Sell Your Idea to Television

By Dee LaDuke

You dream of a career in television. Or you currently work in television and can’t wait to get to the level where you can create and sell your own show. You’re not afraid to work hard, pay your dues, and suffer the required slings and arrows. There are legions of naysayers who will tell you to follow your bliss elsewhere; a successful creative career in television is as likely as winning the lottery. That may be true but we are here to tell you that it can be done. You can have a career in television. You can sell your idea to television.

In "Sell Your Idea To Television", Mark Alton Brown and Dee La Duke share the knowledge they've gained over their distinguished careers writing, producing, and selling to television. Mark Alton Brown and Dee La Duke were writer/producers of the CW’s hit series, "Girlfriends" for over 8 years and 177 episodes. They initially served as executive producers of the show along with "Girlfriends" creator, Mara Brock Akil.

Their produced pilots include NBC’s, "Dangerous Women With Bad Attitudes" and "Gabby". Over their careers they have written a total of 11 pilots for NBC, CBS, UPN, Lifetime, Castle Rock Studios and Nickelodeon. They’ve worked as writer/producers on multiple half-hour series, most notably as supervising producers where they began their careers on the classic hit series, "Designing Women".

They created and were the executive producers of "Reunited", a sit-com starring Julie Hagerty with Castle Rock Studios for UPN.

They recently wrote and produced the web series sensation Jenifer Lewis and Shangela, and currently have two pilots in development, "Balls" and "Sexual Healing".

LaDuke and Brown wrote and produced the cult classic, comic mock-documentary film, "Jackie’s Back" for Lifetime, "Before And After" for USA Network and four original features, "Ventura Blvd.", "The Whole Truth", "Too Hip" and "Lifers". Their features, "Mountainheart" and "Life Of The Party" are currently in pre-production.
They are also the authors of "Writing and Producing Television", and LaDuke authored "Making Great Television: Four Essential Ingredients", both part of the Gardner’s Guide series of books. They conduct local and international seminars based on the books, most recently in Singapore, Bali and New Orleans. They are on the faculty of the Global Social Change Film Festival and Inner City Filmmakers. They are the recipients of a Shine Award, GLAAD Media Award, and the BET Comedy Award.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dee LaDuke and Mark Alton Brown
• Release date: Jun 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781495111129

Book preview

Sell Your Idea To Television

By Mark Alton Brown and Dee LaDuke

Illustrated by Kevin P. Coffey

Published by G Media Partners at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Mark Alton Brown and Dee LaDuke

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favority ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Than you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction - You Can Do It

Chapter One - Good Ideas

Chapter Two - Developing Your Idea

Chapter Three - Building a Sales Team

Chapter Four - Making the Pitch/Making the Sale

Chapter Five -Writing the Pilot/Producing a Demo

Chapter Six -Production: One Step Closer

Chapter Seven - Selling a Spec, Developing for Talent, Breaking the Mold and Taking the Plunge!

Addendum - Writing for Social Change

The Authors

INTRODUCTION

YOU CAN DO IT

You dream of a career in television. Or you currently work in television and can’t wait to get to the level where you can create and sell your own show. You’re not afraid to work hard, pay your dues, and suffer the required slings and arrows. There are legions of naysayers who will tell you to follow your bliss elsewhere; a successful creative career in television is as likely as winning the lottery. That may be true but we are here to tell you that it can be done. You can have a career in television. You can sell your idea to television.

For years we would try to discourage young people from pursuing a television career. Television, show business in general, has the reputation of taking people to the highest heights and then plunging them into the deepest voids. But you know what? People do make it. People have rewarding and long lasting careers in television. Though we are born complainers, we have had to come to terms with the fact that we have had a good life in television. It has been a lovely career for nearly two decades that has allowed us to buy homes in which to raise our beautiful children and from which take a vacation now and then. Basically, we have lived a middle of the road, average American dream, but with a twist perhaps that many middle of the road, average American dreams don’t have. We get to go to work and laugh with wonderful people, take three month breaks (hiatus or pilot season) and the studio buys lunch.

We have no right to say to anyone, Run! Save yourselves! Get a safe job in a bank some where! The television industry has treated us very well and frankly, in this global, cut throat economy, there are no safe jobs.

