As you grind in your career for the next years and decades, you are going to have divas and idiots hate on you and your projects.

This one time I submitted my screenplay to a coverage service that will remain nameless. Not only did my script get an ultra low rating, they basically said it was a piece of crap.

The next thing you know, I submit the same exact script to a producer who wants to option it for six figures and adapt it for the Chinese market.

It’s definitely annoying. I have no idea if that coverage service did “justice” to my project. Yes I paid who knows how much money to most likely have an intern or assistant supposedly give “coverage” to my script.

Now, there are legitimate companies that will give you great feedback on your script. You just need to be careful and do your research.

By no means am I Aaron Sorkin or anything, but I definitely felt that the rating of my script was not fair and didn’t have any meat in the notes to back up the low rating.

There’s a scarcity mindset in our industry. Due to the fact that only a finite amount of projects get greenlit, other writers and filmmakers will be jealous of your success.

And for these festival and coverage readers, who are most likely failed writers or filmmakers themselves, feel the only way they can rise up is by tearing others down.

Whatever the scenario might be, you will always have these bullies nagging on you and your projects.

What are you going to do? Talk back? Lash out on Facebook? Nope…

You are going to put the biggest smile on and let your work and success do the talking.

While you’re moving up in you career they’ll remember who you are.

They’ll remember how they rejected your script or screening.

They’ll hope that their boss doesn’t find out how they passed you up.

But of course, that will be up to you to decide.

If you haven’t signed up for Genre Summit yet, you can do so at the link below.

– Shant Yegparian