Book the Gig

Getting your foot in the door is a constant struggle for so many artists who want to open new markets. Building that elusive “buzz” regionally is so important and really lays the groundwork for getting your foot in the door. Here are a few ideas to begin incorporating into your booking process. When beginning to expand further out into your region, make it a habit of inviting the bookers at the venues you want to play, to come see you at a gig you are already playing. It’s quite likely they won’t take you up on the invite, but that doesn’t matter. What this does is begin to establish, in…

Here’s a cool strategy to use mid-week dates to build booking momentum. There are two potential strategies that can be considered. The first suggestion that I highly recommend, is to look at mid-week and early weekdays as potential optimum dates. As you do your research of venue calendars, pay attention to days like Monday through Wednesday. These days are often left either unfilled, used for local or regional acts or are saved for national touring acts that might be heading to another market and happen to have an off night. These are choice nights to line up recurring gigs that can offer the venue a potential audience that they might…

Consider these 3 top factors to get great gigs and increase your income. These three career-changing factors are the difference between struggling to book your tours and booking great tours with ease. # 1. You must know what you are offering. It's not enough to simply put it out there that you are an artist. It doesn't matter what type of artist you are, whether you are a singer/songwriter, a classical pianist, a storyteller, a dancer, an actor, a juggler, a comic or a writer. You need to know what you are presenting, and the various ways you can present your artistry. The mistake I see artists make again and…

Are you missing great opportunities that are staring you in the face? Do you know when there is a great opportunity being offered to quickly recognize it as such and then act on it? If you tour without a support team, everything rests on you, the show, the merchandise sales, the set up, the tech, the schmoozing, everything. With all that on your head, there may be little time or mind-space to recognize the presenter who just handed you a card and said, "let's talk next week," or "call me and let's set up a date." Sure, you may take the card, but you didn't write a note on the…

Registration Closes in 30 minutes Midnight Pacific/ 3 am Eastern Hi {!firstname_fix}, Going, going, almost gone. Only 30 minutes left to register. I hope to see you in the class. Check out the Registration Page by Midnight Pacific Time I'm looking forward to working with you during the   How to Book Gigs and Tour Profitably Registration Closes in 30 Minutes Midnight Pacific/ 3 am Eastern REGISTER NOW   Jeri jg@performingbiz.com    P.S. If you just couldn't take the class this time but have a friend who might benefit, send them this email.  

This just might be the best time of year to prepare to book your best gigs for next year. Here’ proof! This is the booking down time. During the holiday season most bookers wind up their fall presenting programs and prepare for upcoming winter programs. They are done booking for this year and planning for the next 18-24 months. They are prepping to attend the winter booking conferences. Performing arts center presenters head for NYC for APAP the annual Arts Presenters Conference in Mid Jan. Folk and acoustic music bookers and artists are going to New Orleans this year for the International Folk Alliance in late January. College conferences like…

I get it, sometimes you just wish you had an agent booking your gigs so you wouldn’t have to. And sometimes you would love to just bounce your ideas off someone who had more experience than you about booking and the entertainment industry. So why wait any longer? The opportunity is right in front of you, right now to work with a 20- year veteran booking agent and artist manager! How cool would it be to get your questions about your own touring career answered? Or you’ve got some ideas you’re not sure about and would love to kick them around with someone who could help you make them a…

The Webinar Replay is still up today, but will not be available after today, so check it out while it is still up. We covered some great strategies that you may not have come across before and you can apply them immediately to your touring career. Start to reap the benefits of using these in your business and next year could be your best touring year ever. I'd love to share this valuable information with you so join me for the premier session of the new video course. Don't miss this opportunity to work with me and learn how to book more gigs, book better gigs and get paid more money.  …

Get paid higher gig fees by building your value in each market.   But, how do you build your value?    One way is to track every gig you play in and around each market. Track your audience numbers, your merchandise sales, the percentage of seats sold in relation to the size of the venue, the weather on the day of your gig, whether any other events might have presented a conflict for your audience and what sort of media coverage you got.   Now when you have hard, cold facts like numbers, you are better able to negotiate the next gig by leveraging the facts to increase your guarantee…