Promotion

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Promotion

Now that you've made your own records (and videos , if you're smart and read $30 Film School ), here's how to get them out to the world. Finding a distributor. Self-distribution. Consignment.

Priorities in Promotion and Art

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

Thomas Edison, inventor of the microphone, phonograph, and motion pictures.

You have to be relentless to do this stuff for a living. I am.

A cute girl recently told me that I'm cool and talented and that she's attracted to me, but she doesn't like the fact that I'm not spontaneous and that I require 24 hours notice to do anything, and I get mad when people flake.

I sent her this e-mail:

Subject: I do more by 1:54 p.m. than most people do all month.

What I did today: Set up sales of my film for the merch tent on Warped tour. Set up a paid showing of my film in Alabama. Confirmed a show in Germany and a show in Poland that I'll be at. Talked to a friend who is having a bad day. Went to the gym. Answered at least 40 e- mails . proofread something for someone. Set up band practice. Faxed press releases for my film book to 20 magazines. Negotiated the terms for my new book deal. Negotiated with the school I'm teaching for in Houston. Got someone to buy me a free plane ticket for doing Web design. Petted my cat. Talked on the phone. Restrung my guitar. Worked on my next book. Went shopping. Made calls.

Now do you see why I can't be spontaneous? This is a typical day for me, and it's not yet half over. I'll be up until 3 a.m. doing more similar crap.

You said you are inspired by the things I do. But please know that I wouldn't get them done if I weren't careful with my time.

Love, m.d.

I remember reading an interview with Ian MacKaye where he said something like, "People ask me all the time, 'How do you make a living at music?' and I tell them 'I don't make a living at music. I've been up for twelve hours today, I've been busy all day. I've faxed, I've talked on the phone, I've answered e-mails, and I haven't played any music at all.'"

Basically, the way to make a living at D.I.Y. art is to be great, spend as much time working on your art as most people spend on their day jobs, and then also spend six or eight hours a day administering your art. It's very frustrating. But you gotta do it. Assume that no one else is going to do it for you.

Figure 13.13. This is what my calendar looks like.

NOTE

I would never recommend that you make a stencil of your band's name or logo and spray paint it around town (or other towns on tour), because that, of course, would be illegal.

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