The Entertainer's Guide to Agents
Welcome to Part 3 of Get More Gigs 101: The Essential Guide to Marketing for Entertainers
In this part of our Essential Guide to Marketing for Entertainers, we’re looking at the role of agents in getting you work and maximizing your career potential.
If you’re planning to have a full-time entertainment career, you may well have wondered about the role of a talent agent in your career progression and in this section we have tried to tackle all the questions you might want to ask…
What will an agent do for me? | How do I get signed by an Agent or Agency? | Do I need more than one Agent? | Are there different agents for Cruise Ships? | Are there any special requirements when I sign-up? | When do I need a Manager or an Artist Management Agency? | How much will an Agent charge?
What will an agent do for me & do I need one?
Essentially, a booking agent is responsible for representing you, getting you the best possible opportunities and negotiating the right fees for you. For this service, some agents will take their commission from your booking fee, whilst others will add their commission on top (making you more expensive). An agent will get you bookings, but it’s important to remember that one sole agent is unlikely to fill your bookings calendar – which is why we recommend having more than one agent.
They can be really useful for negotiating good deals once you have honed your craft to a high standard, but for entertainers starting out in any field the best way to secure gigs is through privately arranged bookings, through sites like ours and with the help of good marketing (see the rest of our Essential Guide to Marketing).
In short, to begin with you will need determination, a strong will, the ability to take knock-backs and the energy of a nuclear power plant! Once you’ve perfected your act and have outstanding promotional materials, that’s when a good Agent will come into play.
How do I get signed by an Agent or Agency?
Here are the key things that you will need to do and have in order to get onto their books:
1. Master your craft. It almost goes without saying that you need to be really, really good at what you do. Your act will need to be honed to perfection and your performances will need to be polished and professional.
2. Make sure your publicity is perfect. Even if you have managed to perform hundreds of successful gigs, if your promotional materials aren’t up to scratch you won’t get your foot in the door with a decent agent. You will need fantastic photos and a show-stopping, professional showreel. No selfies, no grainy, low-quality video footage. Your promotional materials need to reflect your talent and your professionalism. To help you with this we have some detailed guides to getting perfect photography and showreels, and we also have exclusive offers on video and photo editing so that our members can really showcase their talent.
3. Apply to as many agents as possible!! There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the more you apply to, the higher your chances of success in terms of getting onto at least one agent’s books. Secondly, as you’ll see from our advice below, you should be listed with several agents in order to fill your bookings calendar.
One way of connecting with agents is through our directory. As an active member of Entertainers Worldwide, your profile features in the search results of our global directory, where agents & members of the public can search for and find you. In addition, many of the entertainment jobs, auditions & gigs that we feature on our website have been posted by agents for cruise ship contracts, entertainment jobs abroad and local event entertainment requests. By applying to any of these jobs, you are getting your profile, and your promotional materials, in front of these agents.
Do I need more than one Agent?
Yes, in most instances we would recommend that you make sure that you are not only featured with multiple agents, but that you also continue to do your own marketing, have your own website and feature in our directory. A sole agent will get you bookings, but generally not enough to keep you busy. But if you are represented by ten agents that each bring you five gigs per year, that is on average one gig per week. If you add to this your gigs through Entertainers Worldwide, your own social media efforts, and website, then you have a full-time job!
Are there different agents for Cruise Ships?
Yes! There are agents who specialise in Cruise contracts. In many cases these agents will work with, and have contacts in, all the main Cruise companies and you can use this single agent for all your bookings, rather than being with several agencies.
However, it’s worth checking who your agent works with, since some agents only work with specific Cruise lines. If this is the case you may also want to sign-up with another agent who works with the Cruise lines not covered by your current agent. A note here though - this can be a tricky situation, since your agent will want you to be constantly available and not taking bookings through other agents. However you should always act in your own interests when it comes to getting those all-important bookings.
You can find out everything you need to know about getting Cruise contracts in this section of our Get More Gigs Guide.
Are there any special requirements when I sign-up?
Some agents may want you to work with them ‘exclusively’. This may well work if you feel that they are likely to get you the volume of bookings you need. But it’s worth noting that while you can expect to get more work on this type of contract, you are also likely to be paying more commission.
Another thing to be aware of is 'alias' act names. Some agents will want you to have a specific act name for any gigs you do that are booked through them. This prevents their bookers from googling your real act name to contact you direct and avoid paying the agent's commission.
When do I need a Manager or an Artist Management Agency?
When an artist has reached a certain level and has a following, they may no longer wish to deal with the vast amount of enquiries coming in and may seek representation from an Artist Management Agency or even a Manager who will work solely for them. In these situations, all incoming artist's requests would go through the Management Agency/Manager.
The primary difference here is that your Manager or Management Agency would be pro-actively seeking work for you and making daily enquiries to bring in more gigs, rather than putting you forward for any relevant jobs that land on their desk. A Manager will also aim to get you better paid gigs, but all this definitely comes at a price and you would be expected to pay the highest rate of commission for this service.
How much will an Agent charge?
The amount they charge may well vary, but as a rough guide the average commission is 15%. You can expect to see a range of 10-20%. You are unlikely to be charged over 25% unless you are on an ‘exclusive’ contract with a single agent. In this instance they may well change around 30% since they will be focusing far more effort on getting gigs for your act.
One Last Thing...
As a final note on the wonderful world of agents, it’s worth remembering that if you want to be successful entertainers, they should only be one of the many pillars holding up your business.
To have a full-time career you should be looking at as many avenues as possible to grow your business - promoting yourself directly via your own website, through directory profiles like ours, by applying to job posts on our site and through social media marketing as well as all the other areas that we cover in the rest of our Get More Gigs guide.
We really hope you’ve found this guide useful – and if you’re at the stage in your career where you need to get those bookings rolling in, or just want a way to take bookings with no commission, make sure you sign-up and activate your account with us today. You’ll be able to start taking direct bookings immediately for your act in your area, abroad or on Cruise ships, with 0% commission.