Check out Worldcat.org, the catalogue for all library holdings on earth! The publisher or distributor who sold your project to the University of Abu Dhabi may not have told you, but Worldcat will. And you can also double-check if maybe they just might owe you a bit of green.

By the way, Worldcat is also a great way to check out the effectiveness of publishers or distributors at placing books and films in libraries--a really useful tool if you're considering a contract. In addition, Libraries that own your material can be contacted directly from Worldcat, and are prime buyers for new titles.

To learn more about Worldcat and numerous other essentials in DIY Distribution, NewFilmMarketing is offering new classes in Marketing & Distribution for Books May 1 and 8, and Marketing & Distribution for Film May 22 and 29.

Hope to see you there!

Roll with the times, adapt to our new world. That is the nature of change in this new, COVID reality we are all (somehow) living through. But there have also been upsides to our difficult new reality. One of the most important is that we've discovered how useful Zoom can be for connecting with family and friends, learning new things, and now on NewFilmMarketing, for achieving results with your book or film.

To that end, we are -- TA-DA!! -- launching a series of Zoom classes starting in April on how to use new, DIY techniques for publicizing, marketing and distributing your project. Dates through May 1 are listed, but these classes will be on-going.

We've all seen those Facebook posts about the incredible things that famous scientists and artists achieved during the dreadful plagues of the past. Well, here's something for you to achieve now. Take a class and learn how!

I’M STILL HERE, FOLKS! I do apologize for being away so long, but I was completing a new novel, and then deep in the editing process. Through it all, though, some of you have continued to seek my advice for your wonderful films, and I have certainly enjoyed watching them.

Now I’m BACK!! I will try to post a new blog at least once a month, and as always be available for consults. Our first 20 minute chat is free. Email me at judith.dancoff@gmail.com, and we’ll set up a convenient time. In preparation, also look at the article I did for IDA a few years ago titled “Getting Your Film Ready For School“. It covers the basics of do-it-yourself academic distribution and will help you formulate your questions.

A frequent next step is for me to watch your film and provide up to 90 minutes of consultation, for a flat fee of $250.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to, and have a great holiday! HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2017!!

A filmmaker and distribution consultant I know in NYC, swears by the telephone. Whenever he wants to stir up some business and make a few bucks, he gets on the old horn, and spends an hour or two talking to academics he thinks might be interested in his film. For his trouble, which is not much trouble at all, he’ll usually walk away with a sale or two, and sometimes even bigger bucks, for a large screening. That’s because while email lists allow us to contact hundreds or thousands of potential buyers in seconds, at heart they’re basically spam…so so easy to ignore if you’re in the mood. A telephone contact to an academic buyer gives you a personal connection to someone who truly might have an interest.

When I first began this distribution odyssey, that was my sole method. With no knowledge that mailing lists existed, but aware of people called “subject librarians” in universities, I would search for email addresses to send my cover letters, then do a follow-up phone call a week or so later. (Here’s an example subject librarian list from Stanford University. These are the people tasked with building the collections in your area: http://library.stanford.edu/people/subject-librarians. How did I find it? By googling Stanford + subject librarians! Professors can be found in the same way).

Often the librarians would say, “Oh yes, I remember seeing your email. Tell me about it again…”. And sometimes it led to a sale. In fact, my buy rate with phone calls was sometimes as high as 30%, compared to the standard 1-2% for the email lists.

It seems to me the lesson is clear: take the to make a few calls. Who knows what you’ll turn up?

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave“, from his Republic, speaks to the difficulty of grasping reality, the process of moving beyond shadows on the wall to fully apprehending the truth. And it also speaks to the task of the teacher.

I have watched this youtube claymation of the Allegory scores of times, but always with a tinge of guilt. The filmmaker does an extraordinary job and has over 350,000 hits on youtube but doesn’t charge a cent. Surely his effort cost him in both time and money. Why is he not compensating himself? Who told him there was no money to be made or that he, alone, couldn’t make it? 350,000 hits at even $1 a view would pay for a hell of a lot more claymations.

Of course I don’t know this filmmaker’s goals–he may be independently wealthy and want to give his film away for free–but when I look at his statistics, I am reminded of the rest of us out there, struggling to see beyond the shadows on our wall to an effective distribution plan.

We proceed in the ways we have been conditioned, and cannot think outside-the-box to all the new possibilities that await us.

