Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Tools For The Writer's/Filmmaker's Craft: "Selling Your Story In 60 Seconds"

I'm reading an extremely helpful book for the budding storyteller: Selling Your Story In 60 Seconds by Michael Hauge. http://www.amazon.com/Selling-Your-Story-Seconds-Guaranteed/dp/1932907203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246419408&sr=1-1

As he points out, "If you're a writer or filmmaker who wants to connect with an audience, who wants to touch as many people as you can with your work, you must devote time and energy to the marketing process, just as you do to your craft. . . You've got to get your work read, which means you've got to put yourself out there in a positive, committed way and make people aware of your talent." pg. xxi.

This principle applies to more than the arts. It also applies to entrepreneurship in general. From what I've seen and read, one of the main causes of small business failure is the lack of a (sound) marketing strategy. People fall in love with their product or service without giving a single thought to the question, "How am I going to sell this?" It seems to me that it's best to think of the marketing aspect from the very beginning.

I also agree with the author that you only have a short amount of time to make a successful initial pitch. People settle into a general attitude about things or ideas fairly quickly. I've seen this with juries.

As I mentioned in an earlier post:

"Most of the current work created by African-American women promotes the status quo ENTRAPMENT of African-American women and girls. Often, those few works that promote the freedom of movement of an individual Black female author have the negative side effect of blocking the path for others. We need Sojourner-Artists. We need art that promotes and protects the Sojourner's Path by showing the possibilities that are available for African-American women and girls. We need art that encourages African-American women and girls to seize these possibilities." http://muslimbushido.blogspot.com/2009/05/sojourner-as-artist-extended-readers.html

If we are going to have the African-American Women's Arts Movement that we desperately need, then we have to be at the top of our game as Sojourner-Artists.

Read, learn, and Get Busy!
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2 comments:

  1. g-e-m2001July 1, 2009 at 8:21 PM

    Thank you for doing this. You are planting seeds keeping us focussed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KhadijaJuly 1, 2009 at 9:19 PM

    GEM2001/Gina,

    You're welcome! It's a happy side effect of me walking my talk. Each new material I study about the storyteller's craft leads me to other materials.

    Onward and forward!

    Peace, blessings and solidarity.

    ReplyDelete

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