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Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood
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.
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.
- GenresWritingNonfictionFilm
304 pages, Paperback
First published May 25, 2004
4 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Michael Lent
50 books4 followersMichael Lent's new graphic novel is The Man Who Wasn't There published by Global Comix, comixology and Amazon Books.
Honored as a ‘Google Author’ in 2007, his writing/experience spans films, fiction and nonfiction books, biographies, graphic novels, animation, video games, and reality television. He has written nine books including On Thin Ice, published by Disney/Hyperion, based on the top-rated reality television series Ice Road Truckers. Research for this project entailed spending winter in the Arctic where Lent froze his pens off. His credits also include more than a dozen graphic novels and comics including Prey published by Marvel Comics, In 2014, Lent adapted into a graphic novel E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops.”
Honored as a ‘Google Author’ in 2007, his writing/experience spans films, fiction and nonfiction books, biographies, graphic novels, animation, video games, and reality television. He has written nine books including On Thin Ice, published by Disney/Hyperion, based on the top-rated reality television series Ice Road Truckers. Research for this project entailed spending winter in the Arctic where Lent froze his pens off. His credits also include more than a dozen graphic novels and comics including Prey published by Marvel Comics, In 2014, Lent adapted into a graphic novel E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops.”
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 18, 2021
Somewhat useful in many ways - I.e defining the pitch and how to pitch as well as the advanced career planning but overall dated. Book is contingent on someone movie to LA to be a screenwriting and that’s not 100% necessary any more. Also in pandemic times how a writers room is handled has massively changed and might not go back to the way it was.
Read with a grain a salt and glean the basic stuff you can use.
Read with a grain a salt and glean the basic stuff you can use.
November 7, 2013
A great primer for learning the general world of Hollywood when trying to begin a career in screenwriting. The book breaks things down well and keeps it pretty simple. While the odds can seem daunting, he made an interesting comment when asked "is the screenwriting business really as bad as I keep reading? His answer, was that it was easy to get up in the blame game... and that early on- "I decided that my success or failure in the business needed to be squarely on my shoulders. That realization has made a big difference."
My take from that is that the better you know the business, and what all the other people have to do, you have the ability to collaborate and communicate better. It also speaks to the - "Change what you can, and accept what you cannot."
The book would be great to be updated at this point. The book itself is a great place to find other references to start learning about writing, what others do (agent/producer/actors/etc...) about contests, etc...
A nice book that one can mine for suggestions and further reading.
My take from that is that the better you know the business, and what all the other people have to do, you have the ability to collaborate and communicate better. It also speaks to the - "Change what you can, and accept what you cannot."
The book would be great to be updated at this point. The book itself is a great place to find other references to start learning about writing, what others do (agent/producer/actors/etc...) about contests, etc...
A nice book that one can mine for suggestions and further reading.
October 27, 2010
Forget about HOW to write a screenplay, this is a very insightful - I'd say indispensable - nuts & bolts BUSINESS book for screenwriters, but not your usual advice - Lent goes into great detail on factors that may seem trivial, but can actually make or break your next project.
He covers everything from why/if/how you need to move to L.A., how to network effectively, how to get a meeting, to how to comport yourself in said meeting, follow ups, pitching techniques for phone and in person, how to effectively network, legal ramifications of your deals & actions & just plain how to handle yourself on a business level as an industry professional.
I've read my copy numerous times. Dog eared and highlighted throughout, it's one of my best reference guides.
He covers everything from why/if/how you need to move to L.A., how to network effectively, how to get a meeting, to how to comport yourself in said meeting, follow ups, pitching techniques for phone and in person, how to effectively network, legal ramifications of your deals & actions & just plain how to handle yourself on a business level as an industry professional.
I've read my copy numerous times. Dog eared and highlighted throughout, it's one of my best reference guides.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews