It is. A business. It can be a big business. If you want to be a screenwriter and you want to succeed, you need to be creative, be able to write great stories, and understand the business end of things.

This week, a screenwriter touched base with a question. He had a script that a producer said she loved. Loved. And she’d like to option it and move forward, but… she was too busy with other projects to take it on right now.

My immediate thought was, “This is the nicest Pass ever.” Not fair to the writer, but a nice Pass.

Why? Because I think that anytime they don’t actually give you a contract to sign it’s a 100% Pass. You should think that, too. It will save you a LOT of grief.

That said, the writer in question said the producer left him with the impression that she would come back at an unspecified later date and option the script from him. So for the point of this exercise, we’re going to buy this.

His question was, “Should I put my script away and wait for her to come back to me?” My well thought out answer was, “Are you out of your frigging mind?” NO. NO. And if that’s wasn’t clear enough. NO.

Here’s where I go back to my car example. You have a car you own. You want to sell it. A buyer comes and says, “I LOVE the car and I want to buy it, but I’m busy for the next six months, so if you don’t show it to anyone in that time and save it for me, I’ll come back and buy it. But don’t contact me or ask about it.” You gonna put that car in the garage and forget about selling it now? Only if you’re terminally stupid.

You as a writer and businessperson need to do what’s best for you and your business. That means you get that script right back out there and if this producer wants to buy it at a later date, she has to take her chances it’s still available.

You certainly don’t put it away in hopes the producer might come back. I can promise you, PROMISE YOU, that the same producer wouldn’t do anything close to this for you. No producer would.

Screenwriters sometimes forget that they are just like any other business trying to sell a commodity. You built/created something and now you want to sell it. That’s the whole idea, unless you want to make it yourself.

You are in the BUSINESS of screenwriting. You network to sell yourself as a writer and your scripts. You query. You work to get a manager or agent. To SELL your product. Not to give it away or take a bad deal because you’re desperate to have anyone make your script into a film or TV show at any cost.

Without a business mindset, you are a pigeon, waiting to be plucked by people in this industry who would love for all writers to think they are betting from a weaker hand. That the writer is in a perpetual subservient position in any negotiation or deal and should be grateful for anything they get. This happens all the time to writers who are fearful and desperate and buy this crap. Writers who don’t realize that they need to treat their work like a business and deal with it that way. Without the emotion that often gets in the way.

If you’re a good writer, you possess a valuable skill. If everyone could do it, there wouldn’t be a demand for good writers. There is. Good writers who understand what they have and treat it like the business it is.

Be confident in yourself and your business. If you have producers who want to talk about your work, it’s because they see value in it, and if you’re good enough to have that happen to you, you belong in that room with them. Not dealing from a weakened position because you’re fearful of them. I’m not saying you make demands that are unreasonable, but you act like you belong there and you’re ready to conduct fair and equitable business.

This goes for agents and managers, too. There is no need to feel you're in a weak position when dealing with them either. As a writer you’d don’t work for a manager or an agent, you work with them, like a businessperson.

It takes a while for most writers to get to this place. Every successful writer is there. Every one of them. They know their business is to think of great stories and write them down. A semi-rare commodity. And one that is valued. If you don’t think that way, start to. Learn to value yourself and what you have and build treat your writing as a business. You'll be amazed at how liberating it is.