The film industry has changed and in many ways, it’s more challenging than ever before, but with change comes new opportunities. Success can still be had by those who work to create it. Independent film companies aren’t as great and as varied as they were when Mean Streets, Do The Right Thing, Blue Velvet, or Pulp Fiction initially made their marks, but there are now new and different ways to succeed, develop an audience and build a strong career

It’s not only the film industry that has been stood on its head, perhaps no other industry is reeling as much as the music biz. And publishing too is also undergoing massive changes.   In the past authors expected to sign a publishing deal, get an advance and then prepare for a book tour. Well times have changed. Fewer and fewer publishing houses are investing in tours unless it’s for one of their reigning literary superstars.

Whereas in the music arena it’s all but impossible to make a living by simply selling music, more and more bands and singers are hitting the road and touring. Yet on the literary side, fewer and fewer authors are out there meeting the public and bookstore owners.

Book tours are more important that many realize. They are about making connections with individual stores, store owners and managers. Even those inevitable signings that end up with a handful of people in the audience can be beneficial, if a relationship is forged between the writer and a bookseller. Making it even more challenging is the fact that bookstores themselves are facing some of the roughest times they’ve ever encountered. Independents are falling by the wayside; Boarders is gone and Barnes & Noble is doing all that it can to simply survive.

As with all types of intellectual property, book sales are being hit hard. The model that worked so well only a few years ago, is now broken. Still, in both film and publishing as the old models begins to falter, new avenues and opportunities are surfacing. For filmmakers and authors that take their careers and their works into their own hands there is a new world of opportunity out there.

The tough part here is that artists either have to become marketers, or they have to hire PR and marketing firms to handle their promotional needs for them. Particularly when it comes to films and books, marketing cannot be looked at as a luxury. Marketing, particularly public relations, is a necessity.

The upside to the internet is that every area of interest has its own bloggers and social media sites. Savvy authors and filmmakers are using social media and blogging, to create an inbound marketing funnel for their books and films. Some are launching and investing in their own tours, others are offering online events. Those that are truly savvy are launching traditional public relations campaigns to reach their target market, establish themselves as experts in their field and gain the validation and legitimacy of being in the news.

With the right buzz both filmmakers and authors can, with a bit of creativity, generate their own sales, build their brands, and establish their own successful careers.

Musicians know they need PR.

Filmmakers know they need PR.

Performers know they need PR.

Writers?

Not so much.

Generally, when I give a PR for Artists seminar, I cover what, when, where, and how to launch and implement a successful marketing and PR campaign.

But, when I’m presenting to writers (and, to be fair, I can add painters and sculptors into this group), I generally need to back up and start with—

WHY.

Why don’t writers get “why”?

Several reasons.

Those that are published by a traditional publisher assume (most of the time wrongly) that their publisher will take care of all of the marketing and PR for their book. Maybe the most difficult conversations I have are with writers who have signed with a major house. I’m generally the one who has to break the news to them that they’re on their own when it comes to marketing their book. On the other hand, self-published writers often believe that being on Amazon or a similar platform is enough. They’ll run a few Google and Facebook ads and book sales will soar. Sadly, that’s seldom the case.

Those aren’t the only reasons writers are hesitant to marketing their books. They are often taught that they shouldn’t market, they shouldn’t have to market, marketing is crass, they should be writing for the sake of writing, if their writing is good, that’s enough… I think you get it.

Yes, your writing is the thing—to paraphrase a somewhat famous writer—but it needs help.

Your writing needs to be nurtured, tended, cared for. And, unless you are writing solely for yourself (which is perfectly valid), you need to build a bridge between your writing and the public, readers, agents, and publishers. You need to give it a chance to succeed, which means you need to market.

By that, I don’t mean a hard sell, or smoke and mirrors. You can make an art of your marketing. Have it reflect you; have it be organic, genuine, authentic.

