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Advice for Playwrights
Write on! As one of the largest full-service play publishing companies in North America targeting the educational, children's and community theatre markets, we receive hundreds and hundreds of play submissions and queries a year. Want to learn more about playwriting and the type of submissions we're looking for at Pioneer Drama Service? Follow us here!
Free Sample Scripts
If you have a play already published with Pioneer Drama Service, there's now a new and exciting way we're promoting your shows... free script samples!
And if you have a blog or website, you can help promote your show further by posting these samples on your play writing site. It's incredibly easy and will definitely help directors and producers find your shows! Here's how to get your free sample script:
1) Go to the main page for your play on the Pioneer website.
2) Select the 'Script Sample' tab at the bottom of the page to open a pdf copy of the script sample.
3) *Save the pdf to your hard drive.
After that, all you need to do is go to your website or blog and post the sample online! (*Alternatively, instead of saving the file to your hard drive, you can also copy the web address for your script sample and link to it from your website.) It's a very easy way to give producers and directors a preview of the shows you've written and help them find the script they're looking for.
Open Letter to Any Aspiring or Working Playwrights
Dear playwriting friends,
Are any of you planning to do any writing for NaNoWriMo this year?
If you're not familiar, NaNoWriMo is the abbrev for National Novel Writing Month. It's a month long writing challenge held every November. Its primary focus is novel writing, but it's a great excuse to get any kind of writing done, and it's crazy fun. There are several playwrights who have found refuge at the NaNoWriMo site after the end of Script Frenzy, the sister event for many years before it was cancelled, and will be writing new plays during the November writing challenge.
The challenge's highest goal is to provide extra motivation to knock out various writing projects. This year, I'm working on the novel adaptation of one of my plays, The Princess Who Had No Name, which was written during Script Frenzy 2012, btw.
Plus, there's a great online community of both new and experienced writers to interact with and I'm hoping you'll join me for all the fun! Whether you're novelling or playwriting, I'd love to hang out with you during NaNo next month. My handle on the NaNoWriMo website is Brian D. Taylor. Feel free to look me up and add me as me your writing buddy!
See you in November!
Brian
A+ Playwriting Contest For Teachers
Fifty years as one of the leading play publishers for the educational market has taught us that some of our best-selling shows are written not by professional playwrights, but by teachers who create a play based on the specific needs of their drama program. Once published, these plays are quickly embraced by other teachers who share the same opportunities, challenges and limitations that seem universal in schools. Click here for details.
Never fear, if you are not a current educator, we still have a playwriting contest for you: the Shubert Fendrich Memorial Playwriting Contest.
Make Your Playwriting Site More Visible
So you've decided to start blogging. Great! Now, to make your blog or website a success, you've got to make it zing in order to make it more visible in that deep, endless chasm that is the internet. Here's an overview of how to make your site really pop!
Content
This is the number rule to getting search engines to find your page. It's all about content. You need lots of it, which is why a playwright blog is slightly preferred over a mere webpage. Regularly updated and original content will help your site appear nearer to the top of related search results. That's how new customers are going to find out about you.
So, what kind of content are you going to supply on your playwright blog? Obviously, you'll want to have all kinds of information about your plays and productions of your plays. Don't be shy here. Pat yourself on the back and tell the world about your stuff. This is what self-promotion is all about, and remember, if you don't promote your plays, there may be few who will.
Other types of content may include the things happening in your life, or your writing process and info on new projects you're working on. Perhaps you include reviews of other shows or your thoughts on news and current events.
One bit of advice to keep in mind is that while this is your public arena, you should be aware to put your best foot forward. While you may want to let your fans get to know you, your playwright page might not be the best platform for expressing political views or extreme opinions on hotly debated topics. The goal is to let people get to know you so they want to produce your shows. Tread carefully.
Links!
I love links. I link my blog to everything. It's linked to the publisher's website where my blog readers can quickly and easily purchase one of my plays, it's linked to other playwright blogs (who kindly link back to mine!), it's linked to outside pages that are related to whatever topic I might be discussing. The blog even links to itself! In my opinion, you can never have too many links.
SEO Keywords
In your posts, you should also be tagging it with a variety keywords. This is another way you can help search engines find your blog and prioritize it over others in the search results. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Choosing keywords wisely will optimize your page for the best search engine results. A simple web search for SEO will give you more info on how keyword optimization works.
Visually Attractive
You also want your site to look pretty. The most common advice for keeping your blog visually attractive is to have a good layout and color combination, and include plenty of pictures and videos. Be careful not to overdo it, though. Some color and font combinations do not play well together and will make your page difficult to read.
Interact
There are lots of other writers out there who are blogging. Interact with them by commenting on their posts. It not only builds community, but is another way to lead others to your site. And don't forget to interact with your fans and those producing your shows. Encourage them on their productions! Ask for permission to share pics from their productions on your site. Help them promote their productions of their shows. It's so much fun to hear from those producing your plays and let them know how much they are appreciated.
This is the fourth and final installment of the series on playwright self-promotion. To access the other three posts, click here: Part 1 - Look at Me! Look at Me!; Part 2 - Networking and Making Important Connections; Part 3 - The Power of Playwright Websites and BlogsThe Power of Playwright Websites and Blogs
The single most important way you can make yourself more visible and be discovered and remembered as a playwright is to maintain a blog or website. This will help theatre people find you and your plays more easily and gives you an effective medium where you can connect with your fans.
Your playwright page should basically be a one stop shop where potential customers can find out everything they need to know about you, your plays and how they can go about licensing your plays for production. It should be informative, but should also be attractive and represent your personal style or the style of your plays.
There are many sites to set up a free blog or website. Wordpress and Blogger are quite popular among writers. The free versions include adequate features so that you can create an emersive website experience for your visitors, but both services also have an upgrade for a small yearly fee to create your own domain and the upgrade allows your site to have additional features. They are also very user-friendly sites, so setting up an attractive website is an extremely easy process, even for those who are not very computer-savvy.
And setting up and maintaining the site is a ton of fun! Okay, it requires a little extra effort, but I assure you it's fun and it's my preferred way to self-promote my own shows. It's also a great way to network as teachers, directors and other playwrights will be able to 'follow' your blog or bookmark your site. I love being so easily connected with the community of other playwright bloggers and we invite you to join our community.
If you're interested in creating your own website or blog, feel free to take some inspiration from my site as well as the sites of my fellow playwright bloggers: