Screenwriting : Differences in Blacklist paid reader scores? by Stephen Thor

There is absolutely no consistency, uniform standards or training required by these readers. As a result, you're paying for totally worthless/pointless conclusions. Put your chips and spin the wheel.

I received an 8 on my first try. Excited, I bought a bunch more and got as low as a 5. Blacklist is a scam like every other service (including the paid pitches here S32!!!) that imply that paying them may help you sell your script. It is ALL a money game to rip off hopeful writers. NO CONTEST OR PITCH SERVICE WILL INCREASE YOUR ODDS OF SELLING YOUR SCRIPT. (I am as sure of that statement as I am of saying you can buy all the lottery tickets you can afford and will never win the big pot - I would be right 99.99999999...% of the time.) I am not saying you should never pay for services. Good education (workshops and classes) are worth paying for, evaluations of your writing can be worth paying for, paying someone to sell your script(a sales agent) may be worth it, all with the caveat that you make sure you are getting what you pay for and verify the credentials of who you are paying.

The Black List is a scam. Your story is the same as mine and many others. High then low or low then high. It is a complete joke and a rip off.

I met a writer, completely un-produced and never did a paid day of work in his life, who was offered a job reading for the Black List. He turned it down because of how ridiculously sad the pay was. The Black List does not have an army of readers that are qualified to do the job. Anyway, you are so much better off trying to directly pitch your work to managers/producers etc and sticking only to the very big name competitions like Nicholl, Page and Austin because if you place you WILL get reads. Even if one of my scripts was produced tomorrow, how does that make me qualified to read and judge all scripts? It doesn't. I have used two paid services in the past and they have helped me learn to write better but none of them are going to get you produced. None. The only way you'll get produced is if you write a script someone thinks they can make money off of or they have the money and freaking love it and MUST see it on film.

Thanks for the replies, they are all good, my favorite tho is the first one... "Welcome to Club BL WTF?! But the whole thing does give me an idea..

I'll create a website called "yourscriptWILLgetproducedorboughtguaranteed"! I'll dazzle the writer with the info that I have been the top senior executive producer for a major Hollywood studio for the last 45 years and I have ALWAYS have had scripts sent to be either bought outright, or at the very least optioned, IN EVERY SINGLE SCRIPT EVER SENT TO ME. I'll only charge $20 for the service. When I get his crappy script, I won't even look at it.

Instead, I will send them a message that says...

Are you sitting down? Because I showed your screenplay to Mr. Warner, Jr (whoops, how did THAT come out)?!, and he LOVED IT! Not only he is the only one I have to answer to, but he takes my recommendation on whether to option or buy EVERY SINGLE TIME I approach him with a script. He and I think your screenplay is beyond genius and he tells me that he will give, at a minimum, $60,000 to option or $600,000 to buy and produce (Mr. Warner, Jr., would give more but because you are an unknown he has to please his stockholders). He tells me that your script is DEFINATELY a buy and produce! Ok, here is the technical part... we all know that Hollywood is a game, a trick, mostly ignoring talented writers like you or underpaying writers like you. So we have to play the game and this is it... you send me $1,000 (in cash) right now to make it look like it takes money to make money (the Warners stockholders LOVE this concept), or else they will figure it's just another two-bit script by another two-bit unknown spec screenwriter. The great thing is that your script is PERFECT as it is... it is just that we have to "jump the Hollywood hoops" and play the game.

Looking forward to getting your payment asap so I can rush it to Mr. Warner Jr, who is in the office just beside me, because to tell you the truth, he is nagging me about every 20 minutes of every day about when can I provide him with your release form so he can move on the production THIS VERY SAME DAY!

I have included the release form in this email, and when you return it along with your $1,000 bucks to make it look legitimate and slow, I can go next door that your script is good to go and HE CAN FINALLY MOVE ON IT NOW!

Think of it like this... I got a strange feeling that he thinks this script is worth WAY more than just a measly $600,000 (dare I say low to mid 7 figures)?, and my boss is chomping away on your script WAY MORE than anything I've ever sent to him IN MY ENTIRE 45 YEARS OF WORKING WITH HIM!

btw, I can only take CASH because, as you know, this is how the REAL bigwigs operate (I mean, who wants to pay taxes, (including you) right PLAYER!? And you have to delete this email IMMEDIATELY after you get it, AND DON'T FORGET TO DELETE IT FROM YOUR TRASH EMAILS ALSO!. (after you copy my address of course)!. Send your CASH payment to: (you are going to get it back more than several hundred thousand times back...at the minimum... GUARANTEED)! Or your money back (don't worry, it has NEVER happened before... your screenplay is ALREADY IN THE CAN)!

