If you're thinking of producing a storytelling event, these are the things we think are basic to getting it under way. 1. Whom do you hope to serve—and why? If you can answer these questions concisely, clearly, and without overlaps in audience interest, you're on your way. It is a rare and gifted teller who works best with/appeals to audiences of all age levels. Targeting your event to a specific age group makes it easier for you to market your event and to choose tellers to meet your needs. For a "family" event, specify the age levels - you do not want the telling spoiled by crying babies. 2. Venue Where are you going to have this event? Will someone loan you a space? Does the space fit the audience who will attend? If it is a space that normally serves adults, be sure they will welcome children if you are planning a family event. Will the owners of the venue co-sponsor the event with you by furnishing the space free of charge in return for the marketing you will do? Do they have a built in audience you'd like to serve, and a mailing list they'd let you use? An extremely popular teller like Bill Harley will pull a family audience to a venue not usually inclusive of children, such as a college campus. But not all tellers are able to do this, so site selection is important. Is the venue small enough so that you won't be embarrassed if it doesn't fill, yet large enough to fill if you sell out? If this is your first storytelling event, a hall that seats 200-250 might be the place to start. 3. Teller Selection and Setting the Date If you have a teller in mind, one you are sure will fulfill your needs and goals, contact him/her before you set any dates or commit to anything. It may turn out that the teller might be in your area sometime within the next 6 - 12 months and you could piggy-back mileage and your booking in between their other commitments. You might also have a better chance of getting the teller at a price you can afford. It is almost impossible to do this, but try to select a date when the fewest possible conflicts are going on. You won't be able to find a totally free night, but you can avoid things like Super Bowl, final weekend of the College World Series, the most likely weekend for the blizzard, etc. If you live in a fairly large city, check with the Convention and Visitor's Bureau about scheduled events in your area. Also check the calendar of the arts organizations you feel are the closest to having your audience. One nice thing about storytelling is that it is frequently unpredictable who knows about it and who will respond to it. Realize that you're building a new audience. but picking a teller someone has heard of to start off with helps a lot. 4. Money You may talk to anyone of the contributors listed in the back of this handbook about the costs of hiring a storyteller. There is a wide range of fees and level of expertise available to you. The tellers will expect an honorarium, transportation, lodging and food. It is best to pay all featured tellers the same fee. Set your fee and then invite the teller to work for you. The same goes for regional, state and local tellers. Set your fee and then invite the teller to work for you. Some tellers are happily willing to stay in donated housing, but be kind to them. Don't ask them to stay in homes with pets or little children. If someone has a bedroom with private bath - that is ideal. 5. What agencies can you join up with to achieve your goals? The more broad the base of support in your city, the more likely you will get a good audience, and the more easily you can afford to produce the event. For example, if your teller will be performing on Saturday, try to hook up with a local church or worship center wanting the teller for Sunday morning to do a workshop in the Sunday school and tell a 10-minute story at service. Not all tellers enjoy doing this, but if the worship center is willing to pay a fee for this service, it will help you advertise in its bulletin the week before and help you afford your teller. Other examples are: Workshop or telling at a local teacher's college or university Workshop for area high school students interested in storytelling. Performances in local schools leading into the weekend event for you. Placing tellers in area schools for three or four days before a weekend event guarantees a good turnout for a family show on the weekend. OR - perhaps you can hook yourself up with a venue that really wants to get a lot of children into its building. You book the schools in, the venue gets the head count, you pay the teller a fee and you keep any surplus revenue. Workshop of mini-performances at new assisted living facilities or health-care centers such as children's hospitals. Your teller may have a special expertise, such as work in death and dying for hospice workers, doctors, social service workers, counselors, ministers, mental health professionals, faith-centered organizations, reading councils, multicultural organizations, organizations that try to serve a specific minority population within the larger community, art museums, art galleries, art centers, history centers, etc. Talk to your teller and discover what her/his adjunct interests and talents are. If they've had experience working with any of these groups, or others, contact the group and find out if they are interested in "sharing" your teller during the week before your main event. 