How Not to Find an Agent – And Lose Your Script at the Same Time

Q: So have you heard about the writer who got his screenplay blown up with a bomb?

A: This isn’t a joke.

Apparently an aspiring screenplay writer left his script in a locked briefcase in an L.A. agent’s offices Friday. The agency called the police about the bag, and, following protocol, they blew it up.

To make matters worse: he’d left his laptop in the briefcase, so that’s gone, too.

You can read the full story here in the New York Times.

This poor guy broke a pile of rules related to finding an agent:

1. he (apparently) hung out at the agency and made a pest of himself.
    
2. he hand-delivered his manuscript (which can be okay if the agent requests it – apparently, no agent requested this writer do so)
    
3. he caused the employees in the office to be suspicious-enough – even frightened enough – to call the police to investigate
    

I have to wonder why he left his laptop along with the briefcase. It’s a new “thing not to do” on my radar.

(Really, it’s common sense, isn’t it, to keep your laptop and offer an agent a copy of your manuscript?)

In my book, this trumps sliding your manuscript to an agent underneath a bathroom stall door.

I don’t think this guy is stupid, he’s probably desperate, and uninformed. He should have done his homework. There are tons of sites on the internet devoted to helping writers get published.

Have you ever done anything — or known anyone else to do anything — so uninformed in a search for an agent?