Direct Mailing Sometimes I do a direct mailing. But it's very expensive. For example, up until a year ago, I sent a monthly mailing to the different leaders in town, letting them know which dates I was available. Interestingly, I never sold a single book through those ads. However, those ads did wonders for me in so many other ways that it became very much worth it.
Ads are funny that way.
The results are usually indirect. I remember when a friend of mine did one performance at a venue which had a calendar of events. He said that no one showed up to his performance, but he got a lot of gigs out of the fact that he was listed in the calendar. Knowing that responses to ads are so unspecific, it almost makes sense to use them in a way which takes advantage of that fact. The first thing that comes to mind is that you should put ads in a variety of locations and publications.