I am – as many of my friends know – anxiously awaiting what I hope will be the final proof of my next book, ‘Booking the Library’. A lot of people have asked me how this particular project came about, and what on earth it is. So, a bit of my history for you.
In 2008 I and two partners started a booking agency. It was something that they had wanted to do, for a while, but they needed someone who could handle the day to day running of things (Me). This booking agency, Unbound Booking, focused on bringing small, quality acts to public venues like libraries, schools, and community centers. We had a dual mission to encourage cultural and arts education in under served communities and to ensure that our artists were being paid a fair and sustainable amount for the art, music and entertainment they produced.
For six years, and through various iterations of the business I acted as a booking agent, owner and manager of this company. We grew from one act to fifty acts over the course of that time frame, and worked primarily with libraries across the United States. Our acts ranged from folk musicians, to magicians, to storytellers, to science educators, and quite a few things in-between. All of them were (are) good at what they did, and all of them were (are) extremely hard working people.
In 2014, a partnership dispute caused us to close down the company. These things happen.
I was not at that time in a position to start up a new agency, but I had all of this very practical knowledge of the industry at my fingertips and quite a few artists who wanted to pick my brain about how I did what I did. And thus, ‘Booking the Library’ was conceived! It’s a slim volume, less than 100 pages all told, that gives an overview of the industry, library trends, best practices, step by step instructions on pricing your shows & contacting libraries, and sample contracts, phone scripts etc.
Many of my former performers have read it over and implemented the bits and pieces that they felt they needed. It should be out by the end of the month, and I am very excited!
Edit:
and on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/