Thread by @DavidHSteinberg

This discussion of “rolling it over” reminds me of the maxim Even guaranteed money isn’t guaranteed until it’s in your bank account. And here’s why…

https://twitter.com/davidhsteinberg/status/1459930024375578624

Long story short, when things go south they can always ask you to accept less than the guarantee, roll it over, accept 50c on the dollar etc. And as discussed above your ability to say no depends on your relationship and power.

And counterintuitively, sometimes contingent deals can be better than guaranteed ones. Here’s why: you sell a tv pitch to a studio. They offer you an if/come (contingent on selling to network) deal. Not as good as a guaranteed “sale” right?

Usually yes. A sale is pay or play and that’s better than if/come. But often you’ll get a bump on your quote on an if/come because you’re taking a risk. So they compensate you for agreeing to contingencies. You sell it to the network your deal becomes pay or play and you get >$.

What happens on your guaranteed studio sale if it doesn’t sell to the network? Maybe they’ll let you write it “on spec” and you get paid. Maybe they say roll it over. Either way you’re kind of in trouble because the network already passed.

So sometimes the if/come isn’t so bad because in success you make more money and in failure the guaranteed deal becomes not guaranteed and/or a quagmire. Sometimes.

Also a failed if/come disappears and you can retool and pitch/sell it in the future. A sale to a studio where no network bites effectively kills your project forever.