Whether
you're booking your own band or have an agent, it's
important to establish your value within your
particular market. When there's demand for your act,
your fees will increase and bookings will be easier
to contract. At the beginning of your touring career,
there's probably little or no demand, therefore, the
fees are low and there's more difficulty booking
dates. While you're building your reputation and
following, it's important to keep track of the
following factors, enabling you to begin to establish
a track record and some value. Establishing value for
your act helps to create some leverage when
negotiating with promoters and booking personnel at
each venue. So how do you begin to establish your
value?
Start with your bio. Within the bio, it's important
to have information and facts that the promoter can
use to sell your act to their audience. Make sure
it's clear and concise with little or no fluff or
exaggeration. Highlight your accomplishments to date
so the reader doesn't have to search through lengthy
paragraphs in order to get to the important facts
that help him sell your act. For example, if you were
interviewed on a regional TV or radio show which is
meaningful to the area where you regularly perform,
don't bury it within the text, bullet the information
to make it stand out. Have someone other then
yourself read over your materials to pull out the
interesting facts and then rework the page
graphically to emphasize the selling points.
Create a user friendly press pack. When your press
materials are designed with the promoter and media in
mind, mention that to the promoter when attempting to
book the date. For example, supply the venue with
ready to use flyers or posters. Let them know you'll
send promo CDs to local radio along with a press
release for the date. Send them a sample
ready-to-use-fill-in-the-blank press release so they
may also send one to their media list. Ask to contact
their publicity person and let them know you're ready
to work with them in order to insure local media is
covered.
Let the promoter know how large your mailing list is
in their area and that you mail or email to your list
for each tour. If you don't have a mailing list, it's
the easiest direct marketing tool you can create.
Start one at your very next date. It only takes a pad
of paper and a pen when keeping it simple, or a
nicely designed form or fill-out card for the more
elaborate. Mentioning how many people are on your
mailing list and that you target your mailing for
each gig, lets the promoter know you will tap your
fans to buy tickets for their club.
When
establishing and growing your value in the market,
creating a record of all previously played dates is
one of the most important things you can do. Keep
track of the following information and review it
before making your booking calls.
a) The venue's
seating or standing capacity
b) How many
tickets you sold at the venue
c) The
ticket-price or cover charge
d) What the
weather was like that night (it may influence sales)
e) How much
merchandise you sold
f) What the gross
sales were/what you got paid
g) What kind of
promotion was done? Press releases, advertising,
posters/flyers, media coverage
h) Was there any
other major event in town that night? (Large cities
will always have many other events occurring on the
same night, small towns may only have one other event
which could influence the outcome of your date.)
As you call new venues in a town where you've
previously played, having the above information close
at hand will help you negotiate a better deal. If
you've previously sold out a 150-seat venue at £10
per ticket and now you're attempting to book a
200-seat venue, the promoter has something for
reference. This establishes your value. This
information places you on equal footing with other
acts that are able to sell 150 tickets. Now you can
begin to command fees according to your established
track record in that area. When booking dates in a
new area where you've never played, you can still use
the above information for comparison and to
demonstrate what you have been able to accomplish.
Don't expect to get the same kind of fees in an
untested market, but the information lets the
promoter know something about your professionalism
and methods you use to develop your audience.
Once you get in the habit of keeping records, you'll
begin to refer to the information automatically.
Booking calls will become more conversational and
you'll find yourself using these pertinent facts
which continually boost your acts value. Your
negotiations will be based on factual information
rather than emotion. As you become more adept at
this, you'll find you have some leverage in many of
the venues where you regularly perform. As you
establish your value in each new market, demand for
your act will increase and booking the act will
become easier.
See also: Getting Paid
Back
to Top
