The best readers in town.

The Coverage Ink team consists of 30-plus screenplay development experts. CI Story Analysts are the best of the best, both infuriatingly accurate and blessedly insightful with their story critiques.

All have years and some even decades of experience.

Our readers are skilled in different areas. Some are film-specific; others love TV. A few are terrific with editing and mark-up. Some are more indie and alternative structure-tolerant, while others are more by the book.

We always route your screenplay or pilot to a reader who likes and is skilled in that genre.

There is a text box on the order form, so when you submit your script, if there is any additional info you’d like to pass along to help us route your screenplay to the right type of reader, please let us know.

On our submission form, you indicate your genre, and then we route it to a reader who likes and has skills within that genre. And if you have any specific questions or concerns, just let us know.

Readers are identified on coverage reports by initials only. This is done to protect their anonymity.

Please go to Readers Bios page to read about some of the Coverage Ink Team.

 

 

Coverage Ink readers are put through a stringent selection process. Many readers from our competitors do not qualify to read for Coverage Ink. To read for us, a reader must:

>> Have a minimum of one year’s relevant experience working for a well-known production company, agency or management company with real projects

>> Submit three coverage samples which exhibit strong, clear writing skills, excellent grammar/spelling, and exceptional story analysis chops

>> Pass our Test, which shows facility (or lack thereof) with script mark-up/editing, identifying and solving common story problems, understanding of mythological and 3-act structure for screenplays, ensures they know their terminology and much more. Our test has about a 1 in 5 pass rate. (If you want to find out more about the test, shoot us an e-mail.)

>> Complete an unpaid full, test coverage report for CI, which is then evaluated by a CI Senior Associate. This report must nail the key problems in the script while also showing strong “bedside manner” –the ability to convey problems in a way that challenges and energizes a writer without demoralizing, humiliating or embarrassing them. Writers should feel empowered, never belittled. This must also be submitted on time.

Only if a reader meets all these criteria do they qualify to read for Coverage Ink.

 

CI PRO READERS

A small handful of our readers are elevated to CI Pro status. As of this writing, six Senior Associates are ranked CI Pro. They are the best of the best.

CI Pro readers read both standard script submissions as well as Pro submissions, but with the pro service they go super in-depth (generally around 16-20 pages,) coupled with thorough screenplay mark-up/editing (mark-ups may be done by hand or electronically, but generally we return these to you as a PDF.)

REQUESTING A READER

You are welcome to request a specific reader to reread your screenplay. For example, let’s say you loved ES’s notes and you would like to request her again for the next draft, please just e-mail us or indicate that on your order form when you resubmit (and don’t forget to tick the resubmission box to save!)

 

RESUBMISSION POLICY

We generally encourage fresh eyes on any resubmission. Even the best readers miss things, and a new reader will often find new problems or come at issues from a different angle. The more thoughtful feedback you can get, the better. Therefore, we usually will automatically route your resubmitted screenplay to a different reader unless you specify otherwise.

(Please note that if you change the title of the script, we may not know it’s a resubmission and thus might possibly send it back to the same reader just by luck of the draw.)

We allow one resubmission to the same reader within any 6-month period. It is in your best interest to get a second opinion; fresh eyes almost always catch things the first reader did not.

FOLLOW-UP POLICY

You may well have questions for the reader after receiving your coverage, or might wish to bounce ideas around with them. Awesome! Here is our policy on follow-ups:

>> E-mail follow-ups that take the reader ten minutes or less to respond are free.

This generally equates to up to a few questions. If it takes longer than this, our standard hourly rate of $89/hr kicks in (don’t worry, we’d let you know in advance if that is the case.)

Phone and/or Skype conferences are /hr. Please e-mail us to set one up. Most of our readers are happy to Zoom with you to discuss the coverage. This can be an invaluable aid in assisting comprehension of the notes and brainstorming ways around problems.

Obviously, when it comes to follow-ups, the sooner after receiving coverage, the better. If some time has passed, a reader may need to refamiliarize themselves with the material, and thus we may need to charge for reading time.

As well, if you send us new pages or rewritten scenes, we’re happy to evaluate them but again, we must charge for reading time.