British Comedy Guide

Payment

I maybe about to have my sitcom commisioned and I was just wondering how much, roughly, a new writer like myself would expect to be paid for it. The pilots been professionally made at the London Studios already so I've got a good solid start and you hear all these horror stories about artists getting ripped off and I just want to avoid that happeneing. I know it's not going to be mega bucks but any advice would be great

Cheers ears

I saw something somewhere that said it was around £4.5-£5.5K an episode. I will try to track the site down tonight/tomorrow morning.

What you get increases with your past successes

Regards

Ross

first of all congrats on getting a commission for your sitcom... what is it called and where should I look out for it?

Cheers for the reply, most useful. The sitcom is called Flattened and when/if it gets commisioned I shall post the news. I shall be setting up a website where you can view the pilot, details coming soon. Watch this space. (Although please feel free to make tea, don't feel obliged to watch this space 24/7.)

Congratulations.

I can't pretend to be an expert either, but from what I've read this is precisely the time to try to get an agent. It's when there's the prospect of making some money that agents are interested. And their contacts can be very useful in terms of getting future work, despite their 10/12/15%'s. The Writers Handbook and Writers and Artists Yearbook give details of agents. The Writers Handbook also gives details of who they represent, so you can work out more easily who might handle your kind of work.

Good luck anyway.

John

Ash - well done - I know you might think you're not there yet, but hell, you're a lot closer than some of us!!! And remember if the plot ever calls for a crowd scene of frustrated writers, give us a shout!

Congratulations.

It's good to know not everybody gets turned down.

Quote: Ash Bayliss @ January 23, 2007, 11:19 PM

Watch this space. (Although please feel free to make tea, don't feel obliged to watch this space 24/7.)

If the above is an example of the sense of humour employed in "Flattened" then I very much look forward to seeing the pilot.

I, having grown sick of all the reality T.V. currently on tele (I think "Change The Day You Die" and "Extinct" were the coup de gras for me) have decided to write a sitty too. I'm 4 episodes into it, having fun and haven't even tried to do anything with it yet (having too much fun writing it to get knocked back now). You must let me know the order in which things happened for you (and for the love of god explain what "no unsolicited scripts means"! - Has my script to sleep with a prostitute before I can send it to some production companies or what?).

Best of luck with it all.

-Kyle

I know I'm not the first but many congratulations on getting as far as you have and in answer to your question, try the Writers Guild: www.writersguild.org.uk

Wow, yeah, congratulations indeed. Very much looking forward to seeing it! And good luck getting it commissioned! :)

Congrats on getting this commissioned. May I ask how it came about, did you just send off a script to a production company, like many of us here are doing? Or did you go about it any other way?

I too would like to offer my congratulations and wish you good luck.

Nice one Ash.

Yes well done indeed and congratulations.

I'm sure that the Writers Handbook covers this somewhere, if not in the current edition then I have certainly seen it in past ones.

Well done again.

I'd echo John Kelly's point about getting an agent to ensure you can maximise your income and protect your 'baby'. Very hearty congrats! Look forward to seeing it.

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