Our mantra at PR for Writers & Filmmakers is that effective PR is effective storytelling. What could be more perfect for a writer? You’re a storyteller so turn your narrative into your marketing.

Back to why to PR and market your work?

Why?

An effective PR campaign can:

• Increase your sales.
• Get you on the radar of the public, readers, agents and publishers
• Offer you the credibility and validation of being featured in the news.
• Separate you from the competition.
• Reach your target market and also penetrate new markets

Media coverage can also be used to help generate interest in other projects or ventures. We had a major publisher offer a book deal to one of our clients. Media exposure helped us garner a book deal. A film director landed a distribution deal. Artists have landed gallery representation and media that we placed led an artist to develop a working relationship with a major studio.

One then is for sure—

Doing nothing generally leads to nowhere.

Regardless of your time, or your budget, let go of your preconceived ideas about marketing your art.

Be proactive.

Take action.

Now!

Authors and filmmakers are posting images and videos online on their blogs and their various social media platforms daily. Who hasn’t thought that that one perfect post, tweet, image or video is going to be the one—the one that will catch fire and bring you to the attention of the world? That last image they posted will break through the social media barriers, fly past the noise, and go viral.

But how realistic is that scenario?

A recent article in Time magazine explored whether anything actually goes viral online. As the article explained: “Yahoo studied the spread of messages on Twitter. Their conclusion: nothing really ever goes viral. More than 90% of messages didn't diffuse it all. The vast majority of the news that people see on Twitter – around 95% – comes directly from its original source or from 1° of separation.” Meaning most blog posts and videos travel in a closed universe. It’s true that people who have built their followings on various social media platforms are able to share their information to a substantial number of followers, but this study was looking at whether a Tweet could break through the noise and truly go viral.

To quote Time, “Popularity on the Internet is still driven by the biggest broadcasts—not by a million 1-to-1 shares, but rather by a handful of 1-to-1 million shares.”

The article went on to explain that although it was possible for a Tweet to explode online, it needed to be shared or covered by an outlet with huge reach. This means is that the Internet is still driven by the big media which could be legacy media (TV, print and radio) or new media—to use Times’ examples, “a Kardashian post or a top spot on Reddit.”

The point of the piece wasn’t to dismiss the importance of social media, far from it, but to illustrate how, for a post, image, tweet, or video to go viral, it need to be turbo-powered. In other words, you need the exposure in an outlet that can leap-frog you from your closed circle into the stratosphere.

This is where a traditional PR outreach and coverage in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, CNN, the Today Show, NPR as well as smaller local and regional outlets can be so impactful.

The good news here is that effective PR is effective storytelling and who better to tell compelling stories than authors and filmmakers? The media doesn’t want to be sold, it wants strong compelling stories. Meet the media’s needs and you’ll meet yours.

By being featured in the media, you take your message directly to your target market and beyond. If you’re new and establishing yourself as an artist it’s often a good approach to begin by focusing on smaller media markets. The large markets have heavy competition. Everyone is looking for coverage there. That’s not to say that with the right story, you can’t gain national coverage, but by initially focusing on the smaller markets you can gain local coverage and start establishing you and your art. You can then take that media and magnify it online. Post it on your blog, Tweet the link to the article, post it on Facebook and other social media sites. The internet allows you to turn a local story into an international story.

You can then use your local media to pitch the national outlets.   Once you’ve landed local media coverage, you are legitimately a story. Use that initial coverage to attract larger media outlets. And those marquee outlets are ones with the wide reach.

There a well-placed story can indeed zoom through the stratosphere and, yep, you’re viral.

There are two primary areas where most filmmakers and authors into roadblocks. The first is marketing/PR and the second is distribution. That has pretty much always been the case with independent filmmakers but now, with the film industry in such flux and more competitive than ever, it’s becoming even more of a challenge. For writers, the publishing world has changed dramatically over the last decade. The mainstream houses are publishing fewer books, self-publishing has exploded. But few of the new self-published writers have a grasp on how to effectively distribute of market their books. Fewer still seem to understand the direct correlation between PR and distribution. Whether you’re a writer or a filmmaker, marketing, public relations and media exposure not only creates a buzz and helps establish your brand; for films it can also solidify distribution interest as well as film festival interest. Authors can reach their audience, establish their own independent distribution channels and in some cases have their works picked up by one of the major book publishers.

