Tuesday, May 11, 2010

entertainment industry coach Question 433: When is an agent not enough and I need a lawyer, a publicist, etc?

The easiest answer is- you'll know. The biggest mistake people make is when they feel their agent isn't doing enough they immediately think they need more people to make things happen. So they pay a lot of money to publicists and lawyers hoping to get more leads.

The problem with this is, if you have nothing unique to market, you've just spent a lot of money for nothing. Agents, overall, are very good at what they do. Why? Well, the obvious reason is that if you don't make money, neither do they. If you have something that's "hot and sellable" your agents will be all over it. Once the frenzy begins, then you want to get a publicist involved. Again, a publicist can't publicize "nothing." If you don't have a hook that's interesting to the media, there's not much an expensive publicist can do for you.

Now, once the agent is promoting your "hot and sellable" and the publicist is getting your hook out there to the media and EVERYONE wants a part of you, contracts are going to start coming in, deal offers. That's when you need a great entertainment lawyer on your team.

One of the exceptions is, if you don't have an agent, and can't send material to production companies without representation, you can get an attorney to submit it for you.

This is a huge topic because there are exceptions all over the place varying from how motivated you are, what you have to promote and the potential team members you meet. But my blog is for the general public. So if you feel you're in a specific situation that needs more clarity, we can do a coaching session on it and even include current team members and potential team members.

For more tips and articles by top entertainment industry career coach, The Greenlight Coach, visitwww.TheGreenlightCoachBlog.com

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