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I'm still working (mostly) out of the house, but before I head out today, I thought I'd post a little bit. The Sample Letter got the most hits I've ever had, so I didn't want to bury it. If I can figure out how to add the links on the side, I'll set up a greatest hits list....

Anyway, from the comments section:

I have a question! If I am in the hip pocket of an agent, is it rude of me
to contact producers myself?I'm sure it is ok, because I still have to be my own
hus[lt]er.What if I have a deal pending that said producer has negotiated, but the
final draft has been stuck in limbo forever? Can I contact producer and nudge
things along myself? I guess all I'm asking is, is that rude?

This one is tough since your job is to write and keep writing. My rule of thumb is to always be gracious and have the agent be the pest. That's sort of why you are paying them. I'd make one call to the agent and ask what the hold up is (it could be a deal point or the other side is broke). If it's nothing material, meaning the producer is just not paying attention, then I'd call the producer up and in a very friendly way ask when the deal will close and what you can do to facilitate. I'm assuming you don't have another buyer for the project, so you can't really push too hard since you have no leverage. Then, have the agent call and close the deal.

If that doesn't work, you either go nuclear and pull the project and try to sell it elsewhere, or you write something else and if the producer asks about it, tell him "Oh, I don't want to muddy the waters with another deal until we've cleared the deck on our last one." And smile real pretty. I've had some things take almost a year to close and had to talk my writers down off the wall. That may not be the case here..... Anywho, my two cents, worth less than you paid for it! If anyone else has relevant experiences/solutions please comment away.....