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Promotion Strategy Road Map

At Bogart 9 all projects start out as a book. Tom Cruise told us he doesn't make a movie unless its a book first. When you go to Hollywood they don't want to see a script screenplay or your brilliant movie idea. They won't even read it. Even if they did read it, and they bought it, they are going to change it. They may even write you completely out of the picture. Hey you sold it to them. They can do what they want. They fire two or three directors, change production companies a few times, switch actors back and forth, soon its a love story set in the White House surrounded with car chases and explosions. Then after all that they decide not to shoot it at all. And you don't own it anymore.

What to do?

Write the Book is what you do! First read this article in Billboard just to see how much everything has changed. They say the whole system changes every 15 to 20 years. Skim thru that article then come back and read below.

INDEPENDENT ARTISTS AND ROYALTIES IN THE NEW DIGITAL REALM SEPT - 2022

Write the Book!

Write the book. In fact it already IS the book. Anything can be a book. Who said it can't? Years ago everybody said it can't. It used to be 90% book 10% Marketing. Now its 50/50. At the least. The good news, this is the dawning of Aquarius the age of the author, Self Published. When you write the book its YOUR BOOK. The screenplay the website the Movie Poster the video game whatever it all can change, but the Book, its YOU baybee. You rent or sell the Film Rights, you can do all kinds of Licensing, you never even know what format might come out in the Future. The Book is your "Master." The traditional Publishers are dealing with this issue right now. New ePublishing companies noticed that old school "Book Contracts" didn't say anything about eBooks.

There was some trouble. As a new ePublisher offers a new eDeal to the Author who is signed in (locked in) to a traditional Publishing agreement. In other words they consider the eBook version as a NEW contract outside the original agreement. Contracts now days would cover this issue. But all these authors in the old system can get out of their contracts with this trick. And it works because Random House and these big publishers are reluctant to sue their own Authors for using this route to a alternative revenue stream. Anyhow, the lesson for us here is to own your Master. Think -the record company business. Remember how many people got screwed there. 

This same exact scenario is playing out right now with movies and TV shows. Instead of e-Book Format it's the Streaming Format. Everyone working in the industry never anticipated Streaming. Unions, Contracts, agreements, none of it was made with Streaming (profits) in mind. Chuck Norris just won a Lawsuit about truckloads of profits that were not reported to him. I'm sure this will continue to happen as some sort of "Hologram" is invented to milk profits from old material and the artist is not informed. Sooner or later that metaverse thing will get figured out and all kinds of old material will get newly monetized in a way that was never in the original contract. If you sign a contract it better mention this stuff.

There is more bad writing that has sold with good publicity, than good writing sold with no publicity.
1. Write with one goal in mind: to help someone live a better life with your advice.
2. Choose a specific audience who can relate to the topic of your work. 
3. Build a relationship with this core audience make them care.

Don't you wonder why Amazon will print your book and put it up for sale -for free? Why the hec would they do that? It's because they don't make money off you selling your book to some relatives and 6 friends. They make money off all the extra services you're going to buy. You don't have a Copy Editor, you have no Marketing Department, no Distribution Plan, you don't even have a Book Cover Artist. You have no computer graphics skill let alone web SEO or video production skills for your Book trailer commercial. What about the html skills for your "Branding" strategy. Ok now your book is on Amazon, but nobody knows it's there.

You can see how many "extras" Amazon can use to make money off your project. Soon your Free book costs $900 or $1,900+. But hey who knows you may have a hit Best Seller. Could happen. Facebook killed "organic reach" when they started throttling everybody for Money. Pay to Play. But I heard now the trend is they want organic reach but they don't want you to know that. Hmm.

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU PUBLISH ON AMAZON

I was wondering why I can't remove a Book Listing that is obsolete. Amazon does not remove Book Listings. Any Listings. Apparently they have a legitimate and legal reasons for this. Make sure you post something that will give you mojo. Forever. Other problems is there's a lot of fake books on there. Books listed (for sale) that no longer exist. Yeh like one of mine! The point here is, you should use Amazon don't let Amazon use you. Here is a good explanation of Amazon Policies-

Amazon Listing Removal Policy: Amazon Book Removal Policies 

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FORMATS IN THE FUTURE

In 1939 Paperback books were invented. hardcover books still dominated, it took awhile for paperback books to catch on but they did. Hardcover book publishers had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. They were still receiving 50 percent of the royalties by selling reprint rights.

In 1960, for the first time revenues from paperback books of all shapes and sizes surpassed those from hardcover sales. The same year, Pocket Books became the first publisher to be publicly traded on a stock exchange, essentially marking paperbacks' ascent to the mainstream. Hardcovers never died out in the United States, though paperbacks continued to outsell them as recently as 2010, thanks in no small part to the continuing price difference—for example, George R.R. Martin’s bestselling novel A Game of Thrones retails for $32 in hardcover and just $8.99 in mass-market paperback.

Today, it’s de rigueur for major publishers to print both hardcover and paperback books. And of course, there’s a new version “pocket book” transforming reading habits via computer it's the “e-book.” Now that Amazon—and the other online booksellers who followed suit—have untethered e-books from computers by offering inexpensive e-readers. The e-book revolution evolves, now anyone with a smartphone has an entire bookstore in his or her pocket.

WHAT ARE INTERCHANGE FEES?


WHAT ARE CHARGEBACKS?

BUSINESS GUIDE TO CREDIT CARD CHARGEBACKS AND REFUNDS
Banks and bad customers make good profit off your business using Chargebacks.

The Complete Chargeback Guide for Merchants and Consumers
https://chargebacks911.com/chargebacks/

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Royalties where's my Royalties!

Publishers represent Songwriters. Not Artists.
Record labels represent Artists. Not Songwriters.

Registering with BMI or ASCP is not enough to get paid

Read this Royalties Guide, then come back see why you're not getting paid -  Guide to Songwriter Royalties

HOW COME I'M NOT GETTING PAID? OH IT'S THE MLC I NEED OKAY
BMI and ASCP do not collect your "mechanical" Royalties that Spotify and other streamers are busy collecting from your work. If you have no Publishing Deal then you should go collect your "mechanical" royalties [FOR FREE] head over to the MLC (mechanical licensing collective) and signup. You can also search their database to see if you have any money sitting there for you. And grab it before somebody else does.


So, songwriters! The good news is you’re going to finally get paid!

The bad news? You’re going to have to do it yourself. If you don’t someone else can, they say they are YOU and be collecting your Royalties. 

Nothing gets paid out by the MLC unless a proper registration has been made with it. And YOU, the composer, have got to make sure this is done, not the other way around. If you are already represented by a music publisher, don’t worry. They will take care of this for you. After all, they won’t get paid either if the songs are not registered.

However, if you are self-administered, and unaffiliated, it’s completely on you to take the steps to register all of your songs with the MLC. If you don’t, you don’t get paid. This article talks about the MLC portal and has the link (mechanical licensing collective).

Remember, this is mandatory. There is no “opt-out.”

The first step is to sign up as a member. There is no charge for this. The MLC will check you out to make the preliminary assessment that you really exist. After it accepts you, log in to the portal and start creating your catalog. At the outset, the MLC uses two factor identification. So, not only will you need a username and password, but an active email or cell phone number to which a one-time use ID code will be sent, each time you log on.

This whole process is new because of streaming and thus inspired the creation of the Modern Music Authorization Act. The tech companies, particularly Spotify, were simply offering songs for delivery without a license, and of course, without paying anybody. The result was two well publicized class action lawsuits, which no doubt moved forward the Music Modernization Act to pass through Congress. Where's Steve Jobs when you need him?

Take a look at me now!