Making it in Hollywood: Are you in the game, or trying to get in the game?
I was recently asked by a very talented 18-year-old aspiring Country Western singer whether she should try to...

The Secret to Opening Doors in Hollywood is a practical guide to the one skill that determines whether your work gets read or ignored: how you introduce it.
Drawing on more than 30 years as a literary agent and producer at the William Morris Agency, Creative Artists Agency, and his own boutique agency, Marc Pariser explains how industry professionals evaluate ideas in seconds and why access begins long before a script is read.
This book is not about writing better scripts. It is about creating clarity, curiosity, and professional positioning through effective loglines and strategic pitching. Written for writers and filmmakers navigating today’s entertainment industry, it offers a clear, insider perspective on how careers actually move forward.
This chapter establishes a hard truth most writers avoid: writing is only half the job. Selling is the other half. Marc explains why loglines are the single most important tool for opening doors in Hollywood and why the first 15 seconds of any interaction determine whether a career moves forward or stalls.
Marc lays out his background without hype. From agency mailrooms to William Morris and CAA, this chapter explains how doors actually open from the inside. It shows how he learned to introduce himself, his clients, and their projects with precision, brevity, and honesty, and why those same principles apply to writers today.
This chapter explains the real motivation behind the book. Marc addresses a gap in most screenwriting education: everyone teaches how to write scripts, almost no one teaches how to get them read. Drawing on decades of pitch meetings, representation, and packaging experience, he explains why this missing step is where most careers fail.
Before getting tactical, Marc defines the language of the business. Buyers, loglines, pitches, leave-behinds, packaging, agents, managers, and sales are clarified so readers understand how professionals actually communicate. This chapter sets a shared vocabulary so the rest of the book stays practical and grounded in real industry behavior.
Marc offers private, one-on-one consultations focused on career strategy and industry navigation.
(3 sessions minimum)
These articles will help you make better decisions, ask better questions, and navigate your career with clarity.
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View my interview with Nancy Fulton on pitching, career strategy, and navigating the entertainment industry.