Marketing Question

Bloo · Oct 29, 2012

I've written a one-act children's play entitled ALLIE IN WONDERLAND, have had it produced and now published through HeartLand Play Publishers (http://www.heartlandplays.com). It looks like my second children's play, THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY OF TOM SAWYER AS TOLD BY BECKY THATCHER, will soon be published by them as well.

My only complain with this company would be that, outside of their website and newsletter, I have to do most of the marketing myself. I don't have a problem with that, as I have the time. I'm struggling though with how and where to market.

I know that the market children's theater is small, primarily schools and some children's theater programs. I'm not in this game to make money (at least not yet, though I think that should be the goal of every writer). But I do want to see the work "move" if you will.

I'm active in two different state-wide writer's group and locally with my theater. I have contacts in schools large and small and use them as much as I can. But I also know teachers get so many play solicitations that they tend to not see postcards, etc. I've had it suggested to me that I call teachers and ask if they'd like to visit about the play or would like more information, however I know not all teachers get a planning period and if they do, they may not have time to listen to me talk to them about buying my play.

I'm active on my website (http://www.emergencyroomproductions.net). I blog, link my blog to my author facebook page, twitter account, tumblr, pinterest, etc. All the things that are suggested to do in a social media age. I've put in submissions for blog interviews and blog tours and have so far have had no takers. I've seen some of these virtual blog tour websites that charge you to arrange a virtual blog tour. I'd rather not pay anywhere from $30-600 for a blog tour (though I probably would for an actual tour if I had to.)

I've also used Vistaprint and made up about 100 postcards and had them sent to schools across my state, to the English and Drama teachers there.

Maybe I'm getting sales and I just don't realize it or I'm not being contacted by the company and/or purchasers about it.

One idea that has been suggested is writing some 10-minute plays as monologues and/or duets, self-publishing them via my website and letting drama and speech competition teachers know about it and offer to work with or give a guest lecture in their classrooms. This is an option I'm currently exploring as it looks like, at least in my state, that they have regulations in place for Internet publications, but they aren't that stringent.

So...suggestions anyone on how to properly market my two one act, young adult plays into the hands of those that are looking for them?

Doug B · Oct 30, 2012

Our theater doesn't do childrens/YA plays so I can only be general. The American Association of Community Theaters lists play publishers by category:

http://www.aact.org/making/playsource.html

- I have used the database to find a specific type of play.
- Children/youth is one category

I noticed that Heartland is not listed.

Might help if they got on the list.

Doug

zander · Oct 30, 2012

Congratulations on getting published and I hope you continue to have success!

There isn't one market, there are four:

1. The professional theatre market.

2. The community theatre market.

3. The school market.

4. The children's theatre market.

You seem to be aiming for #4 with a little bit of #3. The difference here is whether or not your play is designed to be performed by kids, or whether it's designed to be performed for kids by adults. The difficulty with splitting the difference here is the intended age of the audience - if you're aiming for #4, you're looking at an audience age of 5-10 or so, but the vast majority of schools in the #3 area are going to be middle and high schools. There just aren't many elementary schools producing and performing plays (and, honestly, elementary schools are less likely to understand royalty structure and are more likely to perform your play without paying for it)

There are some high schools which will tour shows to elementary schools, which sounds like a good fit for your plays. The question, then, is how to get them in the hands of a high school or middle school director.

Heartland undoubtedly sends its catalogue out to the theatre directors - so quite a few of them will have it in their hands. Whether that translates into actual sales is another question. High school directors get anywhere from 6-10 catalogues a year from publishing companies, each containing hundreds and hundreds of plays. They have to choose something that's going to get their students excited.

All this being said: Buying postcards and sending them out is likely to be a waste of time and money. When I was teaching high school, I would never have considered that as a way to choose a show.

What you need to do: Create your own website. Put some sample material on there. If you're going to find teachers' email addresses, give them the link to your site so they can read the material, and then provide a link to the publisher's site so they can buy it. Cold-emailing teachers is not very effective, and it's time-consuming and annoying. On occasion I will do this, but I get very few productions that way, despite the fact that I'm one of the most-produced playwrights out there.

You can also attend thespian festivals, conferences, etc... see if Heartland is planning on having a booth at any festival and see if you can go along to sign scripts. That's the single easiest way to sell a play to a high school director. But there are often registration fees that make it not terribly cost effective. If Heartland is going, and will pay for your fee, it's a very good idea.

Okay, now if you're going for market #4. Children's theatres will never find your show in that catalogue - they're much more like professional theatres in how they choose material. In this case, if you have to send a query letter to the AD or Literary Manager, and then follow their guidelines. You won't be able to bribe them with postcards or emails either. These people are professionals. And, contrary to what you said, the children's market is very large and very lucrative. You can make a living writing plays that get produced in children's theatres. But in the beginning you're going to have to sweat like the rest of us - research individual theatres, send the letters to the literary managers, wait for responses, and then email your scripts in. Again, it's not easy to get produced, but a Tom Sawyer play might be an easier sell there than in high school (where it might seem dated).

In the meantime, keep writing, build your website, and hope that Heartland can get your shows out there. (Do they have an author log in where you can track your sales? If not, they should get one.)

zander · Oct 30, 2012

Stupid reply screen doesn't show me your message, so I realize now you've got your own website.

Social media, twitter, tumblr, facebook isn't very good at selling books. Do it if you like it, but if you don't like it, don't bother with it.

One thing that helps you sell plays is volume. And by volume I mean number of scripts you have out there. Each script feeds on the other plays, so the more you have, the more each of them will sell. Even if you're an established writer, publishing more material floats all of your previous work. There are a lot of prolific writers for the school market and community theatre market (people like Alan Haehnel - 70 plays, Craig Popisil, Pat Cook, etc...) have written gobs and gobs of plays, which helps.

So write more and more - 10 minute plays aren't all that producible, and they don't make you much money, and often can't be published separately, so I don't think that's the way to go here.

Bloo · Oct 30, 2012

thank you for all the advice it makes a lot of sense.

Because both of this scripts were commissioned scripts, they are probably not the best...indicator what market, but #3 and 4 would be correct. Allie in Wonderland was designed as a play to be performed by Jr. High students (or young HS students, i.e. freshman/sophomore) for elementary students or young jr high (6th grade)...Tom Sawyer on the other hand was designed to be performed by older elementary students(those reading that book) with 3 adult actors (Mark Twain, Mrs. Clemens and a stage hand) but could easily be done with older actors.

The 10 mintue plays thing was more of a self publishing, get my name in the hands of English and Drama teachers as well as a personal excercise (I set a goal of writing 12 10-Minute plays this year, just to keep me writing when I have no commissions or full plays in work).

Thanks for the advice again from both of you it means a lot.

One point of correction: just because I designed the plays to be produced (and were produced that way) doesn't mean that an adult cast couldn't do either one of these plays for children. I should have made that clearer in my post and after rereading it realized it wasn't as clear as it should be.

Bloo · Oct 30, 2012

I did add my website, etc in my signature as I've been working on that for a couple of months now. And yeah it's just going to keep on slogging through and sweating it out.

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