The Booking Guide

The Stage-List Booking Guide

Twelve chapters to book your own gigs: pick the right venues, reach the right person, write the email that gets a reply, negotiate, confirm, repeat. With exercises that build your campaign plan chapter by chapter.

12 chapters · 183 min in total · Updated November 2026

1. 1

   Chapter 1 of 12 · 14 min

   Where you stand: where your project is, and what to aim for

   Before you email a single promoter: place your band on one of four tiers, set a 90-day target you can count, and know what a promoter looks for.

   • place your project on one of four tiers, without fiddling the count
   • write a 90-day target that can be counted, and that can fail
   • answer the three questions in the head of whoever reads your email
2. 2

   Chapter 2 of 12 · 15 min

   Your EPK and booking kit: what a promoter looks at in two minutes

   EPK (press kit, one-sheet, Pressemappe): live video, bio in three lengths, press shots, numbers, tech spec. What a promoter actually looks at in two minutes.

   • say what an EPK is and why a web page beats a PDF
   • build the ten elements in order, with a bio in three lengths
   • pick the number that speaks to the promoter, and keep the others to yourself
3. 3

   Chapter 3 of 12 · 16 min

   Who books what: the kinds of room and their three clocks

   Pubs, grassroots venues, arts centres, student unions, village halls, theatres, festivals: who decides, when to write, and the three clocks that make a date.

   • recognise the seven kinds of room and the person who decides in each
   • place your prospecting on the three clocks of the year
   • adjust your first contact for the UK, Germany and France
4. 4

   Chapter 4 of 12 · 16 min

   Build your target list: 40 well-chosen names beat 400

   Choose 30 to 50 venues and promoters where your pitch has a real chance: five criteria, three circles round your town, three minutes each, one tracker.

   • judge a venue or a promoter on five criteria in three minutes
   • draw your three circles round your town
   • keep a tracker that tells you what to do each week
5. 5

   Chapter 5 of 12 · 15 min

   The side doors: support slots, gig swaps, competitions

   Support slots, gig swaps between bands, competitions: the three doors that give you dates outside your town, and the “sell 20 tickets” model to turn down.

   • spot a support slot to go for the day a headliner is announced
   • propose a gig swap to a band at your level, terms included
   • recognise a real competition, and name the fake one
6. 6

   Chapter 6 of 12 · 14 min

   Find the right person, and keep it above board

   The address a venue publishes is nearly always a shared inbox. How to reach the person who actually books: the promoter, by email, then Instagram, then the phone.

   • find a first name and a role in five minutes from a venue's website
   • email the promoter, DM second, and know when the phone comes last
   • keep your address book as what it is: relationships
7. 7

   Chapter 7 of 12 · 16 min

   The email that gets replies

   Six lines, one phone screen, one question: how a booking email is built, three templates by venue (pub back room, grassroots venue, festival) and the sixty-second check.

   • write a booking email in six lines that fits on a phone screen
   • adapt the template to the room: pub back room, grassroots venue or festival
   • check an email in sixty seconds before you send it
8. 8

   Chapter 8 of 12 · 15 min

   Follow up without nagging, and answer every reply properly

   The day 7, day 8, day 21 sequence, then stop. And what to write back to a yes, a "not right now", a "bit small for us", a "what's your fee?" or a ticket quota.

   • hold the day 7, day 8, day 21 sequence, then stop
   • answer each of the five standard replies in three lines
   • turn a "not right now" into a date six months later
9. 9

   Chapter 9 of 12 · 16 min

   Fees, deals and negotiation

   The six deal types, your threshold worked out date by date, the sentence for saying a number out loud, and what changes between the UK, Germany and France.

   • recognise the six deal types, and the one you turn down
   • work out your threshold date by date, and say it in one sentence
   • know who pays what in the UK, in Germany and in France
10. 10

    Chapter 10 of 12 · 15 min

    Confirm and prepare the date

    The ten-point recap email that turns a yes into a date, a tech spec sized to the room, the joint announcement and the countdown from D-56 to the night before.

    • write the ten-point recap email and get an "ok" back on it
    • send a tech spec and a rider sized to the room, confirmed by the engineer
    • run the countdown from D-56 to D-1 with the venue, not instead of it
11. 11

    Chapter 11 of 12 · 16 min

    Playing next door

    Playing Germany or France from the UK, and the UK from across the Channel: words, timings, deals, email language, withholding, Schengen days, the carnet.

    • read a German or French offer (Gage plus Tür, cachet plus chapeau) without a translator
    • know which withholding and which papers apply to your case, and what to ask the organiser
    • prepare a date abroad from D-90 to the night, with the gig swap as your way in
12. 12

    Chapter 12 of 12 · 15 min

    Show day, the day after, and the routine that keeps it going

    The small things on the night that promoters notice, the 48-hour email that books next season, two slots a week, and the month read in four numbers.

    • play a date start to finish: the arrival, the set to the minute, the merch table, the dressing room
    • send the 48-hour email and update your EPK straight after
    • hold two slots a week and read your month in four numbers

Written by the Stage-List team, drawing on our venue database and feedback from our customers. The legal and tax pointers in this guide are general information, correct at the time of writing; rates change, check the official page. The bands and bookers named are invented, their situations are not.