Stephen Phensworth

POB 1125

HOLLYWOOD, CA 84574

Stephen, I love your honesty, and I feel the exact same way you do about where I'm at as a writer. After ten years of trying a LOT of different options for feed-back, notes, and breaking in (ISA, BL, Zoetrope, Contests with coverage options, tablereadmyscreenplay, etc), I've decided to just do Stage32. The pitch sessions and script consulting coverage options are just way way better. Keep writing!!!

I should have known better when I saw a featured screenplay on B.L. that was about a female's sexual relationship with her dog. I am not kidding. I think that type of script would appeal to only a very small niche of society, I just can't see a lot of people flocking to the theatres to see it. But it still beat mine as far as B.L. was concerned. But I signed up for two paid reads anyways so the fault is still on me.

This is a common theme with them. I've expressed my thoughts here. Waste of money. And there are threads elsewhere stating that their readers are college students.

Dan - Yeah, way under 5%, probably > 1%. Over the decades, I paid my WGA dues but the reality is that I never earned a living at it (I had a professional career to fall back on.) I know a few Actors, Directors, Showrunners... who do/have - but it's very few. My stints as Line Producer paid the rent but that's about all. And remember that when the series ends, you're unemployed once again. I think Stephen's rant about writing contests is very true and my advice to new writers is to not think of them as a door to the film industry - they aint!

Good comments, all. But you know you have (maybe) to try as many avenues as you can... query letters, contests, kidnapping a producer's daughter, putting your script up here or B.L., trapping a movie executive in the elevator or bathroom, threatening suicide on social media, whatever it takes. I think we all have ideas on how effective the different approaches are, and who is to say that nothing will ever happen? Or it just might come down to just plain dumb luck or being at the right place at the right time. I guess to even get in that 1% Doug commented about, you could consider yourself very lucky and hope your talent will carry you thru if you can't fake it because you got lucky on a fluke. Suffice to say that if I had to rely on any income from my writing, I would be dead within a week from starvation because I don't even have a dog to eat. btw, I finally finished my profile in case anybody was interested. I have been sitting on 81 network requests for some time now because of being discouraged from this hell of writing for money, but it is time to at least invite a few in. The kicker is that I think a lot of them are hoping THAT I AM THE GUY who can make it happen for THEM, boy, are they in for a surprise. I apologize for my earlier rant... it takes a big man to admit they made a mistake. I am not a big man.

I've never tried Blacklist as yet, but I have had something similar with regards to a screenwriting contest which gave four sets of feedback. Two completely didn't get it, and it wasn't an arthouse or avant-garde by any means. One person's feedback was so illiterate and poorly typed that I could barely make any sense of their poor mark. The only person who seemed on board and gave a proper response also scolded me slightly for not being braver with certain of the more 'difficult' aspects of the script.

I've tried a few avenues thus far, and I definitely see a lot of sense in what you're saying Stephen. Attempt all avenues, not sure about the kidnapping part. Although, that is a good story to start of with at a pitch meeting...from prison.

What are your guys thoughts on going the route of being more involved with the production side of things? i.e., if no one options or buys your scripts, would you ever consider trying your hand at it?

Aw A.S....you're just being kind, Only 95%? - I'd say closer to 99%.

Thanks Francisco, I pretty much got back from the 2nd reader to your point. I know my script is too complicated. I know it is too long on dialog. I am a realistic person. I know that in its present form, it will never get bought or optioned. Taking a fluffy cartoon story and turning it into a dark live-action monster-like movie is not something the studio would ever likely produce. But, believe it or not folks, I did not write it for the 100% intention of selling it or even 100% in the HOPE of selling it. I wrote it for myself, as a live-action movie had never (or not yet) been made yet of those two main characters, so I decided to write one. After Ironman 8 or whatever it is up to now and all the nonstop sequels to all the superheros or characters of the past, I felt it was time to write the first one for my favorite back-in-the-day cartoon heroes. Heck, even the Flintstones got made into live action.

Whether mine ever goes anywhere beyond where it currently sits is almost not important to me now. I've exhausted myself with it. At best, I could hope that it got optioned and then the studio could do what they wanted to do with it, because it was going to get ripped up and changed by the studio writers anyways to make it... wait for it... MARKETABLE! Just like just what happens most of the time to most screenplays that are actually bought or optioned. Mine is just not marketable in its present state. A shooting script can resemble little to what was actually originally wrote.