We’ve been promoting narrative feature films and documentaries as well as fiction and non-fiction books for years. Having worked as a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and indie film producer, I know the hazards and pitfalls of getting a film or book from concept to the market. With that in mind, we’ve developed a unique PR approach designed to publicize and market films and books as well as to help secure distribution.

Our firm specializes in working with writers and filmmakers, focusing on media placement, media training and image development. We have placed clients in a wide range of local, national and international media venues including: Time, Newsweek, The Today Show, 60 Minutes, CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News, People, US, Entertainment Tonight, Premiere, Fox News, USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, 20/20, Oprah, The London Times, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, Variety, the Hollywood, Reporter and hundreds of other media outlets.

Creating a book or a film can be a magical experience, but many authors and filmmakers get so immersed in the making of their works that they forget about focusing on what they need to focus on once they complete their project. Too many forget to ask themselves what their next steps are. How are they going to secure that their book or film is promoted, marketed, and distributed? What is their game plan for building that bridge between the finished product and their audience?

Each project is unique and each PR campaign has to reflect that fact. There is no one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach that will work. Our mantra is that effective PR is effective storytelling. Our focus is not trying to “sell” the media with the best, newest, or brightest, but on offering the media effective, compelling stories that will interest their readers, listeners or viewers. Creating your book or film is step one, but without effective PR or marketing you’re not giving your project a chance to reach its audience. You’ve put your blood, sweat and tears into creating your book or film. Now take the next step and give it a chance to soar.

 

Fiction can generally reveal truth more powerfully than fact.

And in these times when the definition of what we once knew as facts and truth is melting every bit as fast as glaciers, fiction is perhaps more needed than ever.

These are chaotic unsettling times. These are times of walls, fear and suspicion. The rancor and vitriol seems to be perpetually stuck in high gear.   People feel unsafe, unsure and lost tossed about in the divisiveness and turbulence. Many feel helpless, hopeless and voiceless.

And because of that–

Now, the role of the storyteller is paramount. This is an era of pomposity and empty rhetoric. More than ever we need the truth found in novels, plays, films, fables and poems.

Art is alchemy.

It can communicate in deep and all-but-indecipherable ways. Art can shine light in the darkness. It communicates at a visceral level and can fly past the radar. It can open hearts and change minds. It can be difficult and unsettling but it can also create change and dissolve despair.

In a very real sense, art is magic.

But instead of waiting for the return of Merlin, artists now need boldness. They need the courage to believe in their unique vision and the daring to move forward with blind faith.

The world is sounding a call to action. If you ever doubted the importance of your art, this is the time to put that doubt aside. Others have paved the way and have shown the impossible to be possible. They have moved through their doubts and past their personal dark-night-of-the-soul and have created. They have impacted their world. They have changed hearts and minds.

Blaze your own trail. To quote Emerson, which I seem to do quite a lot, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

This is no time of artists to doubt or hide their work.

This is not a time to be timid or hesitant.

Let your art shine particularly in the darkness. You’ll never know who the light will reach or what it will reveal.

Perhaps Frances Bacon put it best: “In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”

The film world has been going through seismic changes. Just as the music world was rocked and in many ways redefined by the internet, the film world is being reshaped and restructured. Not long ago prestige projects were only shown on the big screen, with cable and streaming, it’s now a whole new ballgame.

An as the industry has changed, so must filmmakers.

How?

