Hey Everyone…
If you listened to Episode 18 (and I know you all have) you’ll know that Cheryl and I talk about the new Blacklist Site (www.blcklst.com). In the show we talk about longtime listener Adam’s experience. We’ve had a followup from him and thought it would be best to share it with all of you.
Here’s what he wrote…
“I check in daily to see impressions, downloads and ratings. I’m at 35 impressions, 16 downloads and I just got my 3rd rating (but no review). A shitty 6. So my avg is 6.66. But it answers my question: Could I get ratings without paying for them. That would be a yes. My one-month ends Dec 4. I think I’ll splurge for the extra month and ride it out till Jan 4. If I get no interest by then, I’ll call it.”
I asked him, in a follow up email to explain how things worked and the break down of cost. Here’s what he sent back…
So I bought 2 reviews at $50 each. I’m in for $125 total, the cost of 2-3 contests. But I’m already getting the prize: execs reading my script. A decent rating seems to put the word out and more people look at your logline. Interested parties download it. Now that I know that people who download and read it will also rate it (hopefully higher than a shitty 6), I really don’t need to buy any more reviews, because it’s really the rating # that attracts (or repels) potential readers. It’s just a matter of when do I pull it down?”
I’m glad he pointed out that his cost was minimal or at least comparable to the average contest, which unlike a contest, you get constant feedback… even if it’s in the form of a rating. Something way more valuable then a letter at the end of it all saying you didn’t win.
As Cheryl and I talked about though, and in no way am I disrespecting The Black List site, it IS this week’s flavor. If you want to get involved…do it now before it just becomes a traffic jam of scripts that wouldn’t get past the worst of pitchfests.
Know what I mean?
We’ll keep you posted and Good Luck!
Breakin' In! 
Thanks for the timely (and thorough) update!
Thanks guys for providing feedback regarding the Black List site I previously querried you about. I believe you’re right with giving it more attention now vs. later since they currently have around 5,000 scripts uploaded. I have paid for one review and may try for another to beef up my rating average. Obviously higher ranked scripts get more downloads. I read earlier this week that rated scripts are at 5 median average with a 1.9 variance. 45% of all scripts submitted world-wide are from, you guessed it, CA.
My 51 “impressions” doesn’t get me too excited but the 4 downloads still gives me hope that someone will give my script a decent, non-shitty rating. It’s been a month. I agree with Adam that it’s the cost of a contest with better odds of a real payoff. They claim to have better readers but it appears from comments I received on my purchased read that the person got two of my characters mixed together then tanked my dialogue score. Yikes. People on other sites also mentioned some possible QC isssues.
The thing that concerns me is when they see no industry cred in your profile info after reading a logline that did get their attention, how much does that factor their decision to download your script? Franklin Leonard agreed with me regarding my decision not to state in my profile info that my script made the finals in two contests. “They don’t care.” Which is consistent with what you and others I follow have told me. In that case, I plan to spend my contest fee money in the future somewhere else like for “aspirin” the next time I go see Cloud Atlas.