So, one might ask what the heck am I even doing here, and that is a reasonable question. The answer is THAT I HAD FUN WRITING IT, even if it ends up only being for myself. I simply felt that it was a story that needed to be told and I'm sure a real pro could do much better than my effort.

Besides, in its present form, even if the sun fell out of the sky and it got optioned or bought, the studio would rip it to shreds and it would be barely recognizable from its original state. My favorite example is the original movie "The Producers" (the one with Gene Wilder I think was in it) in which the unrepentant Nazi wrote the "Springtime for Hitler" play. He got so upset sitting in the audience because the play he wrote bore little resemblance to the final draft that the producers changed it into to make sure it bombed.., or so they thought. To me that was funny as hell.

I appreciate your offer and I would be a fool I am sure not to take you up on it, and maybe I will if my attitude improves, but I eventually got tired of screwing with it all these years. I must have had it evaluated on different levels 6 times paid (last two were thru B.L.) already and I took the good and ignored the bad. Some of the readers were good and some were terrible and that is not because I didn't like what they said. Thanks to you and all the rest who had comments. This thread is getting a little off-topic thanks to me, but right or wrong, stupid or smart, I felt that I had some explaining to do and I wish everyone luck and fortune and to all who wrote comments, I thank all of you... Stephen

p.s. I guess that the 2nd B.L. reader was right... judging from what I just wrote here, I do have the tendency to go on and on! Ok, back on topic if anyone has anything to add...

ok, to hell with sticking to the topic then, it had received enough comments from people who already had the B.L. comment, so out of respect and courtesy I will address your comment Francisco. It is hard almost to know where to start, but I know in any case you mean well.

However, I think that you may have made some assumptions that were not exactly correct, and no doubt that is due to what or how I had written. But consider this...

You wrote that "if you want to keep writing for fun OR take screenwriting seriously"...

I do not believe that screenwriting is an either or situation... that one has to choose between writing for fun or taking screenwriting seriously. I think it is possible to have both fun and take screenwriting seriously at the same time, like many other jobs out there. If you can't have fun with what you are doing, then the job, while it may be productive and even profitable, but as for personal gratification, it is pointless, if not meaningless altogether. At least that is my view, however incorrect it may be, that if you cannot have fun with your job, then what is the point of going on with it? Just to pay the bills, if nothing else? I know many in this group and I pity every one of them.

To say otherwise about my position, especially about "or taking screenwriting seriously" is both incorrect and presumptuous and that may be because of how I chose my words. Regardless, you do not have a detailed account of all what I have done in order to forward my story, so to imply or assume I do not take screenwriting seriously is an incorrect one, regardless of your basis for saying so. I may have gone about it the wrong way... that I fully admit.

However, to your point, which is correct, I must admit that I was lying to myself when I wrote that a studio would not ever likely produce it (at least in its present form). Otherwise, I would obviously never would had wrote it if I truly felt that was the case. I was influenced by and based my comment by what the 2nd B.L. reader had mentioned in this regard. I have an open mind, which is to say that I may or may not immediately take a comment to be true, but after some reflection decide that it is true... or not. I close no doors or suggestions until I am reasonably sure it is ok to do so. And yet, I could still be in error. Mistakes take up a large portion of my life, as in others in a lessor or more degree. And I am not saying that you are incorrect factually, my personal viewpoint is that of my own, which is open to fault, and I am not arrogant in a manner in that I am always right, that I must be right, despite the opinions of more experienced writers other than myself, of which you obviously fall into that category. As far as the B.L. reader goes, it appears that he or she had been viewing my script as a "Action Comedy, of which it is nothing of the sort. I tried to transfer the reader's remarks to here but have been unable to do so and perhaps it is just as well because my goal here is to interact with you and not put a vain emphasis on my script. Anybody who wishes to read it merely has to go to my page, where I put it up under "loglines". The link to the script's website is also there, but this is a discussion thread, not one of promotion

I do agree with you about screenplays as being technical in nature and your earlier comments and I thank you for them and your offer. It is possible that if I had put as much work in the script (it is my personal view that I did, believe me) as in the website and building several machines for the screenplay that things may have turned out differently. I attended no seminars, no workshops or actively engaged in any in-person workgroup or interaction venues, I entered no contests, etc. I am not sure that it is practical for every writer to do so. Nevertheless, no doubt if I had, the script would be better or at least more "marketable". I have had great difficulty on getting an agent based on the premise alone, and this is with potential agents who had not even have read the script and I must have sent at least a hundred queries to agents if I sent one. My script does not fall into the same and simple animated comedy venue as the cartoons did and I believe it will be a great challenge to successfully write it differently AND make it a commercial or otherwise marketable success. This is not impossible! I only put my heart and soul into it, listened to whatever advice or comments that the many personal or commercial treatments offered that I had paid for, put it up on Amazon Studios, Kindle, listened to stage 32 and other screenwriting venues and some other efforts.

