Oh the glamour

TODAY I was photographed by Scotland on Sunday for the article Brian Ferguson is writing about The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide . Naturally, I suggested I should meet the photographer in front of the Fringe Office - and he was pleased to be able to take some shots beneath the sign that says "information here". Nice touch.

Despite it being January, straight outside the Fringe Office, there was a bloke juggling with fire for the entertainment of the half-dozen tourists who were ambling around. It's a terrible cliche that the Fringe is all about street theatre clowns and unicyclists, but it was too much of a temptation to make use of the opportunity, so we got some shots with him and the Fringe Office in the background. Better than a standard shot of another middle-aged bloke staring seriously into the camera.

The campaign begins

Ha, my evil masterplan works. Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday reporter Brian Ferguson spotted my recent twitter activity and called me up for an interview this morning. He liked the idea of me not only writing a book about the Edinburgh Fringe but also doing a show on the Edinburgh Fringe. I guess that's me committed to doing a show then.

I was working not far from the Scotsman offices, so was able to get down there at lunchtime for a spontaneous interview. It's a little earlier than I expected to get coverage, but the book is available for order from Amazon here: The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide so it'll all be healthy publicity.

That reminds me: I need to set up a press page on my website, both for journalists to have a press contact and for readers to check out the press coverage.

It was odd being on the other side of the interview table from where I'm used to sitting. Normally I do 10 per cent of the talking and 90 per cent of the listening; this time it was the opposite way round. 

I hope I gave Brian what he was looking for. It brought home to me that interviewees have to be focused and have to work hard to provide interesting and relevant material for the journalist to use. People I interview are always so good at it, I tend to take it for granted, but there's a skill involved.

I guess the more I talk about it, the better I'll get at focusing on the key stories and summing up the things that distinguish the book from all the others.

Getting word out

Seeing as it's only six weeks until the publication of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, I've been on a mission to get word out about it. It's a bit of a challenge not to sound like blatantly advertising even though I am blatantly advertising, but the good thing is I have a lot of followers on Facebook and Twitter who will be genuinely interested in the book, so I don't feel too much like a door-to-door salesman.

With that in mind I've set up a Facebook page for the book here. So far it's attracted a couple of dozen likes, which is heartening.

I've also started to send out two or three tweets a day with choice quotes from the book, especially from those with Twitter accounts in the hope of attracting the odd retweet. Guardian theatre critic Lyn Gardner kindly did that very thing with the first tweet of my one-man campaign this morning.

In addition to that I've been sending emails to contributors and press officers asking them to spread the word. New York director John Clancy, who's quoted in the book, gave a nice mention on his Scrappy Jack's World blog.

Normally I'd say I wouldn't expect any of this to change anything over night, but the book's ranking on Amazon has shot up. It might not sound such a big deal to have made it into the top 50,000, but only a couple of days ago, the book was at 469,854 and an increase in 400,000 ain't bad by my reckoning. No idea how that translates as sales, but for a book that isn't out yet, I can't complain.

Chance of cheaper accommodation on the Edinburgh Fringe?

TODAY'S Scotsman reports that one of the ideas to find favour in the Edinburgh Festivals Ideas Challenge is a campsite on the Meadows for Fringe-goers. The idea would have to get approval - and apparently the neighbours aren't keen - but it's being taken seriously.

The article is here.

One thing to remember if you're a performer, as The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide points out, is you might live to regret cutting corners on accommodation. Living in a tent may sound like a great way to balance your budget, but after performing for two weeks and a couple of heavy rain showers, will it seem such a bargain?

Sad tale about Remarkable Arts

THE Scotsman reports today that Remarkable Arts, the company that ran an excellent programme at St George's West on the 2011 Fringe, is in financial trouble.

The story is here.

The venue, which hosted companies including Fish and Game, David Leddy's Fire Exit and Ontroerend Goed, won the Spirit of the Fringe award for the quality of its programme but, according to the article, the figures didn't add up.

The story highlights the challenge of putting on high-quality art in the high-pressure environment of the festival. It's not impossible, but it's not easy.

A meeting with the Fringe Office

THIS morning I had a meeting with Christabel Anderson, head of participant services, and Louise Oliver, participant development coordinator, at the Fringe Office. We discussed the possibility of me doing some kind of event at Fringe Central during the 2012 Fringe.

I wanted to know why Fringe Central tended not to run any given event more than one or two times. If the reason was there wasn't a market for more than that, I would need to take that into account in programming my own event.

Christabel's initial response was the number of events was mainly a reflection of the available resources in the Fringe Office. There's only so much the staff can do and it can be difficult getting speakers at such a busy time of year. She also felt that the more performances you have of any given event at Fringe Central, the more you dilute your audience.

The same need not apply if I do this kind of show in another venue, but I should keep it in mind.

I also wanted to know why Fringe Central events were free. Was that because people wouldn't pay? Again, if this were the case, I'd need to take it into account for anything I do.

Here, things are different. The Fringe Central programme is part of the service to Fringe participants who have already paid to be there. They are not public events, so it wouldn't be appropriate to charge. In other words, being free tells you nothing about whether people would be prepared to pay in other circumstances.

As for me doing something at Fringe Central, she thought it would be best to consider doing one, two or maybe three events and promoting them accordingly.

Because it would be free, I'd have to regard it purely as a way of promoting The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide. If we were to do a jointly promoted event, I would have to cover the cost of room hire from the university, which is relatively cheap. One advantage is it wouldn't require an additional entry into the Fringe Programme because it would be promoted as part of the events at Fringe Central, which in itself would be good publicity for the book.

My next task, then, is to come up with a specific proposal for an event.

Pleasance applications open

JUST seen this Tweet:

Applications are now OPEN to perform at @ThePleasance during the 2012 @edfringe Download our brand new application pack http://www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh

Better get cracking - although the website looks like it's struggling to cope with the traffic.