Tag Archives: self-publishing

Five Mistakes Actors Make That Stop Them Getting Work

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Getting work as an actor is hard. With long periods of unemployment and vast competition. This was the main reason I wrote my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming An Actorpreneur. The odds are not good but you can tip them in your favour. You can make your own work, work on your skills, get your name out there. They say success is opportunity meets preparation. So here are my top five tips to make sure you are prepared and stop making the mistakes that stop you having the best career you can. Here are five mistakes actors make in their career that stop them being successful.

 

howtobeasuccessful_actor_book become How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur

Arrogance

Far too many actors are arrogant. Especially just after they have left drama school. Thinking you are the best actor that ever walked the earth is not going to convince anyone else to hire you. No one likes arrogance. Always under-promise and over-deliver. Be humble and modest. The traits that make a good human being also make a good actor.

 

Marketing Yourself Wrong

Yes, you are an artist but you are also a product. You have to brand yourself correctly so people know what you are ‘selling’. If you are Irish and want to market yourself as an Irish actor you must be prepared for only getting Irish roles. People will try to put you into a box but you can do yourself a favour by making yourself versatile. If you don’t want to be known as a certain type of actor, (like Australian, Irish, etc) don’t market yourself that way. Play up to your strengths and downplay what will limit you getting mainstream work.

You must also update your head shots, CV and showreel at least yearly. Don’t forget to update the various online acting sites you may be on every time you get a job.

 

Not Continuously Working On Your Skills

Actors can go months, and even years without working. If you do not work on your skills when unemployed not only will you be rusty when it comes to audition and getting work, but you will also not be as confident. Your CV will also be lacking. You are a business, invest in yourself. Even if it is getting a camera and making some short films with friends.

 

Thinking The World Owes You a Living

You are not special. You do not deserve to be a super-successful world famous actor. The world does not owe you anything. A sense of entitlement is not going to do you any favours. This was the main piece of advice American casting director Daryl Eisenberg gave me for my book on becoming a successful actor. Don’t think you are better than anyone else.

 

Being a Jerk

No one wants to work with horrible people. The film industry is tiny, as is the theatre and TV industry. If you are rude, horrible and difficult to work with then you will have a pretty short career. Be nice. Manners cost nothing.

 

Catherine Balavage is an actor and writer with over ten years of experience in the industry. Her book, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, came out in June this year. She also co-directed and wrote her own feature-length film, Prose & Cons, which will be out later this year.

 

 

KOBO and Curtis Brown Announce Scholarship

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KOBO AND CURTIS BROWN CREATIVE INTRODUCE. KOBO WRITING LIFE 2013 SCHOLARSHIP

 

Any readers of Frost magazine who are interested in a writing career may be interested in this new scholarship from Kobo and Curtis Brown. Companies make tuition at London’s premier writing school accessible for three up-and-coming authors

 

Kobo, a global leader in eReading, and Curtis Brown, one of the UK’s premier literary and talent agencies, have announced that together the companies are introducing the Kobo Writing Life™ Scholarship to advance opportunities for three aspiring writers this year. The Kobo Writing Life Scholarship provides tuition fees for a writer in each of the following course: the three-month novel writing course, three-month writing-for-children course, and six-month novel-writing course. Each course is offered by Curtis Brown Creative and held at their London location.

 

“Kobo Writing Life is dedicated to supporting authors and is committed to allowing them barrier-free access to readers anywhere in the world,” said Mark Lefebvre, Kobo’s Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations. “Excellence in writing is critical and at the heart of an author’s success and we are thrilled to be able to work with Curtis Brown Creative to help writers hone their craft.”

 

“We are very excited to be partnering with Kobo on this initiative to open up our courses to writers who would not otherwise be able to study with us,” said Anna Davis, Director, Curtis Brown Creative.  “Kobo is an energetic supporter of new writing and a generous sponsor of this program.”

 

Applications are now being accepted for the three-month Writing for Children course held April-July. Applicants must complete the online application form and provide the first 3,000 words of their novel in addition to a synopsis. Details of the scholarship for the three-month writing-for-children course starting in September and the six-month novel writing course starting in February will be made available at www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk.

 

Curtis Brown launched its creative writing school in May 2011 as a way to reach new writers and foster their development as authors. In-depth courses are taught by industry experts including bestselling authors, agents and editors from Curtis Brown.  Kobo, through its self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life, and Curtis Brown Creative are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in writing and have partnered to develop strategic initiatives that foster the development of authors around the world.

 

This is the second project Kobo and Curtis Brown Creative have developed together. The companies also created the Jeffrey Archer Short Story Contest which resulted in a thousand, 100-word submissions to be judged by the author. The finalists will be announced on April 15 at London Book Fair.

Tim Austin On Kindle Publishing Christmas Tails.

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Frost: You’ve written a book of short stories for Christmas – tell us a little about them.

Tim: I actually wrote the stories a few years back, as presents for friends and family. There are four stories and each has a different feel and genre. One is a children’s adventure in the style of Enid Blyton, one is a comic farce told in “net speak”, another is a Victorian ghost story.

Frost: But they’re all linked in some way?

Tim: They all contain Dogs, hence the Title; “Christmas Tails”.

Frost: What made you think of publishing them?

Tim: I was encouraged to share them by the people who I’d written them for and people who they had shown them to. The positive reaction took me by surprise, to be honest; I’ve written a few scripts here and there but nothing like this. It was quite flattering so I thought “why not?”
I initially did a short print run of one of the stories, “Dreams”, for local people in Yorkshire. It sold out. I was later told that it had been used in a high school assembly somewhere in Birmingham!

Frost: And now you’ve put the collection on the Kindle Bookstore?

Tim: Yes. It’s also available as a PDF from my website.

Frost: What made you go down the direct publishing route?

Tim: Time and cost, mainly. As an actor chasing work, I’ve little time to be running around after publishers – it’s a bit of a chore, frankly. I thought that publishing online would be the simplest and quickest way of getting the book out there.

Frost: And how have you found self-publishing? Successful? Tricky?

Tim: More difficult than I had expected, to be honest. The trouble with self-publishing is that you’re suddenly responsible for formatting and type-facing the book for use with e-readers (which is a steep learning curve!) as well as marketing the book itself. And the market for e-books is a little different to the market for paperbacks.

Frost: How so?

Tim: It seems to me, having now been poking around the forums and the dozens of e-book related sites on the net, that there is a new culture developing around e-books. The audience is pretty open to new works and new authors but they’re also pretty demanding – pricing is tricky, for example, and they’re not scared of telling you if something doesn’t work!
That said, I’ve found the publishers forum on Amazon very helpful and wonderfully supportive.

Frost: And what about your decision to give 50p per book to Children in Need?

Tim: Well, as much as the money would come in very handy, the important thing to me is having the book in people’s hands and enjoyed. I always feel the tiniest bit guilty that I’ve not been able to give as much as I’d like to the charity over the years and I want to make up for that. It’s a great charity and, with government support ebbing away from many of the causes that Children in Need supports, it just seems like the right thing to do.

Frost: Any future publishing plans?

Tim:
Not immediately. But who knows? If it sells well enough, there may – just may – be a sequel.

Frost: You read it here first.

To buy Christmas Tails, please visit Tim’s main site at www.tim-austin.co.uk or buy it from the Amazon Kindle Bookstore here; Christmas Tails