Try, Try Again

So, you’ve submitted your web link or demo to an artist that was looking for new material, and you get a fateful email or letter in your mailbox. It wasn’t what they wanted, but they like your style, and wonder if you could send more material! What luck? Or what bad luck? Here are a few ideas for how to proceed from this point.

I ALREADY HAVE MORE!

If you are lucky, they just want something in a slightly different vein, and you may already have a few works already written, copyrighted, and ready to go. If speed is of the essence, you might just try throwing those up on your website, and send the new link to that person. In my case, on MP3.com, it may take a few days to do this, so you may think about just how long it will take to upload the data, and add on the number of days it may take to have that site post that data. In some cases, it may be faster to just shoot a cassette off in the mail, Express Overnight if you feel the need to. If the song is only in rough form, though, you may give yourself a few days to come up with at least a decent cut on your computer or home studio rather than ship a low-quality demo in the hopes that it will pass muster. To be safe, it would be best to make sure that the new tape or link you send are at least of the same, if not better quality as the one you just sent to that artist or that person’s representatives. Make sure, too, you follow up to make sure that that artist received your work, and that it didn’t get lost in the mail somewhere, or that the link didn’t work.

OH, NO…. I DON’T DO THAT KIND OF MATERIAL

This may be a good time to learn to do “that kind of material.” If you don’t know how, you might try your network of fellow writers and see if you can cough up a co-writer who is experienced in the type of song the artist is asking for. Use your newsgroups you like to frequent, or even try some I’ve listed in my Links section if you have no ideas of where to find someone like that. You already know that this artist likes your style—that is a great head start. Now you need to take that next stretch and find a way to write in whatever section of your idiom that that person liked, and change it into a form that they are looking for. Dig deep into that treasure chest of experiences and find something that will fit the expectations outlined in the letter they sent. Sure, you need to hurry if there is a deadline approaching, but make sure you take the time to make it a quality work and at least as good, production values-wise as the one you just got you the response. Make sure you have a few buddies or other writers listen, too, and get a little feedback, especially if any of them have written in that style or with that artist before. The main thing, here, is to at least give it a try—you will gain experience, at the very least, and may even get further good responses from this artist.

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