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You don't hire a Publicist in a vacuum. What I mean by that is most people out there do not need a publicist because they have nothing compelling to publicize. What is something compelling enough to publicize? A rule of thumb would be, if you have something that will produce significant profit to you IF people knew about it. You pay someone to help you get the word out because there's a very high expectation that once someone DOES know about it, there will be a significantly positive return on investment which will far surpass the money you spent. Not just break even.. but far surpass.

If you are going to spend 1000 dollars a month on these folks, they should likely result in you making 2000 a month or more in return. If your product (in this case your music) isn't compelling enough to result in that kind of return on investment, then you don't need a publicist. If you are paying someone simply to help you show up on the radar screen, but you have no evidence that once people hear your music they will respond by buying it in large numbers, then you're wasting your money. There are very few unknown artists who can reach those results. Even the really good ones rarely can.

So let's talk about how to mull over whether you need a publicist or promoter.

-A little test run for you. When you do a show for 100 people, do you sell CD's to half of them? 25% of them? 10% of them? If you aren't selling to at least 25% of them, ask yourself why? Why aren't you more compelling to them? If you sell to more than 25% of them, show after show, then I'd say you are so compelling, you need a publicist to get your name and music out to more people who will likely respond by purchasing your music. Remember, the actions of a publicist are so watered down by the time they reach a general and dispassionate audience, that you likely won't really connect with more than 1/2% to 1% of them (and those are very positive numbers for press releases and promotional efforts), and that's only if you're really interesting to them. One acid test is live CD's sales. You have the most direct contact with those folks as you can get in any scenario. That is the best case scenario you have. You are likely to get 1/2% of the % of that audiences interest in you returned via promotion and publicity. So if only 10% of them are interested enough to buy a CD, you gotta figure 1/2% of 1% of 10% will even notice you in mass publicity. That's a tiny number. I suggest that if you aren't selling thousands of CD's a year already, if you aren't doing 100 paid gigs a year, if you don't have a brand new compelling CD being released, then you have no need of a publicist. If you ARE doing those things, then you still have to deal with the percentages above.

-They say a rule of thumb is that you need to reach someone with a message 7 times for them to notice. Let's say that's true just for discussion here. Your publicist needs to reach someone 7 times to get them to notice you. Once they notice, you have to be compelling enough for them to want to buy your music, book you for a show, or investigate you further to advance your career. How many times will your publicist be able to get you in front of the same audience over 1 or 2 months? Once? Twice? Three times if you're REALLY lucky? Guess what? That's not enough by half. Then your time period is over and your money is lost. Bad investment. You likely can't afford to pay a publicist for long enough to make a difference. Without a sustained effort, it's wasted money. That's why McDonalds, one of the best known names in the world, still advertises 10 times a day across all types of media. That's why record labels spend millions to promote even the best known superstars across all types of media (TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Sporting Events, Street Teams, Nightclubs and Tour venues etc.) The truth is that as an indie artist, you can't afford to BUY enough publicity to compete. So why waste the money?

-Instead of spending that tiny amount of resources on a publicist that, even they do their job very well, probably can't help you, spend it on a great live show, a great local promotional effort including playing out 250 nights a year in your region, being involved in every type of public event that exists in your region (festivals, charity events, sporting events, church activities (if applicable), college events, high school events, political events etc., find ways to get on local radio as often as possible, become a fixture in local newspapers by doing things that are newsworthy, start your own writer/showcase nights where you bring in out of town talent but associate yourself with them at the same time, get yourself set as the opener for every possible touring act that comes through, make sure you have amazing merchandise (pay someone to design your T-Shirt, album covers and website so that it's compelling to those who DO take the time to be interested), join every possible organization on the web and in real life and have a presence there so that people who are up and coming in the industry all know who you are (because often those folks will become the next person working at a label or radio station or media company or make it in the next hot band), leave no networking opportunity uncovered. That's just a few things off the top of my head. All those things will get you a lot farther along than paying someone 1000 bucks a month to give you a tip sheet or forward your music along with anyone else willing to pay that money to the same tired contacts.

This all ASSUMES, you are a great artist with a compelling new CD that people will love. If you don't meet that minimum, then all of the above is a waste of time until you do.

I haven't heard your new CD, but I've been a long time fan of your work Patti. I can think of hundreds of things that are likely better to do than spending it on this deal. I would have also told you not to spend the money with The Press House (and I don't even know who they are) because of all the above reasons.

That said, if you go forward with this company, come back and tell us what they did for the money and what you got out of it. Anytime you don't at least break even on an investment, it's a really bad investment. Now, perhaps they did some things for you that have lasting effects. If they helped you improve and learn about how to succeed, then there's some inherent benefit there. That's why membership to various orgs. are worthwhile if you learn and grow will being a member. But often with publicists and reps, there's no growth and the only thing you learn is how not to waste your money the next time. Hopefully for you, that won't be the case if you move forward. But the last 9 years of doing this suggests to me that I've heard all this before.

Brian