Screenwriting : The Black List by Robert Gill

How much did it cost, may I ask? I'm on there but everything is so vague...

Yeah the blcklst is vague and that's by design. They are hoping that people will confuse the Blacklist with the blcklst. They are two different things.

$30 per month to host it. $100 to get a professional read and score

$100?! Heck no - way out of budget for me... but I do hope you get good feedback!!

Good luck with your screenplay on The Black List !!

Blacklist should not be used for coverage, or be in a writer's toolbox. It's not designed that way. It's a system that allows a writer to gauge where their script might fall industry-wide. The only one that really benefits is the multi-millionaire owner, Franklin Leonard. High scoring scripts are not a superhighway to success that Blacklist self-believes.

Beside that limitation, the vastly underpaid writers hastily skim scripts for a paltry sum. It's part time 'Mad Money'. Their notes are frequently incorrect, ill-advised or half-baked. There have been many instances where the same script has been awarded both an 8 and a 3. Taste is taste, but that's beyond the pale. A script deserving a rare 8 should not also stand as a POS 3.

Also, AI has been creeping in though Leonard swears on his mother's grave this does not go on.

An anecdote about AI. A writer friend received Blacklist feedback spit out by AI. They complained and offered pages of proof. They sought either a refund or another eval. Nope, nope, nope said Blacklist support. The writer sent a refund request to their CC provider who agreed it was definitely AI and refunded the $100 fee.

Caveat emptor. Blacklist sucks money from writer's pockets with a crevice tool. All a writer is left with is lint.

BTW, anyone know where we can find an independent book editor and translator who works closely with authors who want their manuscripts to feel polished, professional, and truly ready for readers?

@E Langley - spot on! And no, unfortunately I only know of someone who loves working with authors, especially those who are passionate about their stories but want a professional eye to help bring everything together!

E LANGLEY - You just shot into my hall of fame. I LOVE honesty and you just dished it up nice and dirty. This is a very emotional moment. There is hope for humanity.

Michael David, thank you. Guess we're both joking about the same spammer?!

David Taylor, oh my. You're giving a poor girl the vapors. Thanks. It's a dirty industry some time.

E Langley brought up the part most people skip past. The AI problem with evaluation services is not about one bad reader. It is structural.

When you pay readers low rates to turn around hundreds of scripts you have already built the conditions where AI fills the gap. The economics invite it. And detection is harder than people think. A skilled user produces notes that read like a thoughtful human take.

What concerns me more is what happens next. If platforms start using AI to pre-filter or triage submissions before a human ever reads them then writers are paying to be screened by the same tool they could use themselves for free. That is the real leverage shift and nobody is talking about it yet.

An answer to that: write to satisfy both AI and human. AI scans for keywords and common storytelling patterns most scripts should already have.

The advice used to be "Don't write for readers." That still applies, and it's difficult to do anyway given the range of human response. As noted, AI is not the same. There's a parallel with resumes. AI scans them for keywords. If you know these trigger words, and they apply to you, would you not use them to reach the goal of landing a job.

When a script is done, run it through AI for an initial analysis and rating, then a really good human reader. Armed with all that, the writer has a choice whether to edit or not, and in what directions.

When a game is rigged, outwit it. Recall "The Terminator" when Sarah Connor said "You're terminated, fucker!"