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Get the work ready
Lead with one finished sample, a credible next project, and a clear account of the work you want to build—not a claim that one script is perfect.
Screenwriting representation desk
What agents and managers actually do, where to research firms that are open to new writers, how to write the query, and what to ask when someone wants to talk.
General guidance, not legal, financial, or career advice, and not a recommendation of any firm. Agencies change who they represent and how they accept work, so confirm anything time-sensitive on the firm's own site before you act on it.
Lead with one finished sample, a credible next project, and a clear account of the work you want to build—not a claim that one script is perfect.
Use maintained guild directories and first-party company pages. A current directory creates a pool; the firm's current policy decides whether and how to contact it.
Write down why the work fits this person, follow the published channel, and ask for the read without invented familiarity, hype, or an unsolicited attachment.
Treat a meeting as mutual due diligence. Ask about taste, plan, communication, terms, conflicts, verification, and what happens if the relationship ends.
Four decisions
The role comparison, the search, the query, and the meeting are four different questions. Each one gets its own page so you can go straight to the one in front of you.
Compare screenwriting agents and literary managers by services, working style, questions, and agreement terms—not a tidy Hollywood stereotype.
Work through itBuild a representation search from strong samples, live directories, verified fit, careful outreach, and a process you can sustain while writing.
Work through itWrite a concise screenplay query with clear project identity, a specific premise, truthful fit, useful context, and a simple request to read.
Work through itPrepare for an agent or manager meeting as a mutual working session: discuss the pages, plan, communication, terms, conflicts, and next decision.
Work through itCurrent-source desk
Guild-maintained directories, kept current by the people who run them. Start here, then read the firm's own site: most agencies take new writers only by referral or during a stated window, and they say so there.
Writers Guild of America
Build a current U.S. agency research pool from the guild's live directory instead of a copied roster.
Writers Guild of Canada
Start current Canadian agency research from the guild's maintained directory.
Keep the research usable
Inventory the sample, record why a target fits, assemble a short query, choose your meeting questions, and export the result. Nothing you type leaves your browser.