THE LAUNCH PAD COMPETITIONS, IN EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH ROMARK ENTERTAINMENT, ENERGY ENTERTAINMENT AND INKSHARES, ARE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS FOR THE 2020 LAUNCH PAD MANUSCRIPT COMPETITION!

We were thrilled to return to the world of manuscripts this year, and discovered so many amazing projects perfect for publication and adaptation. We want to thank our industry judges and partners for their hard work in making these selections, and we also want to thank all of our finalists for sharing their truly remarkable writing.

After months of reading, we are now proud to announce our Overall Winner, Top Comedy Winner, Top Drama Winner, Romark Entertainment Guaranteed Option Winner, Energy Entertainment Guaranteed Signing Winner, Inkshares Publishing Selection and the three Launch Pad Mentorship Winners.

Congratulations to our winners and to all of our finalists. If you’re looking to view all Top 100 finalists from this year’s competition, you can find the complete list on Coverfly here. Want to receive a notification when the next season opens? Sign up for reminders via Coverfly here.

Overall Winner

Top Comedy

Top Drama

Romark Entertainment Guaranteed Option Winner

Energy Entertainment Guaranteed Signing Winner

Mentorship Program Winners

Alongside our exclusive competition partners Romark Entertainment, Energy Entertainment, and Inkshares, we are thrilled to announce the Top 10 Finalists for the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.

Make sure to check back for further announcements! Those, and full details about the competition so far can be found here.

(As a reminder: If you entered into the Mentorship Program, or signed up to be part of the Guaranteed Signing or Guaranteed Option prizes, regardless of making the Top 10, you are still in contention for those prizes. Those winners are selected from the entire pool of submissions separately from the finalist rounds, and will be announced alongside the winners)

Alongside our exclusive competition partners Romark Entertainment, Energy Entertainment, and Inkshares, we are thrilled to announce the Top 25 Finalists for the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.

Make sure to check back for further announcements! Those, and full details about the competition so far can be found here.

(As a reminder: If you entered into the Mentorship Program, or signed up to be part of the Guaranteed Signing or Guaranteed Option prizes, regardless of making the Top 25, you are still in contention for those prizes. Those winners are selected from the entire pool of submissions separately from the finalist rounds, and will be announced alongside the winners)

Alongside our exclusive competition partners Romark Entertainment, Energy Entertainment, and Inkshares, we are thrilled to announce the Top 50 Finalists for the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.

Make sure to check back for further announcements! Those, and full details about the competition so far can be found here.

(As a reminder: If you entered into the Mentorship Program, or signed up to be part of the Guaranteed Signing or Guaranteed Option prizes, regardless of making the Top 50, you are still in contention for those prizes. Those winners are selected from the entire pool of submissions separately from the finalist rounds, and will be announced alongside the winners)

Alongside our exclusive competition partners Romark Entertainment, Energy Entertainment, and Inkshares, we are thrilled to announce the Top 75 Finalists for the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.

Make sure to check back for further announcements! Those, and full details about the competition so far can be found here.

(As a reminder: If you entered into the Mentorship Program, or signed up to be part of the Guaranteed Signing or Guaranteed Option prizes, regardless of making the Top 75, you are still in contention for those prizes. Those winners are selected from the entire pool of submissions separately from the finalist rounds, and will be announced alongside the winners)

Alongside our exclusive competition partners Romark Entertainment, Energy Entertainment, and Inkshares, we are thrilled to announce the Top 100 Finalists for the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition.

Make sure to check back for further announcements! Those, and full details about the competition so far can be found here.

(As a reminder: If you entered into the Mentorship Program, or signed up to be part of the Guaranteed Signing or Guaranteed Option prizes, regardless of making the Top 100, you are still in contention for those prizes. Those winners are selected from the entire pool of submissions separately from the finalist rounds, and will be announced alongside the winners)

THE LAUNCH PAD MANUSCRIPT COMPETITION RETURNS!

Welcome to the 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition! The competition that has led to more signings, success stories and careers than any other is proud to announce the return of our manuscript competition for a third year of searching for the most impressive, cinematic and captivating prose from emerging writers.

The Launch Pad Competitions have led to more than 450 signings, 164 projects set up, 68 writers staffed, 7 bidding wars, and 156 appearances on annual best of lists such as the Black List, Blood List, Hit List, and the Young & Hungry List. Over the past seven years, we’ve watched our Launch Pad writers go on to work on blockbuster franchises and Emmy-winning series, craft New York Times Bestsellers, and set up dozens of projects well beyond their original Launch Pad entries. Now, we’re ready to steer the next great wave of success stories and help you launch your career!

