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ABOUT THE BOOK

Introduction

News: Fringe 2012

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Author: Mark Fisher

Blog

Press area

Press coverage

Contact

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CHAPTERS

The city and its festivals

The Fringe Office

The timing

The motivation

The show

The venue

The accommodation

The law

The marketing campaign

The media campaign

The awards

The show must go on

The next step

The money

The interviewees

mark@theatreSCOTLAND.com

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Questions about money 1

WHEN it comes to budgeting I have certain advantages.
  • I live in Edinburgh, so don't have to worry about rent (or no more than I do for the rest of the year). 
  • As a freelance journalist, I can continue to earn money from other sources, assuming I have the time (see Questions about me and my stamina). 
  • And, as I can buy copies of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide at trade price, I should be able to make some money selling books, in the same way that many Fringe companies make ends meet by selling CDs.

But I am also at a disadvantage in the nature of the show I have in mind. The only person I interviewed in
The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide who claimed to make money on the Fringe was Martyn Jacques of the Tiger Lillies, but his band a) sell out, b) charge £15 a ticket and c) have merchandise to sell.

For The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide – Live, I'm not at all certain I can get away with charging any money and if I can, it will have to be a modest amount. I looked at prices for similar shows in Questions about the audience 1.

The advice of the experts in my book is to budget for 30% attendance – a long way from the Tiger Lillies' 100% – and to aim to break even rather than make a profit. Any negotiation I have with venues will have to take this into account.

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About Me

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Follow me on Twitter @MarkFFisher, @WriteAboutTheat and @LimelightXTC I am a freelance journalist and critic specialising in theatre and the arts. Publications I write for include the Guardian and the Scotsman. I am the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide: how to make your show a success and How to Write About Theatre: A Manual for Critics, Students and Bloggers. I am also editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls: A Limelight Anthology and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book. From 2000-2003, I was the editor of The List magazine, Glasgow and Edinburgh's arts and events guide.

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