Your Screenplay Coverage is Lying to You

By Raquelle David, Founder of New Story Entertainment, Literary Manager & Producer. Paid subscribers get access to me via chat and deeper dive Thursday articles, upgrade now!

I’m going to say something that will make a lot of people in this industry uncomfortable.

The screenplay coverage you paid for? It’s probably lying to you. The notes you got from your writers group last week? Also probably lying to you. And the friend who read your script and told you it was brilliant? Definitely lying to you — not maliciously, but lying to you nonetheless.

I know that’s hard to hear. But after nearly twenty years in the biz and a decade as a literary manager, I have watched too many talented writers make career decisions based on feedback from people who have absolutely no skin in the game — and I am done staying quiet about it.

The Coverage Problem No One Wants to Talk About

Here’s the thing about screenplay coverage that the coverage industry doesn’t want you to think about.

The person writing your notes is not a current buyer. They are not a studio executive. They are not a producer with a first-look deal. They are not a financier. They are not a development executive. There not in a position or power to greenlight anything.

They are someone — wanting to make money from you with no professional obligation to tell you the truth and every professional incentive to make you feel good enough to come back and pay for coverage again.

I am not saying coverage readers are bad people or that their notes are not without some merit. Not at all! I am saying the structure of the coverage industry does not reward honesty. It rewards repeat customers.

And the result is that writers walk into meetings with me citing their coverage as evidence that their script is ready — when the coverage has told them almost nothing about whether their script will actually move in the market.

Here is something else coverage cannot tell you: whether your script is right for this moment. A script that gets great coverage today might be completely wrong for the market in six months — and vice versa. Coverage is a static read of a document. A manager’s notes account for what’s moving right now, what buyers are actively looking for, and what the competitive landscape looks like at this specific moment. Coverage readers don’t have that context and cannot give it to you.

The Writers Group Problem is Even Worse, Don’t Come @ Me.

I want to talk about writers groups because this one frustrates me even more.

Writers groups serve a real purpose — community, accountability, the discipline of showing your work regularly. I understand why writers use them and I am not dismissing that value.

But here’s what I need you to understand about the feedback you get in a writers group:

Your writers group friends are not the people who are going to take your script out to market. They are not the ones who are going to pick up the phone and call a producer or a studio executive or a financier. The weight of getting your script sold, made, or produced is not on them. It is on you — and eventually, if you get there, on your manager.

So when your writers group tells you a script is great — what are they actually measuring it against? Their own taste. Their own experience. Their own aesthetic. Which may have nothing to do with what is actually moving in the market right now.

I have had writers push back on my notes by saying — but it didn’t bump for my writers group. And I want to be very clear about what that means to me as your manager:

It means nothing. Respectfully — it means nothing.

My notes are not always creative notes. Sometimes they are not even about making the script better in a traditional sense. Sometimes they are specifically about making the script more accessible, more commercial, more enticing to the buyers I know are in the room right now. That is my job. I know what might bumps for producers, for development executives, for studio readers, for financiers. Your writers group does not.

The Spec Script Trap

I want to say something specifically to television writers because this one matters.

Many writers use coverage to validate writing a spec of an existing show. And coverage services will happily take your money and give you notes on it. But here is the honest truth: TV specs of existing shows are largely dead as a calling card. Nobody is reading them. Nobody is hiring writers based on them the way they once were. I think perhaps a couple Fellowship applications ask for them, otherwise they’re kinda redundant.

A working manager would tell you to write an original pilot instead. A coverage service will just give you notes on your spec and send you on your way — lighter in the pocket and no closer to where you want to be.

The Red Flag to Look Out for if You’re New to the Business

I want to say something about a practice that is unfortunately more common than it should be.

If a producer or development executive ever asks you to pay them for notes on your script — run.

Not walk. Run.

No legitimate producer with actual buying power charges writers for creative feedback. If someone is asking you for money in exchange for notes, that is not a professional relationship. That is exploitation dressed up as opportunity.

Coverage services are a legitimate business — people make careers out of reading and evaluating scripts and there is nothing inherently wrong with that industry. My issue is not with coverage as a profession. My issue is with writers treating coverage passes as meaningful market validation when the person giving the coverage has no power to buy, produce, or finance anything.