If you love television and you have something to say, go for it. Nurture your dream and do what you must to make it real. This medium reflects our nation’s very soul and it wields the kind of power that in previous centuries was reserved for heads of state. There is much to yearn for in this business beyond the big salaries that make headlines. The multi-million dollar deals do not come to anyone without involving sacrifice. People who are willing to make those sacrifices may not have time to enjoy their money but they have a vast soapbox from which they can address the largest audience in the world.

We have not gotten a multi-million dollar deal…yet. But we have: sold 13 pilots, produced four of them; brought one pilot to a beloved but short lived seven episodes; and shepherded an adopted series through seven seasons. We have worked for as many as five different studios in one year but we have been steadily employed since embarking on this path and have shared it with an amazing parade of rich characters, including two OG F.O.B.’s. And yes, we have been well paid for it.

Series entertainment is still in its infancy. It needs creative people who are willing to shape it and change and reshape its scope and potential. The industry needs your vision. You are the unique expositor of one special point of view no one else in the world can express but millions can relate to. That is what makes television great, people with a vision to share. Learn to sell yourself and your vision. Sell your ideas to television because television needs them. Television needs you!

…BUT YOU HAVE TO PITCH

When was the last time you sold something? Was it Girl Scout Cookies? Chocolate bars for your Little League team? Was it your old LP’s at a garage sale? How did you feel? Were you enthusiastic about selling or not quite up to the challenge? Dig into your feelings about salesmanship because the major theme of this book is about selling well. At every stage of your career you will be called upon to pitch and that term derives from sales pitch not baseball.

Think of the last time someone sold you something you had not set out to buy. It is likely you cannot come up with the instance because good salespeople are invisible. The ones we remember are the irritating ones, those we can see through, the cliché of the used car salesman. How do some people manage to sell us vacuum cleaners with a hundred attachments we will never use or six different moisturizers when we only have one face? Those invisible sales people are the ones we need to identify and emulate.

Successful salespeople know what you need before you even know you need it. It may be somewhat unseemly but they know our fears and insecurities. And most crucial, they know our deepest desires. How does this translate to television? Buyers may not know what they want, but they will know what they want when they see it. Everyone wants to keep their job and continue to move up the ladder and they see you as an aid to that ascent. Take a page from the CIA and gather intelligence and make educated guesses about what every buyer wants because you can go into a pitch meeting with the best expensive, testosterone driven, dramatic action series since 24 but if you are pitching to Lifetime, forget about it. It’s an extreme example but the point is clear.

There are miles of bookstore shelves that feature books on ‘How To Sell X’ and each of them has nuggets of wisdom for the aspiring series creator. It is as true as when you sold cookies and chocolate as a kid, you aren’t selling a product, you are selling you. So pop a breath mint and dust the dandruff off your shoulder before you set foot in an executive’s office.

Promises are something every sales person knows how to make, but for an abstract and unknown quantity like an un-produced series, those promises need careful thought. Are you promising a first for television? Perhaps something only you can offer? First and only are specific promises that carry great resonance. All promises carry oblique assurances of success so success itself is not a promise. How you intend to achieve success is the promise. Just as the sales people who connect to you promise to make you sexier, stronger and smarter, you are giving the network buyer the assurance that your idea will hook them up with and keep the loyalty of their desired audience. You can promise this idea will create Buzz, or it will Brand their network space as the hippest, coolest or however you define the most desirable place to be.

Are You A Good Salesperson? Checklist

What does your buyer need?

Are you at ease with yourself? Confident?

Do you know what image you project to people? Amiable and funny, arrogant and intellectual, hip and aloof? Know who you are and how others perceive you and make is work for you, not against you.

Can you see more than one point of view and be prepared to respond positively even if it isn’t the response you had hoped to elicit?

Are you passionate about your idea?

Does your buyer have a place to put your idea?

What will make your buyer look good to their boss?

How will the buyer know you are a team player?

What can you promise the buyer?

What backs up your speculation? Research? Analysis? Consensus? Do you know where to gather trustworthy information?

Do you have research that tells you what has worked before for the buyer? Nothing succeeds like success.

Can you bring a fresh analysis to the situation? This idea can succeed because its time has come and this is why…

Have you based your confidence on the fact that polls, industry experts and viewers all have this to say about this area?

Television is a marketplace with a peculiar nature. It rewards those who fail to produce successful series almost as often as it rewards the big guns who have produced hits time and again. What’s up with that? Good sales technique is what. On the flip side, the industry cannot grasp that some truly wonderful writers simply may not be good salespeople. Some execrable writers are virtual con artists; they can sell, sell, sell and never produce.