HOW IT WORKS

So, what do you need to enter? Well for starters, you don’t need to have a 500-page manuscript ready to go. In fact, you don’t need to have ever written a book before. With the entertainment and publishing worlds more aggressively moving to acquire book partials over the past years, we’re instead inviting you to submit up to 50 pages of your best prose (including a minimum one-page synopsis). Show us your best work, hook us with your best cliffhanger, and give us an idea of where your story will go following those opening pages. You can, of course, submit 50 pages of a book you’ve already completed, but there is no requirement to have a completed book to enter. So, if you simply have an idea, have always wanted to write a book, or simply need a deadline to get your work done by, give us a shot, and see what we can do for you.

INKSHARES RETURNS AS PUBLISHING PARTNER!

We are thrilled to announce the return of Inkshares as our exclusive publishing partner for the 2020 Manuscript Competition. Inkshares is committing to publish at least one, and up to three, books from this year’s competition.

The more than 40 projects set up and 12 books published from our first two manuscript competitions include multiple collaborations with Inkshares, such as: the Bram Stoker Award nominated KILL CREEK, set up with Showtime, Scott Derrickson and Misha Green, MR. & MRS. AMERICAN PIE which sold to Platform One with Laura Dern attached, THE MAGUS WORLD set up with Michael De Luca, HUMAN, ANEW with Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox, and THIS RED FIRE with Stampede Ventures, Greg Silverman and Freddie Skov.

With dozens of titles in bookstores since their launch just a few years ago, Inkshares is a powerful force in the publishing world and has become a major hub for Hollywood to discover new talent as well. Past successes include the sale of Tal M. Klein’s THE PUNCH ESCROW to Lionsgate and J.F. Dubeau’s A GOD IN THE SHED, which is being developed for television with Skydance and Akiva Goldsman.

A PERSONAL TOUCH

For most competitions on the market today, whether win or lose, the finish line usually comes with a brief blog post announcing winners on the competition site, immediately followed by a new competition turning on. For us, that is not even close to enough. Our focus has always been on discovery and elevation. We go to great lengths to ensure those who make any finalist rounds with us are given attention far beyond a blog post. We not only advocate for all of our finalists, and work closely with them to fine tune their project, presentation, and additional works, but we also feature all of our finalists in our highly regarded Launch Pad Alum Booklets, our industry released announcements, and our annual Spec Book, Hit List and Young & Hungry Lists.

Additionally, we work with every finalist to prepare you for what comes next -crafting your additional works and navigating the series of meetings that inevitably follow, whether representation meetings, pitch meetings or generals. We track every read received through the competition, and we share all of this info with you, working to be sure you put your best foot forward every step of the way.

A CLOSER LOOK AT OUR JUDGES

As always, our judging panel features 25 heavyweights from across the industry, featuring representatives, producers and executives with experience in features, television and for our manuscript competition, publishing. With judges from companies such as Anonymous Content, CAA, UTA, Chernin Entertainment, Good Fear, Paradigm, Verve and more, we are proud to present an elite jury representing the power players of Hollywood and beyond.

GUARANTEED OPTION PRIZE

This year’s Guaranteed Option partner is Romark Entertainment, who have set up multiple Launch Pad scripts around town, including MARIAN at Sony and Pascal Pictures and MATRIARCH at Paramount. From our past Manuscript competitions, Romark is attached to KILL CREEK, set up at Showtime with Scott Derrickson attached and MR. & MRS. AMERICAN PIE, which is set up with Laura Dern and Platform One.

As in previous competitions, our guaranteed option partner will select a minimum of 1 project from this year’s competition to option. To be eligible for the guaranteed option prize, all entrants MUST select the “Guaranteed Option” add-on at time of sign up.

GUARANTEED SIGNING PRIZE

Continuing the Launch Pad’s long tradition of helping writers to gain representation, with more than 450 signings to date, we are thrilled to announce this year’s Guaranteed Signing Partner as Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment.

A close friend of the Launch Pad Competitions since the beginning, Brooklyn has been a judge for every competition to date and Energy Entertainment has signed more than two dozen Launch Pad writers over the years. One of the most prolific spec-selling manager/producers in Hollywood, he has been a part of many Launch Pad script sales and his clients frequently feature on major year-end lists such as the Black List, Hit List and Young & Hungry List. His clients include feature writers such as Rob Liefeld (DEADPOOL), Brad Ingelsby (RUN ALL NIGHT, OUT OF THE FURNACE) and Mark Mallouk (BLACK MASS), as well as TV creators such as Mickey Fisher (REVERIE and EXTANT) and Anthony Cipriano (BATES MOTEL). We could not be more excited for this partnership!

