The Playwright and Comedian's Dilemma



2011 has been an amazing year for me as an author. I have now sold over 3,000 copies of my books since August 2010 and I’ve been blessed with both good fortune and the energy to do a lot of grasstramping (a.k.a. hard work) to get my name and my books out there. I will continue to participate in events like book tours and giveaways in order to keep spreading my seed far and wide.

Nearly all of my books have received an uptick from the major success of my first book, 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts: Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More. The two that haven’t are the scripts I created long before: a play and the pilot for a television series. This has gotten me thinking about how tough it is for a playwright or a comedian in the self-publishing world. Most playwrights are working tirelessly on edits for an upcoming production or they are simply trying to get a production of their shows in the first place. This is how it’s always been. Comedians are working on the next sketch comedy project or the next script with hopes of “being discovered” or at the least getting some good reviews. This is how it’s always been. Playwrights and comedians haven’t pushed to get published because books tend to hold such a high place of esteem in comparison. This is how it’s always been.

But I think that the world of self-publishing can change this outdated place of books over scripts. Scripts can be just as enjoyable to read, especially those with a comedic or modern bent that many Kindle readers are likely to gobble up as quickly as the latest paranormal romance.

The main issue with the promotion of these scripts is that there isn’t much out there about promoting scripts on Amazon and in other places fine self-published works are sold.

In an effort to get my scripts out there more and to see if I can unearth some secrets to self-published script marketing, I’m going to write as many posts as I can fit in about this type of promotion (whilst being a guinea pig at the practice myself).

The two scripts in question for me are Covenant Coffee: The Unproduced Pilot and Chekhov Kegstand. The first is part of a 13 episode “season” of television episodes about a team of baristas at a corporate coffee shop. The second is a play set in a college dorm room between two seniors looking to get the full “college experience” and hijinks and heartaches ensue.

Both are currently available for $0.99 on Amazon and many other places E-Books are sold. Thus, the first step of marketing scripts is revealed. Tell people about it, how much it is, and where they can buy it. Future steps forthcoming as I figure them out myself :).

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