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Book Review:
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN BOOKING AGENT
(New Music Times)
• Jeri Goldstein
The straight dope from the pro that knows. Get it.
Since there is no particular education, certification, experience or references required to participate, perhaps you too have noticed that the entertainment business seems to be brimming with characters that will assert expertise, experience, intuition, and a reservoir of talent that in truth they may not possess.
And yet they can sometimes get away with it, because there really is no clear blueprint about how to succeed in the arts in general, unlike many professions, vocations, or other more logically gainful employment. Even when starting your own business, of whatever kind, there are all kinds of schooling and resources available to help you map out the road ahead, based on the history of that business.
The good news about Jeri Goldstein is that she actually does have the goods, all of them. And she does a better job than anyone has ever done providing a blueprint for performing artists who are infinitely more suited to writing a song than they are to promoting and marketing themselves.
Before she wrote the first edition of this award-winning book, Jeri put in 20 years working as an agent and manager. She's worked more than a half dozen genres of music, as well as the worlds of theater and dance.
It's not a self-help book, and it's not about nuclear family issues or giving yourself permission to love yourself. It is about goals and contracts, telephone techniques and negotiating, and this revised edition includes new information about immigration regulations and EPK's, web design, and new insights about the "new music business" from insiders.
When at first I read that Robin and Linda Williams and Garrison Keillor and The Hopeful Gospel Quartet were the clients she featured in her bio, I thought, "Geez, I know a number of managers and booking agents who work with much bigger artists than that..." But you know what? Those agents and managers rarely know anything about the world of the singer songwriter or the fledgling band, and their experience is not nearly as valuable to those artists as this book is. This is the Bible for doing it yourself and making a living.
On top of the two editions of this leading book, Ms. Goldstein has led scads of seminars for prestigious organizations, and at the annual Folk Alliance she coordinates their Booking Agent Training School. She's been a tour coordinator, a promoter, a graphic artist, a photographer, even a DJ--it's hard to find a corner of the business with which she's not been directly involved. If you're interested in a more personal relationship with the author, she also offers at her website a consultation program called Manager-In-A-Box.
We'd call this a necessary purchase for the touring indie band or singer songwriter, even those who think they're well beyond it. If you're not personally making well over fifty grand a year, you're not beyond it, in our opinion. Pick up your copy at a discount, here. • FG
jeri goldstein online: performingbiz.com
