I'm getting a lot of questions and comments on my latest piece against working on spec. Here's a question from Roger Belkin…
I completely understand your point that many offers to work on spec lead to auditioning for a non-existent job. However, let's say you have a chance to submit to a solid company for a real opening. Let's say it's DC Comics. What's wrong with writing something and letting them add it to the slush pile?
Well, for one thing, it's called a slush pile. Would you see something wrong with it if they called it the garbage heap? When you get into that pile, you've probably already lost. Ideally, you'd like the folks at that company to think of you as someone whose work rises above the level of those who wind up in that stack.
Also, the pile of cold submissions does not get a lot of attention in any office. The folks with actual hiring/buying capability rarely wade through it, instead using that task as busy work for interns when there's absolutely nothing else for them to do. It could be months before they get to your submission. And I don't know who does it now at Marvel — or even if anyone does — but there was a point where the staffers there assigned to look at those scripts were folks who wanted the real writing jobs for themselves. They sure didn't want to find someone wonderful in that stack of competitors.
Yeah, once in a while, someone submits something that way and it leads to a real job. It happens so infrequently that I wouldn't count on it.