Start by shifting your mindset. The days of making a film, finding a distributor and opening theatrically may still be alive, but on life support. Going from conception to production, to theatrical distribution was never an easy road to begin with. Only a handful made it, but now it’s even tougher. Traditional distribution channels are shrinking and financing whether it be for development, production, or distribution is getting harder and harder to come by. Particularly when it comes to small independent films, the heyday of companies such as Miramax, Gramercy, New Line and Lions Gate is now behind us.

But let’s say you’ve finished your film. You’ve maxed your credit cards, or mortgaged your home, and sold your cat, but you managed to get it done. Now what? You’ve submitted to Sundance? You’ll give a few more festivals a shot and then you’ll… wait? Well that’s one approach. But it might be a good idea to start considering a few other avenues.

When it comes to the entertainment world, whether it be film, music or publishing, perception always helps shape reality. No one knows this better than the studios. Particularly when it comes to blockbuster sequels, which often tend to be dreadful, the PR, marketing and online blitz is generally enough to send millions to stand in line at theatres and to buy DVDs. The studios are creating urgency through marketing that all but forces the public to consume. So, why not take a page from their playbook? You can’t compete with them budget-wise, but you can jump into the game with creativity, savvy and some marketing know-how.

Launch your own PR campaign for your film. You don’t need to have a theatre opening date or even a distribution deal in place. On the contrary, launch your media campaign in order to land a distribution deal. By creating a media buzz you separate yourself from the rest of the crowd.   PR can help build an audience, attract investors, interest distributors and position you and your film to succeed.

So, how can you launch a PR campaign for a film with no distribution? Be creative. Maybe a pitch on how you raised the money to make the film, or a story on how the subject matter relates to something that’s currently in the news, or how it illustrates a trend. Perhaps your journey from your previous life to filmmaker would make for an interesting local feature. Is there something else you’re working on, or a cause your involved in that could make for a good story? If so, pitch that and then bring your new film into the interview. There are a number of possible story ideas. Think outside of the box. Once you have some PR, now use blogging, social media and online PR to amplify and magnify your media coverage. The film world is changing, but, if you’re smart about it those changes can actually be to your benefit.

Film festivals can be seductive. They offer more avenues to get your feature film viewed. In reality, that has its upside and its downside. Hundreds of films are now shown at film festivals and nowhere else. It’s as though they’re locked in an alternative universe. That can make it feel as though there is movement or traction, but that’s not necessarily the case in the real world.

It’s great that the various festivals offer filmmakers new venues to showcase their projects, but those showings can also give a false sense of security. As a producer or director, you may feel that your film is moving forward where it may not be. And chances are it won’t be if you simply show at festivals and leave it at that.

Your job is to get your film in front of the public. Film festivals are a good start. But, that’s simply step one, now you need to work it! Don’t simply wait for the public, or distributors or producers to find you. Chances are they won’t.

Let’s say you do get your film into a festival. Now you need to market and PR your film. Have clips up on YouTube, have a dynamite website up describing your film. Market your film to the local market where the festival is showing, but also broaden your approach to include the national entertainment media. Start a robust social media campaign.   Now that your film is ready to show, your job is to shepherd your project, get it viewed, get it noticed, create a buzz. The best method I’ve found to successfully market and promote a film, is a combination of social media, blogging and traditional PR.

Public relations is the only form of marketing that garners you and your films the credibility and validation of being featured in the media. You are not presented via an ad, commercial, or social media post but as a news story.

You are the news!

If you can hire a firm to launch a media relations campaign for your film, do it. It will pay off for you in the long run. But if that’s not in your budget, then do your homework, learn the basics of how to launch a PR campaign. But, don’t reach out to the media before researching how to do so. Sending the wrong information or contacting the media with inappropriate pitches can do you more harm than good.

Chances are this film has been a labor of love; it’s caused you blood, sweat, tears and cash. Now you owe it to yourself and to your film to give it a real shoot to succeed.

 

Whether you’ve signed with a major publishing house, a boutique publisher or have self-published your book, there is one constant…

You need to market!

