discussing such topics as the pros and cons of relocating to Los Angeles, and the various positions that can be held at the bottom of the industry totem pole that still allow time for writing. Lent also describes the business of spec and assignment work, offers advice on handling rejection, and recommends the best places to network, but writes mostly about how to deal with executives, agents, managers, producers, actors, and directors without really detailing how meetings with said important individuals are ever acquired or how to perform in these meetings once they are scheduled.

 

Summary of the Book:

 

What They Didn't Teach You in Your Screenwriting Course

Screenwriters, listen up! Breakfast with Sharks is not a book about the craft of screenwriting. This is a book about the business of managing your screenwriting career, from advice on choosing an agent to tips on juggling three deal-making breakfasts a day. Prescriptive and useful, Breakfast with Sharks is a real guide to navigating the murky waters of the Hollywood system.

Unlike most of the screenwriting books available, here's one that tells you what to do after you've finished your surefire-hit screenplay. Written from the perspective of Michael Lent, an in-the-trenches working screenwriter in Hollywood, this is a real-world look into the script-to-screen business as it is practiced today.

Breakfast with Sharks is filled with useful advice on everything from the ins and outs of moving to Los Angeles to understanding terms like "spec," "option," and "assignment." Here you'll learn what to expect from agents and managers and who does what in the studio hierarchy. And most important, Breakfast with Sharks will help you nail your pitch so the studio exec can't say no.

Rounded out with a Q&A section and resource lists of script competitions, film festivals, trade associations, industry publications, and more, Breakfast with Sharks is chock-full of "take this and use it right now" information for screenwriters at any stage of their careers.