Hi Bonnie! I’m less than two weeks away from the big move south, yay! I’m working on sending out a mailing to my agent target list. (I know, I should have done this ages ago, but better late, and RESEARCHED, than never, right?) I’ve had a bunch of questions come up as I prepare it. Of course I thought of you, both because of your genius levels of ninjosity when it comes to this stuff, but also because I thought some of my questions might be helpful for your other devoted followers. 😉 So feel free to respond if any of them interest you, and of course you can use whatever you’d like for column.

Thanks Bonnie. You’re amazing.
Cecily Crow

Woo hoo! So glad you’re ready to make the big move, Cecily! I had a blast working with you in Portland last year and I know you’ve been doing a lot of work to prep for this. Clearly, you’ve done great research on your target agents and I’m thrilled to help you out with this. Bonus points for emailing questions I can answer in this forum, to create a teachable moment for all the readers while getting you the answers to your questions! So many emails come in with a request for “inbox coaching,” and I simply cannot rob the time away from my existing clients to offer such a service. But your email has set me up to help you while helping others, and that’s a great alternative! Yay, you!

So, let’s dive in. I’ve numbered my answers to correspond with your questions, above, of course.

1. This is potentially sticky, because you can’t possibly know the relationship that client has with that agent, right? I mean, what if that actor is on a “drop list” and will be sent packing soon, due to lack of bookings? Since you’ve worked with the actor before, the best bet — even if that actor isn’t going to do a referral for you, which would be best-best, of course — is to reach out to that actor and ask if it would be okay to use his or her name in your letter. You never know! That actor could say, “Oh, yes! In fact, say I recommended you,” or even send an email over on your behalf.

2. Same as with the first answer, you’re assuming a positive relationship where one may not exist, and it’s like when an actor reaches out to me, dropping the name of a producer I once cast for… but whom I had to chase down for final payment. Just seeing his name puts me in a foul mood, and while I’m looking at that actor’s email, that’s a bad mood to have! So, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do these namedrops, just note that the reason for doing so is to build a connection. Unless you’ve got enough of a relationship with the middleman to verify that their relationship with the agent is powerful, I’d say leave it out.

3. Hmm… you’re right that it’s best to have a specific connection. You’re building a relationship with this submission, and that first impression — if it’s “Dear Sirs” or “To Whom It May Concern” in nature — is not a strong one. Perhaps, if you really can’t narrow it down to a specific rep, go for labeling the outside of your envelope with a “talent submission” notation, so it’s routed to the person most likely to need to see such mailings. In your letter, just try to be as personable as possible without knowing who may be on the receiving end (a delicate art).

4. If it’s a commercial agency, you can withstand a little competition within the roster. If it’s a theatrical agency that’s on the large side (with hundreds of clients, and a handful of agents to handle all that action), that’s okay too. But if it’s a boutique agency, you don’t *want* to compete within your own roster for what might be only one audition slot the agent has a chance to pitch an actor into. Definitely don’t go overboard mentioning any of the meticulous research you’ve done. You *do* all that ninja research because it helps line you up with the best possible “hell yes” agent for your next tier, but you don’t reference everything you found out — especially not in your submission letter. This is something most actors get wrong: They treat their cover letter as if its goal is to secure representation. Nope. It’s to get a meeting. At the meeting, you secure representation. Hold some ninja moves for that in-person encounter.

5. I wouldn’t even bother looking at the IMDb company ranking, as — just like with StarMeter — it’s entirely manipulatable and not at all stable an index. Far better to take a look at the company’s roster, listed by StarMeter, and see whether you’d fall in nicely, on that roster. That means, they don’t have so many A-listers that you’d get lost (or worse, signed and shelved), nor do they have so many lowest-tier actors (probably even more that don’t even have IMDb pages yet) that you’d be counting on the agent’s click-to-submit strategy rather than on purposeful pitch calls based on years of cultivating meaningful relationships in casting offices.

Really take your time with this, Cecily. You’re basically selecting a spouse, here, and that means you shouldn’t treat it casually. I love all the research you’re doing and I know that you’re only going to learn more about your targets once you get your boots on the ground, here in LA. Remember that as SMFA alumna, you have access to our private message boards, where you can run your targets by the ninja community and be sure you’re avoiding any red flag agencies or spaghetti slingers, as you build your list.

Get out there, take meetings, and know who your “hell yes” would be before you walk through the door, so you can say yes, happily, without second-guessing yourself at that moment. All this advance research you’re doing is great and I commend you for making the most of your final days in the PNW. Good luck with the move and we’ll see you in town! Remember to put the next Thirsty Third Thursday on your calendar. Hooray!

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001743.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.