Slowly, though, I see that as changing. Filmmakers I have met in Washington as well as New York City seem open to exploring new paths and directions. It is gratifying indeed.

We are so pleased to announce that on Thursday, March 28th, NewFilmMarketing will be giving a class in academic distribution at Docs In Progress in the DC area.

Learn the basics of academic distribution, including how to locate your most likely academic markets (from K-12 to university) and effective campaigns to reach those market(s) in terms of pricing, licensing, cover letters, and websites. I¹ll be answering your questions and offering individual website critiques as time allows.

Date and time:
Thursday Mar 28, 2013 at 6:30 PM
to Thursday Mar 28 at 8:30 PM

Where:
Docs In Progress
8700 First Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20910

See Docs In Progress for more information and to register click here.

Postcards, really? Yes, really. As part of an email campaign, they will reinforce your message as well as give your potential buyer something to pin above his/her desk.

With a mailing list service like yourmailinglistprovider.com or mailchimp, you can easily find the names of those who clicked on your website during your campaign. These are your hot leads, certainly worth a follow-up postcard. If your mailing list supplier has provided them, the addresses will be right there too. If not, a quick google search of the individual email will bring it up.

Add to that list the membership lists of academic organizations most closely allied with the topic of your film. Find the organizations, then search under advertising. The great majority of them rent their membership lists for a reasonable fee.

Be sure your card is not over 4×6″ to qualify for the least expensive stamp, and search on-line or in your area for good printing and mailing rates. The card should include your url, enough about your film to get people to click, a good quote, and an image.

If the internet has made instantaneous email blasts possible, it’s also created spam filters, as well as haystacks of incoming mail. Not a problem, though. Many academic librarians still believe that a hard-copy postcard is the best way to make a sale.

The more things change, the more they stay the same!

When I began as a DIY consultant, I thought, naively, that most good films would have an equal chance of selling if given the right academic platform and marketing push. After all, a decent saleswoman can sell the Brooklyn Bridge, right? Empowered by my know-how, I believed that with the right positioning and academic platform, nearly all filmmakers would be able to reach their “academic sales potential”, whatever that was. At the very least, they would sell more than a catalogue distributor, since they would be making an individual effort.

The latter still holds true–what catalogue distributor will launch individual marketing campaigns for you?–but I now realize that the academic sales potential of equally good films can vary. What I’m about to say is just my opinion and of course full of exceptions at every turn, but I hope it sheds some light in our on-going journey to understand how to self-distribute. Please add your own comments and experiences.

What can hurt a film’s sales potential:

– Science buyers can be harder sells than art and humanities buyers, and hard science the most difficult. I know, I know, a huge over-generealization, but when the field is quantitative as opposed to qualitative, the buyer can be more suspect. They also tend to use films less often in their classes. (Not that they never do).

– It seems counter-intuitive, but well-made, “festival-like” documentaries can sometimes work against themselves in an academic setting. Granted there are numerous exceptions, but a film as concerned with its dramatic appeal as its documentary subject, runs the risk of appearing too theatrical. Teachers want to teach, not entertain. Don’t give up before you start, though. An inexpensive library campaign will show your film’s potential.

What will help:

– If the film is on a subject already being taught, and particularly if it has not been explored before, you are several steps ahead. There’s nothing harder than convincing a buyer she needs something when she knows she doesn’t, but buyers can be equally motivated to find films in their field, especially when none yet exist. This point alone may negate everything said above.

– Length, length, length. In real estate it’s location, in academic film sales, it’s length. A film that’s under 60 minutes, or chapterized if over, will show the buyer you’re aware of the importance of length, and want to fit into their classroom hour. This is another reason why more theatrical documentaries, expanded to 90 minutes, are less appealing in an academic setting.

That said, disregard everything you’ve just read. The only sure thing in the film business is that no one really knows what will sell and what won’t. Believe in your film, do test campaigns, and get feedback from professors. Also be aware that trends change. When I first did my film on Judy Chicago, I couldn’t give it away. Now institutions can’t get enough. The moral: if not now, maybe later. You may just be ahead of your time.

Fairytales can hold a powerful sway over us. As a child whose father had just died, I cried for years. Not knowing what to do, my mother told me that when I grew up, I would meet Prince Charming, who would sweep me off my feet and make-up for everything I’d missed. I stopped crying and turned my head toward the future. You can bet that letting go of that fairytale took a toll.

