A JOE SONGBOOK?

The suggestion was made that I produce a songbook of my stuff. It’s not a bad idea. I made a list (for I am good at lists), and if I go back to the beginning, to the first good song I ever wrote, there are 62 of them—definitely a book’s worth.

It’d actually be fairly easy to do. Lyrics for most of the songs are in “Alice” the computer’s brain, already in a standard format with chords and chord changes; I could add photographs—got plenty of appropriate ones—title page, index, and a few tidbits (maybe a discography), and it’d be a nice product. I wouldn’t include sheet music; producing that in professional-looking form would take software I don’t have, and don’t want to invest in just yet. It’d be chords only, just like a lot of “Greatest Hits” songbooks.

I could do all the printing at home (though if it became a popular item, I’d have to hire that out). I’d package it in a narrow 3-ring binder, I think; the likely end-users of the product would be musicians, and those who use music stands like books they can flip open and have the pages lay flat.

Since I’m out of money and on the make, I have to look at this as a business venture—something else Outside Services The Publishing Company could do. Could the songbook be sold for a price that would recover its cost and turn a profit? Maybe. Figure a dollar for the binder and another dollar for the paper, and figure my design work is going to be recompensed by the profit; a $5.00 price tag would work only if I could keep the printing cost down. I might have to invest in a different printer—the one I have uses very expensive cartridges that don’t last very long. I’ll make a couple songbooks as an experiment, and give them to a couple of friends for Christmas. If they like it, and show it around to friends who want one, I can say, “Well, tell you what I could do…”

I think I have not done a very good job of self-promotion. For the past several years, I think, I haven’t worried about it. I had a job, and music could be a hobby; I could make sure it supported itself, except for the trip every other year to Nashville for the Pineyfest songwriters’ conference, and it mostly did. (The “Santa’s Fallen” CD has paid for itself a few times over now, and that’s a real hopeful sign.) The last time I really had to hustle to bring in business was when I had my own business; it was officially a graphic-design business, but I did everything, from accounting to freelance writing. It took about three years for the business to start turning a profit, but it did, and after a while, I could rely on a lot of my work being jobs for repeat customers. I need to do that again, with the music business.

That means if I do something that can be sold later (like the songbook) for less than production costs, I make some extra copies, and advertise it. Shouldn’t tell myself “nobody’s going to want this”—that’s a decision for the market, not me. If nobody wants it, I just don’t mention it any more, just like the songs that nobody requests again. Right now, I can promote to the “joelist” and in MySpace “bulletins,” and (to the extent anyone reads it) mention it in the blog. I am going to need that Website. “Walking advertisement” T-shirts and sweatshirts aren’t a bad idea, either; I’ve done them for other folks—why not myself?

Craigslist? No, not to sell the songbook, or even CDs—the market for my stuff is going to be to people who’ve heard me, or heard about me; that’s how it’s always been, and likely to be. My own “band wanted” ads on craigslist haven’t gotten a response, and virtually nobody’s acknowledged my answers to their ads, either. (The Taiwanese techno-pop dude was a neat exception.) That doesn’t mean craigslist is useless, however—only that I haven’t learned how to use it effectively. It has cut into newspaper ad revenue enough to force a lot of papers to cut back in size; it or something like it is going to be around for a while.

I did see a lot of Portland venues advertising open mikes on craigslist. That’s not something I can take advantage of right away—Portland is 90 miles away, after all, and it’s winter, making the Coast Range a difficult trek at best. And I don’t know where I might land jobwise (if I land anywhere at all). But it’s something to watch—and I bet open mikes are advertised on craigslist in other towns, too. Open mikes have been my biggest source of notoriety—and of paying gigs.

Joe