|
Press Kit Tips
By
Nicole Blackman
Publicist
reprinted with permission from
Derek Sivers, Hit Media
ON CONTENTS:
What makes a good presskit? If you're doing press
on your own band, the big mistake I've seen is
putting too much stuff in the presskit. Don't include
the calendar listing from the Village Voice the one
time you played CBGB's. Every band has played
CBGB's. It's not a big deal. If you don't have a lot of
press, don't feel the need to fill up the kit. Don't even
announce that you were on some "Best Unsigned"
CD compilation. I save those CDs, and often notice
that years later I've still never heard of any of those
bands.
If you don't already have a lot of press and a buzz
going, just send out a tape and a bio. That's ALL that
matters! If you do have a bunch of good reviews,
excerpt the best lines so you can fit five reviews onto
one page. Unless it's a rave review in a substantial
magazine, just do a quote sheet for the bulk of them.
I only need to see two or three pages to get the gist.
Don't think "it's my one shot, I have to send them
everything!" As a band goes on and gets better
press, start weeding the smaller reviews out. There's
no need to keep adding and adding. Save xerox
costs. Save trees. Put together two pages of good
stuff.
Most editors get 50-70 kits a day. They don't have
time to sift through a 20-page package. They often
skim your pressclips, save the bio and throw the rest
away.
ON THE BIO:
Call someone at a label or a magazine and ask if they
can send you some bios they've received. [Derek's
tip: the labels' web sites and AOL sites have all their
acts' bios online.] Read plenty of other bios and get
some ideas of what to do, and what NOT to do.
The best bios I've seen are the ones that are written
like a story, written editorially. Some small
publications will run the bio as is. Knowing that, try
to write it as editorially as possible. Check out some
stories that people have written for magazines you
like and get an idea for what makes a good lead.
Remember the times you read all about an artist you
had never heard of, just because the article was
well-written. Put a couple descent quotes in there.
Don't make the whole thing descriptive, like "The
band is from Pennsylvania, where they all met in high
school, blah blah." Nobody really cares. If you've got
a local angle you can mention it, so that if someone
from Pennsylvania is doing a story, they can pick up
on that. If your lyrics are really interesting, excerpt a
couple lines.
If you don't have a lot to say, keep it to one
interesting sheet. You don't have to talk about the
record. Show that you could do a good interview,
cuz that's the most important thing. Every editor is
reading a bio, going "Would I want to talk to these
people?" If it sounds like they give good quotes, or
you have interesting anecdotes, they'll want to talk to
you. Realize that the first paragraph of your bio is like
the first song on your tape. If that doesn't catch their
interest, then the rest won't either. What makes the
band a little different? If your mom is playing maracas
on the last track, put it in the bio. Sure! Why not?
Whatever you do, don't call yourself your
hometown's "Best Kept Secret." That's SO awful! If
you can't write your own bio, get someone to write it
for you.
Your bio is your calling card. As long as your tape is
good, and your bio is good, you're in fine shape.
Everything else is kind of gravy.
ON PHOTOS:
Whenever a band does photos it's usually the
weakest part of any band doing their own publicity. I
see these horrible photos that some guy's girlfriend's
next-door-neighbor's little sister's babysitter's
dog-walker took. And it's usually a bunch of
incredibly ugly 40-year old guys who are balding
with ponytails standing in a row wearing leather.
What they don't know is that a lot of magazines
collect these really horrible photos and put them up
on a hilarious "Wall of Shame." If you're not a
good-looking band, don't ruin your chances by
someone looking at it and getting turned off. If you're
sending to a good magazine, they're probably not
going to use it anyway, so put "Photo Available" on
the package, and if they need it, they'll call.
If you are going to be doing a photo, spend some
time and money on it. If it's not a great photo, don't
send it out!
Get something really clear. Really imaginative. For
God's sake, don't shoot yourselves standing up
against a wall! Get a visually interesting background.
A car, elevator, washing machine, anything. Make it
high contrast black and white, never just shades of
gray. Do this test: Take the photo and put it on a
really crappy photocopier - the one down at the
Indian deli. Put your copy back on the copier, and
copy it again. Copy the copy of the copy. If you can
STILL make it out, it'll probably reproduce OK in
fanzines or reduced down to one square inch.
Nicole Blackman is a publicist based in New York City. She is also a member of the band, Golden Paliminos.
Derek Sivers has a bunch of interesting articles on his Hit Me web site. Find out about his business endeavors on his Hit Media site.
|