Here’s another fairytale I think is equally destructive. A filmmaker that I recently overheard on a discussion list said he was planning on offering streams of his movie for free and getting 600 million people to view it.

600 million. That’s nearly twice the population of the entire United States or about 25% of all internet users on earth.

His question on the list was what platform to use. No queries about how to attract 600 million viewers which he evidently saw as realistic, only whether to use Vimeo or YouTube. Another post responded that if he expected to reach over 600 million people, he should post information about his film on a few websites!

Where do filmmakers get such ideas? I am sorry to say, from consultants such as myself, who talk about them at film festivals, and then charge very hefty sums indeed to “teach” people how to achieve their dreams. Never mind that everyone gives up the effort in a matter of weeks or months since full-time social networking is grueling, and even if accomplished day-after-day-after-day, will only yield an infinitesimal fraction of such a number.

Here’s what I don’t think is a fairytale: some filmmakers have a realistic chance to reach millions of viewers (though probably not 600 million), and more importantly, to make history, change lives, win awards, etc. Many other filmmakers will also make history, change lives, and win awards, as well as help support themselves through the sale of their films to libraries and academic institutions, for a relatively small outlay of money and time.

The real world offers so much more than fairytales ever could, but only when we come out of our fantasies can we discover the opportunities waiting for us.

I’ve been thinking. Filmmakers certainly deserve to sell their films to universities and libraries, but too many lack the funds at the end of the day to hire me, or anyone, to help them.

Since the skill of distribution is not rocket science, some can succeed on their own, but many need help.

So, I’ve come up with a plan. Beginning Monday, July 2nd, I will be offering small, affordable, 4-week seminars to get you ready for a fall campaign, with plenty of individual feedback. In addition, the purchase of any month of seminars will entitle you to a 30% discount on one hour of my consulting time, useable whenever you like. Also, seminars will be available via a web hosting service, to make it possible for you to attend long-distance, even if you live just a mile away from my home in Los Angeles.

For details, times, and prices on these seminars, see the Workshop link on the menu bar. A 4-week introductory seminar is required for all students, even if you’ve had some background in distribution. It will give an overview of my process, fill in any gaps, and establish a general vocabulary that we can share. In addition, during this first month, you will create a general distribution plan.

After the introductory month, future 4-week seminars will focus on giving each person specific feedback and response as they work on their distribution plan and prepare a campaign. You may dip in and out of these 4-week classes, or work month-by-month to be ready for fall.

Your DIY platform is well-positioned, the endorsements for your film just right, and plenty in academia have said that your movie would be great for teaching their classes. So where are your sales? You have a few, sure, but nothing like what you hear others get.

The process of selling anything yourself can be daunting, especially at the beginning. The internet affords an easy, and sometimes very affordable, way to contact buyers, but because of that, it’s becoming increasingly crowded. How do you rise above the scores of other emails that might arrive in a librarian’s inbox?

Give Your Film A Pedigree

Film festival laurels are great in the movie business, but count for almost nothing in academia. For science and social science especially, buyers want to know that your film has the backing of their important institutions and journals. So get your film reviewed in a few and post the comments on your website. To find them, google your film topic plus the word “journal”. Some will not review films, others will. You can also check an academic publisher like Sage (www.sagepublications.com) for numerous journal titles and links.

Spread The Word!

While the internet makes marketing new and modern, nothing replaces old-fashioned pr. As you search for academic journals, note conferences you might attend, presentations to give, and so forth. Academics gossip as much as anyone. Get your film known. If you can arrange it, do academic screenings for a small fee. Don’t expect much more than a few hundred dollars, but each new contact counts. Think of it as a way to fund your next trip to New York City, Hawaii, wherever. Search the universities in the area, scan the bios of faculty whom you think would be most interested, and contact them. Lead time here is important, though, as they will need to fit you in their calendar. Another good way to spread the word is to join the academic listservs of your discipline and post there.

Follow-Up On Leads

If you are using librarian lists from someone like Richard Dill, your email service (I use www.yourmailinglistprovider.com) should show you a long list of the people who clicked on your site. These are hot leads. Follow-up on them! Send them a personal email, a postcard, even call them. If they clicked on your site, you’re halfway to a sale!

It can take time and work to find your film’s “sweet spot”, but is worth it in the end.