**As featured in Indie on the Move's Touring Tips Section, below is advice on improving your booking sales pitch to music venue bookers and talent buyers, and how to secure more shows and better tours in the process...

When communicating with a booker, be as concise and informative as possible. Remember, he probably receives A LOT of emails every day, so the last thing he wants to read is a long-winded message. Try to keep it to 4-5 sentences while still hitting on all your main selling points. If you need to, take some time to get your spiel ready before actually reaching out and establishing contact.

In your message, you want to include all relative information that will convince the music venue booker and talent buyer that you are going to get people through the door on the night of the show (i.e., promotional pursuits and previous draws in that market, radio and press outlets that you'll be pursuing, and the like).

+The Art of Self Promotion - How to Fill A Venue

This tidbit is what he wants to hear because that is how the venue makes money and continues to operate.


A very helpful tool in securing a show, especially in a new market, is offering to book the entire bill. If you tell the booker that you will take care of getting strong-drawing local support to guarantee a crowd through the door, they will usually at least put the night on hold for you until you line those acts up and confirm the bill. In essence, you do the booker’s job for him.

Then, the best ways to find local bands that the booker is comfortable with is to either ask him for recommendations or check out the venue's calendar and make a note of the bands playing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights on a regular basis.

These tend to be the bands/artists that have proven themselves to the booker/music venue and have the strongest draws. Next, sort through these bands and find the ones that you like best and that also fit well with your style of music. Lastly, write them to see if they’d be interested in sharing the bill with you. Perhaps a show swap is in order, you never know.

In cahoots with the aforementioned, another great way of finding local acts to hop on a bill is through Indie on the Move's Bands database.

Whether it is an actual gig swap or simply a show offer, the Bands search function allows you to conduct advanced statewide, city specific, and radial searches for bands and artists by genre.

You can then contact them through our IOTM email system, check out their profile to hear a clip of their music, and view the local venues that they traditionally play in their home market to get an accurate idea of the size of their draw.

Related Blog Posts:

+Don't Kill Your Hometown Crowd

+How To Make Sure You're Booking a Good Venue

+Marc Geiger's Advice on Cold Pitching Agents and Major Music Markets