Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood [Paperback]

Michael Lent (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Writing a script, or making a short film, or taking a dozen film theory courses in no way prepares you for what Hollywood is really like," declares Lent, a columnist for Creative Screenwriting Magazine who has worked on nine feature film projects. In this book of "loosely organized" "academic courses," he purports to give novices the skinny on doing business in Tinseltown. Beginning, logically, with "Your Decision to Go Pro," Lent then moves on to "The Script-to-Screen Process" and "The Hollywood Game and Its Players." Lent’s guide is above all realistic, and his straight-shooting, no-nonsense tone is often leavened with humor. He’s thorough as well, discussing everything from relocating to L.A. and dealing with rejection to making pitches and negotiating contracts. He even tells would-be screenwriters where to rub elbows with their colleagues, listing Tinseltown bookstores, cafes and diners frequented by film folk. Though Lent’s book contains little direction on actually writing a screenplay, it’s an impressive, useful guide to the larger world of movie-making.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (May 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060981043X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609810439
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Reference
  • #52 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Performing Arts

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guide to the profession of screenwriting, December 28, 2004

By 

J.A.R. "mobuli" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood (Paperback)

Lent's book divulges the nuts and bolts of the screenwriting profession, delineating the norms of the business and where writers are commonly led astray.

He covers everything from the types of deals and agreements are offered to screenwriters, the very VERY important pitch (which is horribly covered by other books) to the players and their functions (thankfully not a regurgitation of common stereotypes of producers and development execs... but something that a writer can use in developing a working relationship). He covers new territory by adding a guide to the often over looked supporters of the writer (wives, husbands, etc.) and how they should deal with the work and lifestyle.

I've read too many books on the business of screenwriting to count. They're either too thin on topics that matter, too heavy on stuff that is ultimately only a piece of the larger puzzle, or they simply put a new glossy cover on the same old crap. This is the only book I've read that covers, from stem to stern, a concerted overview of professional screenwriting and it's facets.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One way to fish through the crowd, January 20, 2005

By 

Tennille A. Wright "tygresstwin" (Boise, ID) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood (Paperback)

As a beginning screenwriter I know the competition is fierce especially for those like me without film school, living outside of Hollywood. That's why I bought Breakfast with Sharks. There isn't a screenwriting resource out there like it. Sure, I've bought a few screenwriting books but most of them say the same things, how to write a screenplay and a query letter. This book delves into the business of screenwriting, if you don't have a father in the business you will need to learn the business and Breakfast with Sharks is a way to do it. I found the book also enjoyable to read with personal stories of Hollywood misfortune and finally success. Breakfast with Sharks rises above the competition with a unique purpose and helps you to write above the competition with what many others forget to bring to Hollywood, a plan and a unique voice.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breakfast with Sharks!, May 31, 2005

By 

Chris Mundell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakfast with Sharks: A Screenwriter's Guide to Getting the Meeting, Nailing the Pitch, Signing the Deal, and Navigating the Murky Waters of Hollywood (Paperback)

Wow! Full of sound advice from experience. Michael Lent is clearly someone who pays attention to the whole process. The best part is he shares it with the rest of us! This book is fun to read from start to finish. Lent constantly encourages the reader (screenwriter) to adopt an attitude of, what I would call, "strategic humility" in their business dealings. How rare!!! This stuff helps in life too! I've never written a feature length screenplay, but I still found this book efficacious in learning the ins and outs of this goofy industry. And I know goofy - www.chrismundell.com