If so, I want to hear your stories!!!

If you haven't heard yet, I'm writing a book which I'll be pitching to publishers this Spring. The focus of the book combines my background in the independent arts with my PR background. The concept is simple: taking the creative publicity whore methods of promotion often used by various types of artists (indie music, indie film, etc.) and I'll be adapting them to use in a more traditional business environment... basically, letting YOU show business owners how it's done; how they can convert customers into "fans."  

YOU Can Get Involved!

Wanna be involved? I already have a fun bunch of people lined up for interviews (with Ajax Garcia and Rob Renfro serving as the two completed interviews for the proposal stretch of the book - I'll announce other pretty cool interviewees when I'm ready to conduct them... with my luck, I'd announce, and they'd pull out!). ;)  So while I'm not looking for interviews for the book itself right now here's what you can do:

Creative Self Promotion

I just set up a new blog today called Creative Self Promotion. The blog is serving as a build-up to the book (looks better pitching the proposal if I'm already building an audience and marketing the concept), and when the book is released it will be a marketing vehicle and place to keep providing updated stories.

What I Need:

So I need stories now!!!  And I want YOU to tell me your favorite ways of acting like a little publicity whore in the indie music world. How do you get your name out there? How do you differentiate yourselves from other bands? I can whip up a list of common band promotion methods (heck I have a site devoted to that too!), but what fun would that be? I want real stories from real bands in the trenches working their asses off to make it as independent artists.

The stories could be examples of ways you picked up some serious press or corporate backing, or something you tried where you fell completely on your face. The good and bad are all things we can learn from, and as a publicist, I can use the bad stories as a way to give advice for doing it right the next time!

Where to Send Stories:

While you can always message me here, I'm notoriously neglectful of this page. Your best bet is to email me with your stories of any creative self promotional techniques you've tried.  Just be sure to note your name or your band's name, where you're from, your genre please, your story obviously (and actual details... I don't need general promotion tips - it's my job to know them and make them up as I go already), and the results. Also provide your URL if you want me to link to you in the blog post.

Can I Be in the Book?

These stories are being gathered specifically for the blog, and I'm not making any kinds of promises that anything will end up in the book unless I've contacted you privately about setting up an interview (which will mostly be larger artists, label execs and publicists, etc.). However, if your story totally knocks my socks off then I just might. So let me know if your email if I have your permission to use the story in the book if it fits in with one of the chapters (you'll of course be mentioned and listed in the acknowledgements if I use it there, and I'd do a custom interview about it before using it, so it wouldn't be word for word).

What Makes You Think Anyone's Gonna Publish This Thing???

Because I'm a hell of a writer (cocky much?). ;) Actually, I'm extremely confident in this project for several reasons, such as:

1. While marketing and promotion are well-selling subjects with both music and business crowds, my research hasn't turned up anything quite using this angle yet, so it's a time-tested niche with a fresh angle.

2. I'm a lucky little bitch and have contacts in the industry, which means I know a few agents, I know a few people in the book publishing world, and I've got assloads of uber-interesting music industry contacts that even you don't know about. :P

3. My credentials are strong on both fronts. On the publicity angle, well, I'm a publicist! My degree is in the field, I own a PR firm, and I have a following online for my writing on subject.  On the music front, I have a wide network of contacts in indie music from major and indie record labels, artists themselves, other publicists... all across the board. I'm also the Music Editor for one of the largest networks on the Web and run my own network of music sites with a nice enough combined readership to make them a built-in promotional vehicle - read: "publisher's dream". ;)

4. Not only do I have the ability to promote the finished product to the creative side, but I also run a business network with nice reach (overhauling it and majorly expanding it too, purposefully to grow it before pitching the book). So with that on top of business blogs I run, I can promote to both groups. To top that off, I run a writers' community and rapidly growing blog for writers - who love promoting their work to each other, so I know I can promote it to that third group. Being a publicist in general means I can do most of my own promotion (setting up interviews, signings, speaking engagements, etc.), which is another major plus.  I even have a few potential "ins" with some indie filmmakers, so we'll see how that goes. :)

What am I trying to sell you for??  Save that for the proposal! :)  This book will definitely go over. If it doesn't happen quickly enough for my liking (I'm terribly impatient, although I'll give it about 6 months of pitching before I throw in the towel I think - of course being in the PR world makes pitching like second nature - I'm good at "selling myself"), I'll just self-publish the thing and market the hell out of it on my own (incorporating a publishing label this year anyway for an indie music promotion series I'm self-publishing, so it would fall within those plans if all else fails... which it won't!).

Just Do It!

So get involved. It's a fun project! :)  And I'd love to share your stories, give advice to others based on them, and help you figure out why some things didn't work!  So start sending your stories. I'd like to get this baby kicked off quickly, and be posting at least one story each day within a few weeks. So help me do that, and you can become quasi-famous in the process. ;) j/k