On Black List website opportunities and mandatory evaluations.

Starting today, the Black List will require at least one paid evaluation from our readers in order to be considered for our programs.

Fundamentally, we’re making this change because our partners rely on us to share exceptional material with them, and it’s increasingly clear that the best way for us to do that is by ensuring that we gather the opinion of at least one reader whose commitment and insight we’re responsible for so that we can compare it to all of the feedback we’ve gathered over the now more than ten years of the Black List website’s existence.

We understand that this may raise some concerns about the financial cost of feedback on our website excluding some writers from consideration for these opportunities. By instinct, we share these concerns, and we will continue to make sure that — put simply — great writers will always have access regardless of their financial situation.

Last year alone, the Black List provided more than 2000 free months of hosting and 2000 free evaluations, in part with the support of our partners including Bad Robot, UPS, and the National Resource Defense Council. And we continue to offer all writers free hosting and feedback on the Black List website when they receive an overall score of 8 or higher on an evaluation.

As a result, it still remains entirely possible for a writer with a great feature script, television pilot, or play to create a writer profile on the Black List website (for free), host their work on the Black List website forever (or at least as long as they’d like), and be selected for any of the opportunities we offer without ever paying us a dollar.

Moreover, as ever, once you’re hosting a script on the site and have received feedback from one of our readers, you’ll be able to submit to every single opportunity for which you’re eligible at no additional cost. So, for example, if you receive a fee waiver for feedback from our partner on one opportunity, you’ll still be able to apply for every other opportunity we offer at, again, no additional cost.

Ultimately, there is no reason why a writer who has a great piece of material that they’re ready to submit for an opportunity on the Black List website when it’s announced won’t be able to do so because of their financial situation. We remain committed to ensuring that our submission policy remains accessible to everyone in our community.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing the exceptional projects that will result from this change.