Query Letters Tips, Dos and Don'ts.

(Stolen from a screenplay forum.)
Since as a producer I am inundated with query letters I thought I would offer some tips. Take them for what they are worth, they are only my opinion.
I do read nearly all queries and pass on 98% of them. Here's what keeps me from requesting 3%.
1.) If you don't live in town, don't let on until after they read andliked the script that you live in New Mexico or New Jersey or wherever. An out of town client makes life tougher for the agent/ manager and unless your in the top 1% of screenwriters it will hinder an agent's ability to get you a job - and him his ten percent of your fee. There is a huge bias against out of towners so try not to tip your hand. Similarly, don't tell me your in your forties, fifties or, eek!,, sixties.
2.) Tell the reader something interesting about yourself - but only ifthere is something interesting to say. Telling the reader you went to Yale or Harvard or UCLA appeals to another industry bias towards name brand schools. Don't tell me you went to Cal State Long Beach or some college I've never heard of before. If you have something in common with the reader, that you share a hometown, or school, or mutual friends, use it. If you have had six scripts optioned by two-bit producers, again, don't tell me. It means you have had your shot. Written a NYT best selling book? Let me know.
3.) Don't fake a referral. Ever.
4.) Don't tell me you are "auctioning off" your script. You're not.You are simply trying to get somebody to read it. Similarly, don't tell me you are "looking for a producer to partner with." Just because you have a name for a production company doesn't mean you have one. Finally don't send me a fake follow-up letter in hopes that I think I misplaced the script and will ask for another copy.
5.) Keep your query short.
6.) Nobody cares if you won a screenwriting contest. Sorry.
7.) Don't bother soliciting spec TV pilots. TV is driven by a writer,his career and his body of work. It is not at all like the feature business where any joker with a good script can get his foot in the door.
8.) Give me a bulletproof logline. Short and sweet.
9.) Don't send a script unless somebody requests it.
10.) If offered the chance to send in your script, sign the releaseform or don't. It is not a document to be negotiated.
11.) Don't send coverage on your script because I will assume it waswritten by you.
12.) Don't tell me about how other production companies liked it. Ifyou are emailing me that just tells me that somebody I probably know passed on it.
13.) If I don't respond to your query, that means pass.
14.) Don't list my films which you admire. IMDB is free,
15.) Don't stalk me.
16.) Don't stalk me.
17.) Don't tell me you have spent the past year working on the script.This is L.A. where first drafts take twelve weeks.
18.) Don't use a goofy font. Or emoticons. Or any color other thanblack.
19.) Don't query for unpublished or self-published books. If you thinkunrepped scripts are bad...
20.) Don't let me know you are available to meet. Yeah, no ** youare available to meet...
21.) Try not to come off as obsequious and don't thank me for readingyour email.
All this being said, I've bought and sold more than fifty studio films. The first one was a script I requested from a smart query letter.