Submitting a Series Idea

Click the "Upload your work" button in the upper right corner of the Amazon Studios page. You'll then need to tell us if you’re submitting a new series idea or work for an existing series.

A comedy series proposal must include:

• A pilot script
  This should be the series at its best, but not necessarily an origin story.
  How long should my script be? We encourage single-cam (single-spaced) scripts to be 36 pages or fewer; multi-cam (double-spaced) scripts, 54 pages or fewer.

A children's series proposal must include:

• A mini-bible
  This should describe the series in general, and its main characters; tell where the series is going and whether episodes are serial or standalone; and include five or six episode ideas.
  How long should my mini-bible be? Between two and six pages.

If your new series idea is illustrated with character drawings or sketches in your mini-bible, you must identify the artist who brought the characters to life. The character designer defines a visual style reference used by animators creating episodes of an animated series.

If you have video such as a storyboard, animation test, or pilot, you’re encouraged to upload that as well. You must have full rights to the series idea you are submitting, and identify the series creators (e.g., writers and character designers) at the time of upload.

When you upload an original series idea, you will be given the option to either submit it privately or publicly.

If you choose to submit a series idea privately, only Amazon Studios staff will review it. Your series idea won't be made publicly available at Amazon Studios. Your privately submitted series idea will only become public at Amazon Studios if we pay to extend our option on it, we buy it, or you choose to make it public.

If you choose to submit a series idea publicly, Amazon Studios staff will review it, and it will also be published to the Amazon Studios site for public feedback. Other users will be able to contribute content to your project, like revised scripts and trailers (although you can set certain collaboration settings as described below), and those contributions will restart our 45-day option and evaluation period. For more information on the rights related to series ideas that you upload publicly, see the FAQ and the Development Agreement.

When you upload an original series idea publicly, you can choose whether to allow other Amazon Studios participants to add revised, written content to your project.

Your project collaboration options are:

• Open: Any Amazon Studios participant can freely revise your script or mini-bible and add that revised content to the project.
• By Permission: Only Amazon Studios participants that obtain your permission by using the "Request permission" button can add a revised script or mini-bible to the project. After you grant permission, that participant can freely add a revised script or mini-bible to the project. You may not veto specific revisions or revoke approval once it is given (although you can always change your script collaboration setting to close the project to all new script revisions other than your own). You also may not condition your approval (e.g., by requiring anyone to submit a positive review of your script).
• Closed: Only you can add revised script or mini-bibles to the project. You can change your project collaboration setting to "Closed" at any time, but revised scripts or mini-bibles added to the project before the change is effective will remain in the project.

The Amazon Studios process is designed to make collaboration easy. Sometimes an outside perspective can be just what you need to solve problems with a story or bring entirely new and exciting elements into play. If you submit an original project privately, no one else will be able to contribute a revised script or mini-bible to your project until it becomes public. If your private script becomes public, your project collaboration setting will automatically be set to “By Permission”.

You can change the script collaboration settings for your public script at any time later by clicking "Edit" next to the script collaboration information on your project page.

For more information on these settings and the rights that you grant to us, please see our FAQs on script collaboration or script rights and the Development Agreement.

All submissions should be in standard script format, with Courier 12-point font and standard script margins. Here are some general guidelines:

• Page size: 8-1/2 by 11 inches
• Page margins: No less than 1.5 inches (left) and 1 inch (right, top, bottom)
• Scene heading (slugline): 1.5-2 inches
• Action: 1.5-2 inches
• Dialogue: 2.5-3 inches
• Character names: centered

Dialogue should be single spaced for single-camera series or double spaced for multi-camera series. For single-cam, we encourage scripts to be 36 pages or fewer; for multi-cam, 54 pages or fewer.

You may submit your script as a PDF. This may make it easier for you to format your script, and for others to read and review it.

You may also submit your script in .rtf file format. Saving your script in .rtf format allows it to be opened and edited in all word-processing applications and facilitates collaboration.

With some programs, such as Final Draft or Microsoft Word or Works, you can save to the .rtf format by selecting "Save As" from the File menu.

Choose .rtf from the box that pops up after you select "Save As."

With other programs, such as Movie Magic Screenwriter, the .rtf format is not part of the "Save As" process. You must select "Export to," then choose "Rich Text Format (.rtf)."

A box will pop up, and the .rtf format will be an option in the dropdown menu.

Some programs, such as Celtx, do not currently provide a way to save your file as .rtf. One way to end up with a .rtf file is to save your script as text, and drop it into a different program (or open it with a different program), such as Word, which allows you to save as .rtf. However, your formatting will likely need to be massaged.