I have read quite a few marketing "how to" books working as a communication/marketing specialist during my former sixteen-year "day job" career. When I started to read Jeri Goldstein’s book, How To Be Your Own Booking Agent and SaveThousands of Dollars, touted as "a performing artist’s guide to a successful touring career," I wondered if the contents would provide me with any new or useful information. I was impressed. The clear rhetoric, excellent examples, and no-nonsense approach take the mystery out of working on the road. This book is a "must read" for the serious professional storyteller.The guide is presented with musicians in mind, but is adaptable to any group of performers hoping to earn a living in the entertainment field. The author includes resource lists in the back of each chapter, and each list contains information to save performers of any discipline valuable research time. If taken by themselves, these lists are worth the cost of the book: $29.97.
Here is a complete and practical guide for storytellers thinking about developing better business savvy. Ms. Goldstein provides tips and suggestions on how to navigate successfully in the competitive atmosphere where professional presenters make decisions on who will get the nod for a career-enhancing gig.
Touring is not a field for sissies, and it pays accordingly. This arena is only for storytellers willing to move out of the comfort zone and develop new performance skill muscles. In this atmosphere, tellers must be willing to take chances, deliver the best and guarantee satisfaction.
How To Be Your Own Booking Agent and Save Thousands of Dollars deals with such topics as planning and preparing for success as a performer, setting up shop as a small business entrepreneur, and navigating the rocky roads of promotion, negotiation and contracts. All the aspects of touring from examining the reality of travel, to building a market base and nurturing venues for financial success are covered in readable detail. Chapters about marketing plans, funding sources, media savvy, performance evaluation and career progress milestones give the reader more information than I have been able to find in any one source.
Best of all is the format of the book. By using pull-out quotes, "Hot Tip" boxes and complete examples of forms and contracts, Jeri Goldstein makes all other reference books about successful marketing for the touring performer seem lacking.
If you want to tour as a storyteller, read this book. You won’t be sorry..
