Who Do You Address Your Screenplay Query Letter To?

I got this question recently:

“When submitting a query letter, should you send it to the company in general, should you send it to a specific representatives of the company (after looking in the HCD), or should you send it to multiple representatives of the same company?”

Make sure you read my post Getting your screenplay to producers and production companies. It explains how to find companies to send your query letter to, including the Hollywood Creative Directory (HCD) which this reader refers to.

If you’re wondering how to write a professional query letter make sure you read my post How to write a professional query letter for your screenplay.

If you can find a specific name in the HCD (or anywhere else) to address your letter to, do it.  I would usually look in the HCD for the lowest ranking employee that looked like they were involved with script development.  A title like “Development Assistant” is perfect.  While this person may not have the power to green light your movie they are most likely trying to build their own careers and will probably be more open to reading material from new writers.  In addition, there’s a good chance that’s the person who will be reading your script anyway even if the “V.P. of Development” requests your script.  Some of the companies listed in the HCD are small and only list a person or two – in that case just choose one.  Always make sure you do use a person’s name don’t just address your letter to the company in general – that’s a sure sign of your query being an unsolicited request of some kind and will increase your chances of going in the trash can without anyone really reading your letter.

I would never send the same letter to two different people at the same company.  I’m usually pretty liberal when it comes to mass mailings/emails/faxing but this just seems like overkill and might end up really annoying some companies.  I would keep track of who you’ve addressed your letter to and when you start submitting your next script if you didn’t hear anything from a specific person at a company I would address your next letter to someone different.