Expert: Chris Brown - 1/20/2011

Question
Dear sir, suppose as a script writer, you have written a 5-volume story.

Then, what should you send to a prospective artist or a publisher?

I mean, if you just send a 2-page summary, then it may not be enough to convice people that your dialogue and pace are good.

On the other hand, if you send the whole first volume (say, 100 page), your ideas can be stolen. This will be very frustrating especially if you are a novice writer.

My sincere thanks,

Answer
Dear Fan,

Publishers are not going to be interested in reading a 100-page story from an unknown writer.  In fact, they probably won't read a 5-page story.  Your best bet is really to write a short story, say 5 to 10 comic book pages, so the publisher could squeeze it into a magazine that needs a few more pages of material.

Whatever you submit, you should start out by sending in a 1 to 2 page summary.  You should also include a cover letter, and you can certainly let the publisher know in your cover letter that you have already written dialogue and further detail.  However, the initial decision is really going to be whether the story idea itself is compelling.

Chris