I am more than willing to admit that to have done more as far as personal interaction with screenwriting groups, etc. could not have hurt. In any case, at this point, I am exhausted with it after five years and I wish to move on to a different venue in my life and put no more further work into it, and am content for now just to leave it on Black List forever. I am not under any illusion that such a lame or stagnant strategy will produce any results. But by chance if a miracle happened and the script did get attention from the right people I would again put my heart and soul back into it. I just wish that SOMEBODY, ANYBODY could make the first-ever live action, non comedy, non animated movie about the pair because I think that, with the right write with a lot of talent and luck and with the right agent or manager that it would be a huge success.

Ok, I did not mean to write a manifesto or any kind of mea culpa, just wanted to clear the air. And if anybody wants to get this thread back on topic as far as your B.L. experiences, be my guest. I want nothing but the best for all of you and wish this entire group nothing but luck in realizing your dreams, whatever they may be. Listen to the more experienced and produced members on this board and, like one of my main characters, NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR GOAL, and I am sure you will make it.

Stephen Thor

I wouldn't over think the black list. I had a script score an 8, and recently score a 4, which was kind of shocking. The website is a resume tool- if you score highly, you can use that to get your script read, but if your script scores low, I'd just pull it and either rewrite based on notes or submit something else. But what I wouldn't do is buy more evaluations- they can add up and before you know it you've spent 300 dollars on reviews just hoping SOMEONE will give it that 8. Don't do it. Take a step back, work on your script, work on something else, and submit it after you feel like you've made it as strong as you can. If a script scores an 8 or more- that's awesome and you should be proud. If it scores a 4, and then a 7? Let it go. And def don't give them more money.

Dan, that is truly an inspirational story. I checked your profile and saw your very extensive amount of experience and production credits and productions. It almost floored me. It appears you wrote from the heart and did not depend wholly on outside experts to make all that happen. Had you gone that A-B-C steps of what we are often frequently told MUST happen first to have your scripts and productions work appears to defy the norm, and could even possibly have self-sabotaged the intent and stories of your own work, if I am getting the point of your comment correct I would also expect that to go your own natural way and not get caught up in a complex and sometimes seemingly and frustrating traditional methods was a major key to your benefit, to say the least .

It is very impressive for one who has not gone thru ALL the hoops that some advocate that multiple certain steps that MUST be done first to have a marketable screenplay. Altho there are those who may hotly contest that without the endless jumps and hoops others must go thru first to make it, to those I would say THAT YOU CANNOT ARGUE WITH (MULTIPLE) SUCCESSES! Also, the point you made "Nobody knows what will sell or when it will happen" in equally infallible and the point is well taken. I have noticed that formatting is also a key part, altho no wise producer is going to turn down a brilliant script because of minor formatting issues.

Congratulations on your many bought and produced accomplishments. I would advise others, if they have not done so already to visit your profile and see for themselves. As I said, it is truly an inspiration and path that others here may want to consider.

best regards... Stephen Thor

btw, that is my real name. it is a four letter word and easy to remember. More people have that name for their dogs than for people.

Bill, I have no intention of getting another read on B.L. I am curious to see what the fee, if any, might be if I had clicked on "the reader boned me" option. As I had already mentioned, I was offered a $40 discount because of the disparity in my two scores. I am going to click on that on the first read and see if that too coincidently also is a $40 discount, but in reality I would not invest another plug nickel on another read, especially from what I have read here, the comments from others like yours was a real education... B.L. appears to just vultures preying on new roadkills. Good real-world advice.

For what it's worth- an 8 or higher can get your script read by potential managers. Elusive and hard to get? Oh yeah, but they are possible.

So this is a little off topic: my child submitted some essays on line that were part of a standardized test. They said they were read by REAL people. She received her "scores" back within minutes. Definitely too fast for several people to read and review her essays. She was given a neutral score. The above post made my mind go straight to what happened to my child...... how can we trust any feedback at all? Just Saying......

