Interested in selling a script? Screenwriters interested in selling a screenplay will need to gain business management knowledge and an entrepreneurial mindset. After all, you are a creative freelancer marketing yourself and your script products. You must be business minded to make money and succeed as a screenwriter. First of all, you need to understand the importance of a SWOT analysis as far as screenwriters are concerned. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT analysis is what you should create for every screenwriting project and long-term goal you have in mind.

Let’s say your long-term goal is to sell a script. This is a fairly simple goal that all new writers have. So you have to ask yourself, “What are my strengths as a screenwriter?” Write down all the strengths you have that make you a worthy and marketable screenwriter. These could be his writing skills, creative imagination, passion for movies, the connections he has, and any support systems that give him an edge in business. This will let you know what he brings to the table early on. So what you don’t have as strengths will end up on your next list, which is your weakness list. If you’re a new screenwriter without an agent or connections, then you’ll put him on your weakness list. You could also list personal weaknesses associated with your writing skills and personality, such as poor grammar, poor punctuation, missing deadlines, antisocial behavior, and anything else you think hurts your chance of selling a script.

Opportunities are something any freelancer should pay attention to. As a screenwriter with a desire to sell a script, you will look for outside opportunities and opportunities that you can create for yourself. Of course, paid gigs are what you’ll have in the beginning to gain experience and build a list of connections. But you don’t want to write other people’s stories and ideas forever. Eventually you will want to create your own opportunities by selling your own script and being an entrepreneur to do it. This will give you more ownership and control over your own ideas. Not only that, the earning potential is much higher. So what you want to do is write down all the opportunities that you currently have in the business, such as the places or people that you know can give you work.

Next, you want to write down any opportunities you have to branch out and sell a script. This could include the names of festivals, investors, producers, and contacts you have. You may find some of these related to your strengths. But the difference is that you have to ask yourself questions about your ability to find opportunities. Ask yourself: “Do I network?” “Am I researching every opportunity out there?” “Do I constantly promote myself?” Sometimes you can be good at these things, but you just forget to do them for whatever reason. So asking yourself these questions can act as a reminder of what you need to do for sixteen all the possible opportunities that are out there for you.

As for threats, this is a bit different than weaknesses. Threats to sell a script are basically all the possible problems you could face as a screenwriter. Some of these threats could be lack of funding, money depletion, writer’s block, idea theft, and lack of paying jobs. After making this list, ask yourself how you will overcome these obstacles if you face them. Which of your strengths will help you overcome these threats? Which of your weaknesses allowed these threats?

How can these threats to sell a script be turned into opportunities? For example, if the threat you’re facing is that you don’t have paying gigs available, this will give you the opportunity to work on your own script idea instead of writing a script based on someone else’s idea. If your threat is writer’s block, then perhaps you could take a break from writing and focus on self-promotion and marketing. This is the kind of mindset you should have when analyzing your threats. And now that your SWOT analysis is complete, you can refer to it as you try to set your original long-term goal of being a successful screenwriter.