The distinction matters. Paying a coverage service for a read is one thing. Paying a producer for notes on a script they claim to want to make is something else entirely — and it is a serious red flag.

Do not give producers money for development or notes on your script. Ever.

The Social Proof Trap

One more thing I see constantly that I want to address directly.

Writers sometimes collect coverage passes and present them as a portfolio of validation. Three coverage reports saying your script is great is not proof that it’s ready. It’s proof that three people who had no professional stake in the outcome said nice things.

Real validation looks different. A manager requesting your full script after a cold query. A producer asking to option it. A competition placement from a respected organization. A fellowship acceptance. These are the signals that actually tell you something real about where your work stands in the market.

Coverage is not that signal. Don’t treat it like it is.

So What Feedback is Actually Worth Your Time?

I want to be fair here because I am not saying you should never get outside feedback on your work. Because you absolutely should share your work and get it out there. I am saying you need to be ruthlessly honest about whose feedback actually moves the needle.

Here is the feedback that actually matters:

A working writer in your genre who has sold something recently and understands what the market is responding to right now. Not a writer who wrote something five years ago — a writer who is actively in the room.

A manager or agent who has agreed to read your work because they are considering you for representation. Their pass is enormously valuable data even if it stings. Understand why they passed. Ask if you can.

A development executive or producer who is genuinely interested in the material and is giving notes because they want to develop it. This is the only circumstance in which a producer’s notes carry real weight.

Your own instincts — developed through reading scripts obsessively, watching films and television constantly, and understanding the market you are writing for. The most commercially successful writers I know have a finely tuned sense of what works that came from years of consumption, not from coverage notes.

What to do Instead

Here is a specific and actionable list of what I would do instead of paying for coverage:

Read fifty produced scripts in your genre. Watch everything in your space. Submit to legitimate screenplay competitions, labs and fellowships — the reader feedback is genuinely useful and comes from people who understand the market. And if you genuinely want paid feedback — find a working manager or agent who offers genuine consultations, not a coverage service. The perspective is completely different because the market knowledge is completely different.

And One Other Alternative

I want to say something about AI coverage because writers have started asking me about this.

Using Claude or ChatGPT for a structural read of your script? Genuinely not a terrible idea — not because AI understands the market, but because it will give you an honest structural analysis without the social anxiety of trying to keep you as a paying customer. It will tell you if your act breaks are off, flag repetitive dialogue and point out structural inconsistencies.

Is it the same as a working manager reading your script? No. But it is more honest than coverage from someone with a financial incentive to keep you coming back.

What I Actually Want For You

I want screenwriters to stop spending money on feedback from people who have no power to move their careers forward — and start investing that time and energy into the things that actually create heat.

Write more scripts. Read more scripts. Watch more films and shows in your genre. Apply to all the things. Build relationships with other writers who are actively working. Show up in the industry before you have a reason to.

That is how careers are built.

Not through coverage. Not through writers group validation. Or scores on TheBlackList website. Through the relentless, unglamorous work of becoming a writer whose voice is so specific and whose material is so undeniable that the market cannot afford to ignore you.

Your script deserves honest feedback. Make sure you’re getting it from people with the professional credibility and the market knowledge to actually give it to you.

One More Thing

I want to be transparent about something before I close. I have done script consultations myself in the past — through various paid platforms — where I read scripts and gave notes as a working manager. And I do think there’s a meaningful difference when a manager or agent does this kind of work. Our perspective is fundamentally different from a coverage reader’s because we know what’s actually selling, who’s buying, and what executives are responding to right now. Those notes come from real market knowledge — not a template.

But I no longer offer those sessions as what’s missing is almost never the writing itself. What’s missing is strategy. Positioning. A clear understanding of where you fit in this market right now and how to get your work in front of the right people at the right moment.

That’s what a one-on-one conversation with me looks like. Not notes on your dialogue, structure. A real strategic conversation about your career — where you are, where you want to be, and the specific moves that will get you there.

If you’ve been sitting on this — if you’ve been spending money on coverage that isn’t moving the needle and wondering why nothing is changing — this is the conversation you actually need. For a limited time I am opening my books for 1:1 career consultations, you can book here:

And as a reminder for paid subscribers, my Thursday articles go deeper — specifically what I look for when I read a new script and what actually makes me want to take it out to market. You can upgrade your subscription here: