I know! I'm pretty sure the London Screenwriters' Festival in London won't do that. You know the screenwriters' festival in late October? Or to be precise 29-31st October. More details in my signature.
Oh and I think Raindance and Euroscript will be there too. So its worth going to tell them about your issue, Griff. 
I agree, the volume of spam these companies send out shows no degree of subtlety whatsoever. You should check out this company I've just started working for, Industrial Scripts.
We're www.industrialscripts.co.uk
There's some pretty useful tools up there and, yes, we do have a newsletter (sorry in advance, ha) but it's actually full of useful info and comes out something like once a month. Check it out.
Spam in a thread on spam ain't kosher, it ain't even Halal,
I think you should take it as a fairly good indicator of what most competitions/courses are mainly about.
Making the organisers money, first.
Making you a better writer, ninth.
(And that's the good ones.)
Approach all with caution.
Quote: Lazzard @ September 8 2010, 4:20 PM BSTI think you should take it as a fairly good indicator of what most competitions/courses are mainly about.
Making the organisers money, first.
Making you a better writer, ninth.
(And that's the good ones.)
Approach all with caution.
I wouldn't say ninth. In a lot of cases organisers know they need to make it the best possible course(s) possible to beat off competition and make sure people keep coming back. A little bit too cynical, that. There are genuine teachers involved in some of these who do want to teach.
Having met all the London SWF team (of which most are teachers with actual credits!) I've seen that they've just been focused on getting the best event possible - for writers.
Ok so it's a job and a major income stream for most of them.
But most of the goodies like Dave Cohen and Euroscript are genuinely commited.
I think the awful spam is mainly down to the organisations that front for them. Euroscript is especially bad.
Quote: ContainsNuts @ September 13 2010, 9:07 AM BSTI wouldn't say ninth.
I only said it because it sounds funnier than second.
Or fourth, for that matter.
Possibly the funniest of all the ordinal numbers, IMHO.
Though "twenty-seventh" gives it a run for it's money.
Quote: sootyj @ September 13 2010, 10:39 AM BSTOk so it's a job and a major income stream for most of them.
I wouldn't even say that. Some people do it as part of their income but very few do it as their sole job. I've been to quite a few courses and a couple of festivals and don't feel exploited at all.
My only rule, and its a personal one, is make sure the teacher is someone who actually has credits in their field of writing. Not that, someone with no credits can't teach writing. Just in my experience you get a very text book approach to writing with lots of rules. Whilst, experienced writers give you advice, tips and tricks that have worked for them. Plus, you get their 'card' and then 'know' someone in the industry.