6. Underwriting Perhaps there is an individual or corporation in town you know well, are friends with, who would understand your goals and plans. The right person might just be your doctor's office, or your insurance company. Or your local Target Store. Ask them if they'd like to underwrite all or a part of the costs of your event. Some corporations would do this to get an organization up and running, to get their name on a quality product, etc., and some will do it because they like and respect you and don't want anyone to know they gave you money. Asking for underwriting is a way to get the money you need without having to depend on the gate. If you explain to the underwriter that their support will help to make you self-supporting in the future, they are more likely to give the money. If they think you will return to them every year for a hand-out, they might not. But if the event is fun, popular, well attended, and of excellent quality, they may be willing to sponsor your activities year after year, proudly. Many corporations are willing to give money to events for children and families before they will give money to events for adults. 7. Grants Your state arts council and your state humanities councils are excellent resources for support funding. The guidelines vary from state to state. Contact your local state agency and they will teach you how to write a grant. Of great assistance in this process is someone with a PC and PageMaker. Plan ahead. A year in advance is safest. Consult your local Junior League, Chamber of Commerce, and main Library for a list of all the local foundations in your community and for their guidelines. Deadlines for applications will vary, but you might find the very foundation whose goals fit yours. Don't be afraid to ask for money to do what you love best. It may take you a while to educate the agency, but if you do your homework and prepare an accurate and succinct application, you will have a good chance of being accepted. Be aware that most state funded agencies, and federal agencies, will ask for a cash or in-kind match. In other words, if the event costs you $1000 to produce, you can only ask for $500 and will have to raise that other $500 at the gate or through other contributions. If you are just starting out and your budget is modest, you might be able to get by with in-kind match only. What this means is that you give a value to everything which is donated, such as your coordination fee per hour times the number of hours you work. The usual rental fee of the donated hall. What you would have paid if you had bought the donated refreshments. What the donated housing is worth if you had to book a motel, etc. Add this all up and it is your in-kind contribution. You should put this into all your grants, even if you have enough cash to match the actual dollar costs, because you need to be able to document the true costs of what you are doing. Your goal should always be to make your events self-supporting, through ticket sales, through underwriting, through adjunct sales like T-shirts and resources. You do not want to make yourself dependent upon grants and donations. But grants and donations are a wonderful way to help yourself gain recognition, to begin to become stable, and to begin to help you start an endowment fund to eventually support your work in your community. Keep accurate, timely records and file your reports before the deadlines. 8. Marketing Everyone claims that direct mail is the best way to sell an event, but it is expensive. Don't broadcast mailing to a wide, unspecified list. Try to develop an accurate zip+4 sorted mailing list specific for the audience you want to pull. Borrow a mailing list from a local agency with the audience you want. If they won't give it to you on disk, pay for it. Bookmarks, posters, and flyers work well if they are attractive, correct, and specific. Place them only in the places where the audience you want is likely to see them. Posters need to be up for at least one month to be effective. Develop an email list to reach as many folks as you can. Ask a local website creator to build you a website, and advertise it through schools and libraries. Write lively and interesting press releases and create two kinds: a mini-release for bulletin board announcements on local radio stations, and a full release for newspapers. Be sure these releases are at the paper six weeks in advance. Get to know the arts reporters and the folks who write special features. Cultivate them. Meet with them three months before your event and educate them to the need of announcing and reviewing your event. Check out the newsletters of all agencies with interests similar to your and ask them to place a small notice or ad announcing your event in their newsletter from six to 8 weeks before the event. Ask agencies if they'd like to buy some tickets in advance, at a reduced rate ($1 off discount) and help you to guarantee an audience. Ask everyone on your committee to sell at least ten tickets for the event. Ask them to all come and bring all their friends. Ask them to sell these tickets six weeks before the event, so you know you'll have at least half a house. 9. Plan Appreciation Plan at least one time when all your workers can get together and have some fun - maybe at your evaluation party or meeting. If you are going to work hard to enable storytelling to thrive in your community, you need to plan some time to celebrate your efforts. The greatest joy is seeing the faces and hearing the applause of a happy audience, but it is also very healthy just to pat each other on the back and tell each other how much you appreciate each person's special gifts and that they have shared them to achieve a common goal.