Booking yourself or your band is a difficult but necessary evil. It is even more difficult when you are just starting out and don’t have a reputation or a good contact network built yet. Picking up your phone and getting busy making calls is still a great way to book gigs, but sometimes you may catch the person you call at a bad time or simply can never reach them because they are so busy. This is why email is such a great way to book yourself gigs, because it lets your contact respond according to their schedule. In addition it can be a bit easier to handle rejection via email than over the phone. It can seem less down putting to read “no thanks” on the screen than hearing it said over the phone or to your face.
First Things First
Before you go asking for a gig, it is usually best to know a few things to make the arrangement easier for the booking manager. Look at the venue’s online calendar and see if there are any open dates available. Get the booking manager’s name and find out some general information about them. This lets you make the email a bit more personal as you address them directly by name and ask a gig on one of the open dates. This is the part where you should be putting together all the information you can.
Don’t be the person who sends the email saying “Hi I’d like to book a gig at your venue,” and that’s all you write. Offer up all the necessary information right from the start. Provide at least the standard info such as Artist/Band name, music style, and your technical rider at least. If you have a good reputation and fan following, then you may choose to include your required guarantee, but otherwise wait to discuss money until you have the venue open to booking you. If you found open dates on their calendar then mention you are looking for a gig around one of the open dates. If you didn’t find any openings, then just mention you are looking for a gig and provide what nights of the week you are available or a range of specific dates you’re available. This makes the whole process easier on the person you’re contacting.
Be Polite
This should be one of those prerequisite elements that you never overlook. Remember that you are reaching out to this person to get a gig, and they are doing you a favor by giving you one. When you have promoters beating down your door trying to book you, then you can worry less about being polite. Always thank the person for taking their time and effort to read your email and consider you for a gig. Be persistent but not aggravating when checking in with your contacts. Promoters and booking managers can get dozens of emails and calls a day from artists asking for gigs. Don’t let yourself get lumped in with the inconsiderate ones.
Get Standardized
Until you have promoters begging to book you, you will probably be trying to book a lot of places on your own. This can be time consuming to type up the same information over and over to send out. It can also be hectic to keep up with who you have emailed and when. My suggestion is to work on creating an email template. Treat this like a script for a play or movie. You want to stick close to the script but don’t be afraid to improvise as needed. Create yourself an email template that contains the relevant information about yourself or band, links to your social and webpages, etc…. Then add to that a personal touch by writing the introduction element to each person. Use the start of the email to create a bit of rapport before you get to the business side.
Since you will likely be sending out a lot of emails, get yourself set up with Google Docs and create a spreadsheet for tracking your booking efforts. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just something that can track the contact’s name and email, the venue’s name, the dates you requested, and dates of the emails you sent to them. This way you don’t look like an idiot by sending the same person a nearly identical pair of emails a day or so apart.