Choose the venue you want to play. In choosing a venue answer the following questions before contacting the venue.
-What kind of bands or artists does this venue usually book?
-What do I have to offer this venue?
-Why should they book my act?
-Do they have an in house personal amplification system?
-Will I have to provide my own P.A. system?
-How many fans will come to my show at this venue?
-How does this venue pay bands?
-What's the name of the person in charge of booking acts?
-What nights of the week do they host live music?
-What is the capacity of the venue?
-How are the acoustics of the venue?
-How many sets will they expect me to play?
The better versed you are on the answers to these questions, the more likely you are to not sound stupid when you call the booking person at the venue. Know as much as you can about them before you approach them. They will notice your interest.
How to contact the venue. Phone? Email? Face to Face? The best is always face to face, but some venues are so busy that the only way to get a hold of the house **** is via the internet. Regardless of that... Go for face to face! Fight to get the gig! Ok so what do you say? Let them ask the questions. They will usually blow you off by saying something like, "Do you have a press kit you can leave with me, mail to me or email?" Your response better be, "Oh Yes! I will send it over right away!" Then what? Follow up!!! Contact them in a couple days and ask them if they got it. If they have, ask them if they've had time to review its contents. If you didn't have a press kit to send then get one together.
A press kit. This is what you want to have in your press kit. Venues could care less about your studio recorded album. They want to hear and preferably see you live. Give them what they want by recording some of your life shows. Make sure you feed the sound through your mixing amp and record it that way. Then you will be able to control the noise of the crowd when getting something together for your press kit. A great live video with a crowd digging what you do works every time. A couple other things to have in your press kit are some band pics, some press releases of kick butt venues you've played before. Joes Pizza shop isn't near as impressive as The Manhattan, but use what you've got. Name dropping only goes so far. The most important thing in your press kit will be your stats sheet. What's that? How many people are following your act. How many Cd's you've sold. How many tickets you've sold. How many shows you've sold out. This stat sheet will speak louder then anything else. The venue is in business to make money and if you can prove to them that your act will make them more of that green stuff, over my dead dogs body you will get the gig!