Unless you have very deep pockets, your best bet is going to be a combination of a public relations outreach combined with a social media campaign

Why PR? Because public relations is the only form of marketing that reaches your target market and offers you the credibility and validation of being featured in the media. You are not in a commercial or an ad. You are featured in the news.

To start, keep in mind that marketing your book, is different than marketing yourself as an author. A book can be an engine that helps pull the train, but the overall train is your image and brand as a writer. One of the problems with publishing houses is that they focus solely on marketing the book and often overlook valuable PR and marketing opportunities that can be gained from marketing the writer.

I understand a publisher’s perspective. They’re going to make their return off the book sales and the author might not be with them a year or two down the line.

But as an author, you need to think more long term. Each book is a part of your canon. No one work defines you. Your marketing, PR and branding focus needs to be on your overall career as an artist.

Still, if you do have a book coming out, you’re then working with a specific timeline and need to develop a marketing and PR plan targeting your book release. Write out your plan. Have it include objectives, timeframe, goals, strategies and tactics. Whether you’re self-publishing or working with a traditional publishing house will change your approach.

If you’re working with a publisher, they should give you some guidance, but do not expect them to take care of your PR and marketing needs.  Realize that you are going to have to take charge of your marketing. If you can hire a PR firm, do it. If not there are still steps that you can take to promote and market your work.

Do some homework.

Learn some of the PR basics.

Remember effective PR is effective storytelling.

And who better than an author to tell a story?

 

Long ago, before those now-famed dogs had ever found the reservoir, I was a partner in video and film production company. Our offices in Westwood, California, were we next to an entrepreneur whose stepson used to spend a good deal of time there. Eventually the stepson also moved into the office space. He was, well, unique. He was an aspiring filmmaker and would stop in to chat from time to time. We generally didn’t have a conversation with him. Well not what is typically considered a conversation. There was very little talking on our part. We’d perhaps ask a question or two and then kick back and listened as he let go with one of his remarkable machine-gun, rapid-fire monologues.

He spoke with his body, acting out his responses.

He was working on a short film, serving as writer-director-producer-actor and had run into financing issues. He knew we were involved in producing, so he snuck us into an editing bay at UCLA to watch some of the raw footage of the film to see if we were interested in coming on board. It was a black and white short. The dialogue was great; the direction was rough but compelling. Still, it was a short with no names and we were producing low-budget horror films. So, we passed.

When we refused Quentin Tarantino he, in no uncertain terms, explained that we were making a monumental colossal, stupendous mistake. We were passing on a chance to work with one of Hollywood’s biggest (expletive) directors. That wasn’t yet the case, but he assured us is soon would be. The prediction in-and-of-itself was nothing new. Having worked in the entertainment industry for a while, it was a prediction that I’d heard several times. But never had someone declared it so assuredly.

Neither of us had any doubt as to his sincerity, but we didn’t give his prediction great odds.

Well, the odds were on his side, big time. He finished the short and went on to film “Reservoir Dogs.” I’ll never know if Quentin actually knew he was going to be as successful as he now is, or if his bravado was part of what helped propel him to where he now sits.

Looking back, I now see it as a great study in the emergence of an artist. Quentin is unique in that his singular voice and vision is reflected in his projects. He does not jump on board as a gun for hire for super hero mega films. He creates his own vehicles. Tells his own stories. Few filmmakers have the talent to write and direct, along with the pull to get their films financed at such a high level. And, as he predicted that day as we walked to the parking lot after having viewed his short, he indeed has become one of our most influential film directors. “Pulp Fiction” changed the industry and spawned legions of imitators. But his stories, dialogue, direction remain singularly his.

Bottom line is Quentin has always done the work. He is savvy as to how to market himself and his films, but the work has always come first and foremost. Without that there is nothing.

So, maybe (if indeed you too do the work) pronouncing that you’re going to become biggest (blanking) whatever isn’t such a bad approach.

Sometimes, as Quentin illustrates, it happens.

Image c/o: ipernity.com/doc/siebbi/5818793