Good writing should, but may not, be part of selling a television show, but the writing is only one part of what it takes to see your project on the air. There is clearly a distinction between great television writing and great television sales technique. Thankfully, in television, as a creative person you should never have to discuss money, costs, fees, back end or expenses. Agents, lawyers, managers and the WGA all haggle with the Business Affairs offices of studios to see that you, and therefore they, get the best deal possible. Still, it is incumbent on you to sell with the confidence of a seasoned pro. That does not mean you swagger; it means that you are passionate about your project, you can visualize its success, you are prepared to answer every buyer’s question and flexible enough to rethink the setting or characters at the drop of a hat. Successful selling on television demands imagination, conviction and flexibility.

It helps enormously to have a track record. But since folks with loads of experience don’t need a book like this, they are probably not reading these words. You, on the other hand, are ambitious, eager, talented, and want to be a spokesperson for your generation on Television - the foremost soapbox in the world. The most gratifying aspect of television is the fact that even with low ratings on a minor cable network you are reaching vast numbers in a way you cannot via live theater, the written word or even a feature film. But you will not get through the door on a good idea alone. The buyer will need reassurance that you have some understanding as to how to execute that good idea. Even though your first project will undoubtedly include an experienced show runner as your partner, you need to be prepared to conceptually see your project through from beginning to end. In other words, you will not be expected to know how to do it all the first time out. You will have supervision by people who have produced television before and you will learn on the job as problems arise which have to be solved. But, everyone, even the most seasoned professionals will expect you to maintain the creative vision of the series unless you indicate you do not have a clear vision. If that happens they will try to save their jobs and take over your idea. But try not to worry about this. If you have gotten far enough along that you have a producing partner, then you are passionate about your idea and undoubtedly have enough steam to make it chug along for six seasons.

THE PRODUCT OF TELEVISION

TV is also a peculiar marketplace because the product of television is not actually what you are trying to sell. The product of television is not programming. The product of television is viewers. The project you try to sell merely represents a potential audience. Let’s say that again and put it in bold face this time. The project you try to sell merely represents a potential audience. Too many beginners are not interested in the dollars and cents reality of this business, and it is a business, first and foremost. This fact must be on your mind somewhere in the development process. The greatest idea in the world could be years ahead of its time. The best idea could face a glut market of similar ideas and never be noticed. An unbelievably cool notion could be a bad risk for mainstream television given the narrow audience it would attract. Whatever television product you pitch to sell, the intended audience should be obvious by the time you make it into an executive’s office.

How desirable a particular audience is depends on their buying power. Thanks to the Nielsen People Meter, the quality of an audience can be perceived in many ways. The gross rating can be broken down according to age, gender, race and geographic location. Though the series 24 attracts what is defined as an average viewing audience, at 12.1 million viewers, it wins the highly desirable adult demographic (male 18-49) audience. Its premieres have done well holding the coveted NFL audience for both season five and six. This is the car, beer and cell phone purchasing audience advertisers prize. The Nielsen ratings numbers can be broken down according to the needs of the client. Clients can request this data in order to sell airtime to advertisers interested in reaching a particular audience. This information is very expensive, but it carries enormous clout. Because it is so valuable, every fact you may want will not be available to you on the very helpful Nielsen website, but it will give you a grounding in the audience information gathering business. If you read the entertainment trade publications regularly, you will be able to glean enough outright facts and intelligence that you will be able to prepare your project for a specific audience.

A COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE

There is no shortage of pitchers in this league. Getting a foot in the door begins with making contacts. How you make contacts involves working at every level to meet agents, studio executives, show runners and network development executives.

Both agencies and studios have people who ferret out new talent. To get noticed in narrative television you write spec episodes of existing series to get your first job. To be noticed as a potential series creator you develop a relationship with the executives who supervise your series for the studio and network. As they get to know you and your writing, and if you seem like a creative, confident and flexible person to work with, you will be invited to come to them when you have an idea or ideas for a new show. They may not ask twice, so be prepared. Also, your agent will send you out into the community on Meet and Greet, meetings with no agenda beyond putting a face and personality together with your written material. In a "meet and greet’ you will meet with executives, let them get a feel for you as a creative, confident and flexible person and they will tell you what they are looking for. Again, they won’t come begging. If you don’t follow up with an