I’ve heard it said many times, to be a great writer, you must read.  Would you believe it’s also now necessary to promote?  Promotion has become as much a part of the writer’s life as coffee and Microsoft Word, and yet many of my closest friends struggle with this skill.

Long ago, when I first realized the extraordinary difficulty and the immense scope of the opportunities available for playwrights, I made a commitment to make one contact, submission, or inquiry each day.  (For me, this has included weekend days as well as weekdays.  It allows me to feel comfortable with the occasional vacation where I don’t touch technology for days at a time.)  I personally know many writers who feel promotion is the job of an agent, and since they don’t currently have an agent, they don’t worry about promotion ~ as if word of your fabulous work will circulate somehow on its own.  Trust me, no matter how good the work is, it won’t.  Writers contact me regularly asking how to find an agent when the bigger question should be, “How do I get my work noticed?”

First, in the spirit of full disclosure, I do have an agent.  He is a fabulous friend and a critic I look to again and again for input, suggestions, and ideas.  One of the reasons I have an agent is my commitment to promoting my work.  As a playwright with representation, let me assure you, signing with an agent is no guarantee of success.  Nor does it relieve you from your personal responsibility to promote your work.  My agent primarily handles contract negotiations, such as in publishing and adaptation situations, and he submits the occasional script on my behalf. 

For the most part, I still handle most of my own submissions, as I am more in tune to which script fits best with which competition, and it saves me money.  Yes!  I pay my agent for his time!  If a script hasn’t started making me money, it isn’t making him money.  His time is valuable (beyond measure), and I pay him when he sends new scripts to new venues.  This includes the few theatres that will only accept submissions from agents.  Since I pay for his services, I use them judiciously.

Having an agent has not magically elevated me beyond my peers.  I have won and placed in my fair share of competitions, and I have had a great deal of success getting my work published, but I still get up every day and look for that opportunity to reach out into the stratosphere and make a new contact.  If I can’t find a theatre accepting submissions, I look for venues that handle my kind of story.  Believe it or not, many theatres like certain types of scripts, and they are more likely to produce yours if it’s similar to others they have recently done. 

You may also have more success if you get to know their preferences for cast size and gender/race composition.  Before you reach out to an artistic director, get to know the organization.  Use Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social media to research a potential contact.  The more you know about them, the more flattered they will be, and the more they will know you are genuinely interested in their theatre and what they do.  We all like it when someone takes the time to learn about what we do.

One friend is a writer who signed up for both Facebook and LinkedIn and has never even completed her profile on either.  Needless to say, she hasn’t maximized these tools’ abilities to reach out to those who can help her best.

Facebook has a wonderful group called The Official Playwrights of Facebook where Dusty Wilson generously posts submission opportunities at the beginning of each month.  LinkedIn hosts groups dedicated to Playwrights, Broadway Producers and Investors, and International Theatre, just to name a few.  Do you think you could find more and better opportunities by connecting with people in these groups?  I know you can!  Why?  Because I have!

If you are a playwright hoping to establish more opportunities for your work to be seen, you must commit to promotion.  Don’t wait, hoping one day for that elusive agent.  Don’t make excuses.  Grab the bull by the horns and use the many and varied means available to you now to build a network of people who genuinely want to and are able to help further your work today.  If you’re not familiar with technology, find a convenient teenager to explain Twitter and tweeting.  Offer to edit an English paper in return for her help.  There are too many ways of promoting your work to lose one more day!  After all, your work is wonderful!  Fabulous!  The world needs the insights in your latest play!  It’s not fair of you to keep your light under a bushel basket.  Get out there and let the world know what you have to offer!  You may be surprised when it welcomes you with open arms!

Website: www.krisbauske.com

© Kris Bauske 2013. This article may be reproduced only with full attribution to the copyright holder.