As in previous competitions, our guaranteed signing partner(s) will select a minimum of 1 writer from this year’s competition to represent. To be eligible for the guaranteed signing prize, all entrants MUST select the “Guaranteed Signing” add-on at time of sign up.

LAUNCH PAD MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

As a part of our mission to help writers get their start in the industry, the Launch Pad is proud to offer exclusive mentorship opportunities for writers to learn from those who have been there before and have insight on the process of breaking in. For our manuscript competition in particular, navigating the worlds of publishing and film rights make this sort of guidance even more essential. That is why we are thrilled to have three former Launch Pad Manuscript writers on board to serve as mentors for this year’s competition, to share their experience and insight on the process.

Our first mentor this year is Chase Pletts, whose Launch Pad manuscript THE LOVING WRATH OF ELDON QUINT is set to be published by Inkshares in January 2020. As a screenwriter, his projects have been featured on both the Hit List and Black List, and he was the 2017 Cinestory TV Fellow.

Also on board as a mentor this year is Juliet McDaniel, whose first novel MR. & MRS. AMERICAN PIE was the Top Comedy in the 2016 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition. The book is currently in development as a TV series with Platform One Media and Laura Dern’s Jaywalker Pictures. She also wrote the script for the indie rom-com QWERTY, and has worked extensively as a script reader and story editor.

Our final mentor is Scott Thomas. He is the Stoker-nominated author of KILL CREEK, which reached the Top 10 of the 2016 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition and was selected by the American Library Association’s reader committee as the top horror book of 2017. His second novel, VIOLET, was named by Library Journal as one of the Best Books of 2019. He is the creator/executive producer of Disney Channel’s RANDY CUNNINGHAM: 9TH GRADE NINJA, BEST FRIENDS WHENEVER and RAVEN’S HOME. Scott was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work on R.L. STEIN’S THE HAUNTING HOUR and a BAFTA for MALIBU RESCUE.

As in previous competitions, each of our mentors or mentor teams will select a minimum of 1 writer each from this year’s competition to mentor. To be eligible for the Launch Pad Mentorship Program, all entrants MUST select the “Mentorship” add-on at time of entry.

REAL NOTES = REAL FEEDBACK

Continuing with our commitment to giving writers as many ways as possible to get a leg up, we’re thrilled to announce the return of our Feedback Notes Program. Rather than receiving a few vague disconnected sentences or paragraphs from other coverage services or competitions out there, we’ve struck a deal with our professional readers (reading for places such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Sony, Paramount, Universal, Anonymous Content, Circle of Confusion, CAA, UTA, Paradigm, Skydance and more) to provide 1-2 pages of in-depth notes on your competition entry. With an emphasis on initial thoughts, opinions and analysis, get an inside look at what is usually a behind-the-curtain process, and get our readers’ perspectives on the story, characters, marketability, and ideas for where the story could go. Was it a page-turner? Did we want to see more of a character? Was the dialogue believable? Get the actionable notes and insight you deserve.

Launch Pad Manuscript Competition Prize Levels

The Launch Pad Competition is focused on identifying, discovering and helping launch the careers of our writers. Whether you make the quarter-finalists or win it all in any of our competitions, we work with you to help polish your work, prepare for meetings, craft you pitch, identify your follow up projects, and prepare yourself for anything that comes your way on the journey to becoming a professional writer.

(As a reminder, if you select any add-ons at time of entry, regardless of where you place in the competition, you will still be in the running for those add-on features.)

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• You will be invited to our annual Launch Pad Party celebrating you and the other Launch Pad Winners of the year. This will be an exclusive industry event centered on showcasing and honoring you and your work, while also introducing you to agents, managers, executives, producers, and other creatives. This is a private guest list event tailored toward our winners from the year, and including some of our previous judges, mentors, partners and past Launch Pad Alums. Each winning entry will be reimbursed up to $500 USD for airfare to Los Angeles. Event date is TBD.
• You and your project will be showcased individually to agents, managers, executives, and producers who are looking for new clients, projects, and writers. We specifically curate a meeting list for each winner based on their individual material, and what you, the writer, want to achieve now and in your career overall.
• You and your project will be featured in both our individual Launch Pad Competition Booklet, as well as our Annual Launch Pad Alum Booklet, both of which are shared with our industry network and beyond, including agents, managers, producers, executives and other creatives seeking new material and clients.
• Your project will be announced on our sites and via press release and industry newsletter via The Tracking Board, Launch Pad, and our partners to more than 100,000 readers and industry members worldwide.
• Your project will be featured in a special Launch Pad section of our annual Hit List, Young & Hungry List, and Spec Book.
• Your work will be read, reviewed, and voted on by each of our 25 esteemed judges.
• You will receive a free 1-Year Membership (or extension) to The Tracking Board.
• You will receive 1 free entry into any future Launch Pad Competition of your choosing.
• Lastly, you will be invited to join our Launch Pad Community of over 700 writers who came before you, where you can meet those who came before you, ask questions, work together, and network with a group of smart and passionate people who started in the same shoes you’re about to step into.

