Literary Agent Glenn Cockburn on What Gets Scripts Noticed
Summary
Meridian Artists founder Glenn Cockburn shares what decades of reading scripts taught him about what agents actually look for, and the mistakes that sink most submissions.
Most screenwriting advice comes from writers. Glenn Cockburn, founder of Toronto and Los Angeles-based Meridian Artists, sits on the other side of that equation. His job is deciding which scripts deserve to move forward, and his perspective carries the weight of a career that began in the mid-1990s as a script reader for New Line Cinema and Innovative Artists.
Before launching Meridian in 2005, Cockburn worked as a creative executive at Templeton Productions, which held a first-look deal at New Line, then spent several years at The Characters Talent Agency in Toronto. That foundation in coverage and development shapes how he evaluates the writers his agency now represents.
Cockburn recently sat down with producer Jesse Ikeman on The Business of Film Podcast to break down what that experience taught him. Early in his career, he would receive four feature scripts by courier each evening and was required to return full written coverage - synopsis, analytical comments, and a cover sheet - to New Line by 8 a.m.
He describes that period as essential training because the volume and pace forced him to identify and articulate precisely what was not working on the page. That skill, he suggests, is exactly what writers themselves need to develop.
Among the topics covered in the conversation are why the bar for writing samples has risen sharply in recent years and the three recurring mistakes agents encounter across submissions. The full discussion is available via The Business of Film Podcast on YouTube.
