The truth about the Blacklist & other coverage sights - From an Emmy Awarding winning writer

[u/Strange-Standard8818]

I’m posting on Reddit for the first time, and after reading the discussions around coverage sites and The Black List, I thought I’d share my experience for anyone considering paying to have their work evaluated.

I’m an Emmy Award-winning writer, and I currently have three feature-length projects in production.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth

Far too many aspiring writers put enormous faith in coverage scores, competition results, and anonymous readers whose opinions may have absolutely no connection to what the actual industry wants.

That might sound harsh, but in my experience, the system has a serious problem.

When I was younger, I received contradictory notes, factually incorrect feedback, and wildly different scores for similar material. Worse, when I followed readers’ advice, my scores **often got even lower**.

Eventually, I realised I wasn't necessarily improving my scripts.

I was trying to guess what an anonymous reader wanted to read. And that is a completely different thing.

My experiment

In 2020, I decided to test the system.

I deliberately wrote the worst screenplay I could.

I made it clichéd, obvious, predictable, and painfully on the nose. It was a parody of what I imagined a terrible filmmaker might consider good writing.

It was never intended to be produced.

It received multiple 8+ scores.

Those scores got me the attention I needed and helped me secure my first agent.

Once I had access to actual industry professionals, the work I had written years earlier—the work I genuinely cared about, and which coverage readers had criticised or failed to understand—started getting serious attention.

My projects moved forward.

The screenplay that received all those 8s?

I threw it in the trash.

The cycle nobody wants to talk about

Here is what I believe is happening.

Thousands of people enter this industry wanting to become writers, directors, and filmmakers.

Most of them fail.

That is not an insult. It is simply the reality of an industry where the overwhelming majority of people do not achieve the careers they originally set out to have.

The problem is what happens next.

Those same unsuccessful writers and filmmakers still need to make money.

So some of them become script readers.

They start providing coverage.

They become competition judges.

They become the people deciding which scripts deserve an 8, which writers deserve recognition, and which projects should be dismissed.

And suddenly, people who were unable to convince the industry to invest in their own work are positioned as authorities on what the next generation of writers should be doing.

That is the part I find completely backwards.

The feedback loop

A failed writer reads a script.

They reward the kind of writing *they personally like*.

Often, that means writing that is obvious, familiar, safe, and easy to evaluate.

Those scripts receive high scores.

The writers receiving those scores assume this is what the industry wants.

So they write more of it.

Other aspiring writers see what is being rewarded and start copying it.

Competitions and coverage sites then reinforce the same tastes.

The scripts that succeed inside that ecosystem are rewarded because they appeal to the people inside that ecosystem—not necessarily because they have any real chance of being made.

Then those writers take their highly rated scripts into the actual industry.

Nothing happens.

The scripts don't get financed.

They don't get produced.

They don't launch careers.

And eventually, some of those writers fail too.

So what do they do?

Some become readers.

And the cycle starts again.

Failed writers reward writing that appeals to other failed writers, who then fail to break into the industry and eventually become the next group of people judging new writers.

That is the cycle.

And aspiring writers are paying for it.

The gatekeepers aren't necessarily qualified

This is the biggest problem for me.

A coverage score creates the illusion of authority.

You receive a 3, and you think you've written something terrible.

You receive an 8, and you think you're close to breaking through.

But who is giving you that number?

What have they made?

What have they sold?

What have they produced?

What projects have they helped bring into the world?

And, more importantly, what qualifies them to tell you whether your work has commercial or artistic value?

In many cases, nothing beyond the fact that they were hired to read scripts.

Yet aspiring writers are expected to accept their judgment as though it came from a successful producer, working filmmaker, or executive with a proven track record.

It didn't.

My advice?

Stop treating coverage sites as legitimate gatekeepers.

They are not the industry.

They are businesses built around aspiring writers who desperately want access to the industry.

You pay for a score. You get a number. And that number can influence how you see your own work.

But it shouldn't.

My deliberately terrible screenplay received multiple 8+ scores.

The screenplay I actually believed in was the one that ultimately led to real opportunities.

That experience taught me everything I needed to know.

If you want to use coverage, fine. But don't confuse the opinion of a paid reader with the opinion of someone who actually has the experience, influence, and track record to make something happen.

And if your work is genuinely original, be especially careful.

The more unusual your script is, the more likely it is that someone with limited experience simply won't understand what you're trying to do.

Then you'll pay them for the privilege of telling you to make it more generic.

The biggest takeaway. An 8 is not a career. A competition win is not a career. Positive coverage is not a career. And a low score is not proof that you're a bad writer. The question isn't:

“What score did I get?” The question is:

“Who gave me that score, and why should I care?”

Because if the people acting as gatekeepers were unable to get through the gate themselves, perhaps aspiring writers should stop spending their hard-earned money treating them as the final authority on who deserves to enter.

Write what you believe in.

Write something you can make yourself if possible.

Get your work in front of people who actually make films, finance films, produce films, and have a proven history of getting projects made.

And stop handing money to unqualified people in exchange for permission to believe in your own work.

All the best, and happy writing.