The enquiry, the reply, and the booking
What the first email says, the exact reply that wins it, and what 'pencil' really means.
11 minute read · one activity · lesson 20 of 21
The enquiry lands. It nearly always says the same four things: we found your work, here is roughly what it is, are you free, and what is your day rate.
What you send back in the next few minutes decides whether you are booked. And the word 'minutes' is doing real work in that sentence.
Respond in minutes, not hours
Aim to reply within a few minutes. It demonstrates you are responsive and productive — and it gets you ahead of the other artists contacted in the same round. First come, first served.
If you miss an email and are replying more than three hours later, apologise for the delay. It may not sound like much. To a producer it is an age.
The reply — and the three moves inside it
The book uses a template for every enquiry, deliberately, because it saves the time of trying to word the perfect response and lets him reply fast. Its structure:
- Thank them, and say you would like to help.
- State your availability — and, if it is true, imply you are finishing another project the day before theirs starts. You are busy. Busy is attractive.
- State your day rate ALONGSIDE the output it buys, with an example attached. Never a naked number: 'My day rate is ___, for which you can expect [example] at an output of [frames].'
- Close warmly and briefly. Look forward to learning more.
Keep the first two emails short. Then escalate.
This is the sequencing insight most freelancers get backwards. They fire every question they have at the first reply and lose the client to friction.
The book does the opposite. Email one: availability, rate, example. Email two, when they accept: 'Thank you, that would be great. I very much look forward to working with you.' Then, and only then — once the booking is secure — let the client propose a briefing call, and START ASKING. Script, shot list, look and feel, casting, locations, budget (Day 17).
As he puts it: the client is on the hook, and we shall not lose them by over-complicating the back and forth of initial contact.
Pencil vs hard pencil — learn this or lose weeks
- HARD PENCIL — they are 90–100% certain the job starts on those dates. Treat it as real.
- PENCIL — they are about 50% sure. They still need to check with their team or their client. Be wary of pencil bookings.
- If a booking is in pencil, CONFIRM it a few days before the dates. Producers are extremely busy and therefore forgetful — and a pencil booking that quietly evaporates has still cost you the week you held.
- And: if a client says they will get back to you and does not, do NOT chase — unless they have pencil-booked you. They are usually just waiting on sign-off.
“Always aim to get back to clients within a few minutes… first come, first served.”
— Mitchell James Hughes, Storyboard Art
Write your three templates
Write them today, while calm. You will send them under pressure, and the whole point is that the pressure never touches the wording.
- TEMPLATE 1 — the rate + availability reply. Thank you / availability / rate + output + attached example / warm close. Put YOUR real numbers from Day 18 in it.
- TEMPLATE 2 — the acceptance. Three lines. Warm, short, done.
- TEMPLATE 3 — the ask list, sent AFTER the booking is confirmed: script, shot list, look and feel, casting sheet, location list, budget, and a request for a video call to run it through in batches of one day's output.
- Choose the example frame you will attach to Template 1. It should be your single best frame at the level you most want to be booked for.
- Now read Template 1 out loud. If your voice rises at the end of the sentence with your rate in it, rewrite it until it does not.
What you should have at the end
Three saved email templates with your real numbers in them. The next enquiry you receive, you will answer in four minutes instead of four hours — and that alone will win you work.
Day 20 in one line
Reply in minutes. Rate always travels with output and an example. Keep the first two emails frictionless, then escalate your asks once you are booked. Know the difference between pencil and hard pencil.
This course is free and stays free. If you want to board in the suite Mitchell James Hughesbuilt for his own work — script, shot list, storyboard, animatic, AI artist — the free tier opens every app with no card.
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