Pro-tip: In terms of cold-emailing, go for big players first

Many writers don't bother shooting high but I think it's a real missed opportunity.

Small producers just don't have the bandwidth or resources to help most writers sending cold emails. They're operating on thin margins and tight slates. But here's the thing - bigger companies can actually afford to take chances, and even if the big producer passes, they might send it to their rising executive who's hungry for material.

I've got two real life examples of this:

When I needed distribution for a feature I was producing, I literally just cold-emailed 200 distributors on IMDBPRO. Only 20 replied, 15 said no, 5 were interested. But....it was the biggest distributor of all 200 who took it.

2nd example. I was looking to get my script into development with a prodco. Emailed nearly 100. Got 10 read requests. 2 from renowned producers. The reads are still in play but many smaller producers didn't reply or flat out said they can't.

I know of writers who have got signed at reputable places off cold emails too.

It makes sense when you think about it. Big companies / producers have the resources and slate space to take risks. They're not sweating the frontend and backend costs that would keep someone smaller up at night.

They have the infrastructure to actually do something with your material. Smaller producers are more likely to sniff around their immediate circle because that's all they can handle.

Just an observation