We do NOT accept or read any unsolicited scripts, manuscripts, show concepts or pitches.

Fifty years ago, some columnist suggested that the best way for a new writer to get published was to send their unsolicited manuscript to every publisher in the business in a hope to be “discovered.” Entire writer’s marketplace books were written, detailing the names and mailing addresses of hundreds of publishing companies, and sold to hopeful authors. Publishing houses were inundated with tens of thousands of unsolicited or unasked-for manuscripts. This cost the author hundreds of dollars in printing and mailing, with only a small handful of manuscripts ever being considered or even read.

Whether due to cost or conviction, would-be authors eventually abandoned sending the entire manuscript and instead submitted a first chapter to publishing houses. When that didn’t work, people simply started mass mailing letters with a few lines detailing the concept of a story asking for the publisher to get in touch.

Often the submission wasn’t relevant to the publisher. People would just scattershot their work or concept to every publisher in hopes of gaining attention of the “right” person. So publishers that only published romance novels received manuscripts for cookbooks, soldier-of-fortune novels, and science fiction series. Most publishers quickly adopted a “no unsolicited submissions policy” and either rejected manuscripts that they didn’t request through an agent or they threw them, unread, into the trash.

But why? That seems so harsh.

The reality is that anytime there was a news story, whether it was a war breaking out, a police shooting, a child trapped in a well, or a celebrity marriage, writers would quickly adapt what they had already written, or whip up a chapter that mimicked the news story, or simply sent a letter or an email that said “I have a great romance set in war torn Bosnia” or “I have a great corrupt cop story” or “I have a great story about an America’s sweetheart actress marrying a Hollywood rouge.” Sometimes, after a major news story publishers would get hundreds of almost identical, unsolicited manuscripts and pitches. Then two years later, if the publisher released a book about the actual event or a book that had some element of war or true crime or celebrity romance, people would come out of the woodwork to claim that the publisher had stole their concept and file lawsuits against the publishers.

That is why few publishers accept unsolicited manuscripts or pitches.

Same thing for entertainment producers. Everyone one of us at 5things Studios has worked for a company where someone tried to sue claiming that they had an idea for a reality show about rich women in New York City, or a singing competition, or a show about surviving zombies and because that company was making a show that included one of those elements, the production company must have stolen their idea.

So, we do NOT accept or read any unsolicited scripts, manuscripts, show concepts or pitches.

Thanks for understanding.