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• You and your project will be showcased individually to agents, managers, executives, and producers who are looking for new clients, projects, and writers.
• Your project will be announced on our sites and via press release and industry newsletter via The Tracking Board, Launch Pad, and our partners to more than 100,000 readers and industry members worldwide.
• You and your project will be featured in both our individual launch Pad Competition Booklet, as well as our Annual Launch Pad Alum Booklet, both of which are shared with our industry network and beyond, including agents, managers, producers, executives and other creatives seeking new material and clients.
• Your project will be featured in a special Launch Pad section of our annual Hit List, Young & Hungry List, and Spec Book.
• Your work will be read, reviewed, and voted on by each of our 25 esteemed judges.
• You will receive a free 1-Year Membership (or extension) to The Tracking Board.
• You will receive 1 free entry into any future Launch Pad Competition of your choosing.
• Lastly, you will be invited to join our Launch Pad Community of over 700 writers who came before you, where you can meet those who came before you, ask questions, work together, and network with a group of smart and passionate people who started in the same shoes you’re about to step into.

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• Your project will be announced on our sites and via press release and industry newsletter via The Tracking Board, Launch Pad, and our partners to more than 100,000 readers and industry members worldwide.
• You and your project will be featured in both our individual launch Pad Competition Booklet, as well as our Annual Launch Pad Alum Booklet, both of which are shared with our industry network and beyond, including agents, managers, producers, executives and other creatives seeking new material and clients.
• Your project will be featured in a special Launch Pad section of our annual Hit List, Young & Hungry List, and Spec Book.
• You will receive a free 1-Year Membership (or extension) to The Tracking Board.
• Lastly, you will be invited to join our Launch Pad Community of over 700 writers who came before you, where you can meet those who came before you, ask questions, work together, and network with a group of smart and passionate people who started in the same shoes you’re about to step into.

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• Your project will be announced on our sites and to industry members via our Tracking Board and Launch Pad newsletters.
• You and your project will be featured in both our individual launch Pad Competition Booklet, as well as our Annual Launch Pad Alum Booklet, both of which are shared with our industry network and beyond, including agents, managers, producers, executives and other creatives seeking new material and clients.
• Your project will be featured in a special Launch Pad section of our annual Hit List, Young & Hungry List, and Spec Book.
• Lastly, you will be invited to join our Launch Pad Community of over 700 writers who came before you, where you can meet those who came before you, ask questions, work together, and network with a group of smart and passionate people who started in the same shoes you’re about to step into.

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Guaranteed Option Exclusive – Partner To Be Announced

• A Minimum of 1 project will be selected from our exclusive development partner to receive an option agreement for their Launch Pad project.
• To qualify for this prize, entrants must have selected the “Guaranteed Option” add-on when submitting their project.
• This prize, as with all add-on prizes is not decided upon by placement in the competition. Regardless of whether the project entered makes any finalist round, your project will still be in contention for this prize until the competition ends.

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Guaranteed Signing Exclusive – Partner To Be Announced

• A Minimum of 1 writer will be selected for representation by our exclusive signing partner(s).
• To qualify for this prize, entrants must have selected the “Guaranteed Signing” add-on when submitting their project.
• This prize, as with all add-on prizes is not decided upon by placement in the competition. Regardless of whether the project entered makes any finalist round, your project will still be in contention for this prize until the competition ends.

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Our Exclusive 2018 Launch Pad Mentorship Program – Mentors To Be Announced

• A Minimum of 3 writers (1 per mentor) will be selected by our mentors to enter our 2020 Launch Pad Manuscript Mentorship Program.
• To qualify for this prize, entrants must have selected the “Mentorship Program” add-on when submitting their project.
• This prize, as with all add-on prizes is not decided upon by placement in the competition. Regardless of whether the project entered makes any finalist round, your project will still be in contention for this prize until the competition ends.

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