With the onward march on Artificial Intelligence, we should all be concerned. Human input may be subjective, but at least we're all on a level playing field with that. Scores generated in seconds by a machine? No thank you!

Even if the average score is low, an 8 or above is "reader endorsed", which does mean something. Don't expect to sell your script or get a deal through the BL, but a endorsed script can open a few doors. I don't speak from personal experience, but a friend of a friend had this very thing happen and was able to get a manager to read their work based in a BL blurb.

Casey these pay-for-reading sites exist only plump up egos and scoop up your money. You can not trust the 'feedback' you receive at all. Just keep your money in your pocket.

There are those that say that B.L. paid reviews are little more value than the mass query-blasting methods of inktip... and I am of that opinion, but if you read inktip's propaganda, why, the sky is the limit, right? I have always said it depends on WHO the reader is and how seriously they take both you and them and their responsibilities are as a reader... as I have previously mentioned, the 2nd reader of my script had obviously READ THE WHOLE THING, and altho he or she was a little off on what the genre was... a dark comedy? who said anything about it being a COMEDY at all... not me. The reader was obviously based on the traditional roles my main characters had made into legend, but he/she did have some valid points to make in any case. I think you just have to take the good, if any, from the bad and make up your own mind. But, as again I had already pointed out, my screenplay got beat out on B.L. from a featured writer whose screenplay was about her sexual relationship with her dog, for crying out loud. Not exactly a rush to the theatres in that very narrow niche, but hey, there is no shame from going straight to dvd! Or getting optioned to where your screenplay will sit for decades in a file and never or may never see the light of day ever again. You are likely never to pose on the red carpet. But there are a few examples of those that have been produced by a talented studio person, who, over time, revisits the deal pool file of screenplays, dusts one off and it is made into a giant of a profitable production. Just don't expect B.L. to be an automatic path to production or agents should you reach the "8th" level of hell.

I paid good money ($150 )for a coverage service and got a terrible analysis that constantly referred to my movie genre incorrectly numerous times as a 'submarine thriller' (too bad no submarine in it), talked about scenes that were not in it, gave no feedback on character arcs or other important considerations and was written with spelling errors. I wrote back and complained. I was accidentally CC'ed in email between reader and manager of coverage service. Reader said he was up all night doing a uni assignment and was tired when he read my script and he said he'd be happy to give the $20 back! So that's 20 for reader, 130 for manager.

But I have had good helpful honest coverage from coverage ink. Found them very helpful.

I don't chase coverage, but I use coverage ink and I also have a well respected, well credited producer who I also use and that is it. Sometimes they concur with their feedback, sometimes they contradict, but they both provide a very good service and allow me to unpack and develop my script where required. End of the day though, I still need to stick to my conviction of the film I want to write while taking on board industry comments. It's a tightrope.

Coverage will rarely get you a sale on its own. Most coverage services only recommend 1 in 5000 scripts to an exec or studio. Coverage just gives you the best chance of having your script read from start to finish by someone by ensuring your script is as polished as possible

To tag Dan- he's totally right. The thing about the blacklist vs other coverage sites is that the blacklist isn't always as helpful with their notes and the coverage is short, so yes, you do have something you can show "bosses" if the coverage is good, but if it's bad, it isn't always super helpful when it comes time to do a rewrite. I think the best approach is to have 2-3 people read your script to get notes, then use another site before taking it to the black list or subbing it to contests. Using the black list as a tool to get notes may seem less expensive at 75 a pop, but it adds when you start buying 2-3 reviews for a script that needs a ton of work. You're better off spending 1-200 dollars on a site that'll give you 5 pages of notes, and you're def way better off just finding like minded people here to trade scripts with.

So what I am getting out of your comment Bill is something along the lines of "you get what you pay for". I agree. I have spent upwards of $200 or more on reads that were very helpful, long, obvious that the reader was inside my mind, read the entire screenplay and, above all, was COMPETENT. Such a more immersion coverage can or may give you much more and much better results, I guess to state the obvious.

Pete... I love submarine movies! Maybe the reader was taking some unauthorized or unwanted "literary license" and individual interpretation with your screenplay, adding in the submarine in their own mind and then making the sub an actual part of your story? Sorry, just kidding, but it is really odd that your "submarine" story does not have a submarine in it at all. Ok, the reader said he or she was tired. Does this mean that the reader confused your screenplay for another one that DID have a submarine in it, I wonder.

I DO like gladiator movies, but I don't hang around the gym, I have seen a grown man naked. But seriously, I was wondering what the response B.L. has if you check on the "the reader boned me" link. Do they offer a complete refund or a free re-read? Apparently not, at least in your case. I will click on that link for my first review and see what they do. I WAS offered, without any input, complaint or anything from me because of disparity of scores between the two reads, a discount of $30 for yet another read! wow!

One thing happened at the time that I did not think much of at the time but now I am starting to wonder about. Although I paid for TWO reads, my script got downloaded 3 THREE times by a paid B.L. reader. The first reader did not think much of it, and that is fair because I did not think much about the reader. So, it got downloaded again for the second review. A little time went by and then my screenplay got downloaded, for the 3rd time, by a paid B.L. reader and this is the higher scoring review that I got.

I am beginning to smell a rat. Why did the initial 2nd reader either pass on the read or scoring after downloading the script, if that is what happened. Or did the 2nd reader read it and gave me a lousy score as well, and B.L. either saw it or their system is RIGGED to create or otherwise only allow a disparity scoring and it would then be passed onto a 3rd reader who would give me a higher score regardless, and because of the disparity of the two scores, B.L. would then automatically generously offer me another read at a "discount". I'm beginning to think that this was a sort of organized hide-the-shell game in order to induce me to pay for yet another read. Or maybe I am just conspiracy theory minded. Or maybe nothing of the sort happened.

I let myself get really wrapped up in what I thought the black list was. I thought- if I can score an 8, I'll sell my script, etc. Or I'll get representation. If I score anything less, I'm not good enough. The black list does exactly what it says it does, nothing more, nothing less. People complaining about it being a rigged pay for play website are frustrated because they didn't score highly, or if they did, the high score didn't get them representation or sell their script. But the website doesn't claim to do these things. It just claims to put your script on a database where it can be downloaded by industry professionals.

I've had my script downloaded 16 times. Not one of those downloads led to a follow up. But the black list doesn't promise anything more than making my script available and placing it in a prominent space on the website if it scores well and is trending. It didn't rip me off- I ripped myself off by convincing myself that this was the path to having a career in film. It simply isn't, though I am sure there are a small handful of people that will tell you wonderful stories about how they started on the black list and are now in the midst of a film deal. There are also a lot of people that have played and won the lottery.

My one gripe with the black list is that it does misrepresent itself as being a site where X number of black list scripts have been made into films. While this is true, it suggests to a new script writer without representation and not living in LA that it is possible to post a hot script and have it made into a movie. That is, of course, possible, but that isn't at all a representation of the scripts that are often made. Many of the black list scripts are by writers who already have managers and agents. They're already in the system and the black list is just another tool to them. But for someone like me not familiar with the industry, I see this introduction to the black list like this- X amount of scripts have been discovered HERE and been made. Your script could also find a home through us.

Just like the lottery ticket says- FIVE PRIZES OF 100,000$

Yes. I COULD win 100,000 if I play. But I probably won't. And I can't be mad at the lottery for that. I can only be mad at myself when I spend X amount of dollars thinking I'll get that special ticket.

The romantic story of produced Black List scripts often ignore all the other leg work, connections, and the often consistent fact that a number of these writers are already immersed in the industry. And this is in the context of this particular website attracting writers from outside of LA looking for a way in because we assume we too can get on this list and somehow have careers. It is NOT a way in. It's just another tool.

A friend of mine sent me a link regarding The Post and how it was "discovered" on the black list. It was not. The person who wrote The Post was already involved in the industry, had a manager, etc. The Black List may have elevated its exposure and provides a proof of concept that this is a good script, but I don't believe for a second that the producer randomly found this script on the black list and bought it any more than I believe a scratch off will have 100,000 dollars on it. And this is the one thing about the black list I don't like- it presents itself much like the lotto ticket does.

Do not buy a ticket until you've gotten your script tight. And even then- don't buy another ticket when the first one shows you a big fat zero.

I do, and I know the difference- but many amateurs don't understand that difference and put down a shit load of money with dreams of getting on that list. I myself didn't fully grasp the difference until later. I think a lot of new writers approach the website with the same confusion, often times spending 3-400 dollars on evaluations. They can hardly blame the website for that, but the black list could be more transparent about what that list is vs what the website is.

Transparent is the wrong word- lets say, "clearer".