So the new book is complete and is winging it’s way to the publishers for final checks. We did celebrate here in the office, for a good 20 minutes, before we hunkered down for the next drive. Marketing and PR. We know that the success of our books depends as much on excellent content as much as great PR. And that is where you can help. And we really do need your help!

First here is a tip we find very powerful. There is a huge amount of research that states that if you do something that helps a person, you create an implied ‘debt’. You scratch my back, I will scratch yours. It’s a powerful tool used to persuade people around the world, all languages, all cultures. It’s one of the principles of persuasion in Dr Rebert Cialdini’s excellent book ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’. He calls this effect ‘reciprocity’.

I know from my own life experiences that it really works too. If I help someone, I can later go back to them for help (sometimes decades later) and if they can help me, they usually will. I also know there are people who have helped me who I will help should they call upon me. And here is the spooky one, I also know that the more I help people, randomly and seemingly without connection, help appears for me when I need it most. I guess you could call it film makers karma. I am not sure what it is really, but I do know that it happens.

And I know others who have sought to do extraordinary things who have also experienced this ‘magic’.The real trick is to be the person who acts first, who helps first, and therefore, builds a 'favour bank' that you can dip into during times of need.

And in these days of social media playing so much of a part in the success of a film, I keep telling everyone I meet, ‘we are in the same boat, we need to help each other and to share knowledge’. To see this actually happening is something exciting and amazing. It’s never been a better time to be a film maker. So recently, when film maker Tanya Morel contacted me after she had voted for my film ‘Exam’ on the Empire website, said ‘can you vote for my film ‘Beard’ in the Dorset Cereals film competition?’ – link here – of course I did. And hey, you can vote too! That’s how it works, help and it usually comes back ten fold. Thanks again Tanya. 

OK so here is where you can help me and thus start filling your favour bank. For the release of the new Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook, a lot of people are going to check out reviews of past editions, and that starts at Amazon. So if you bought a previous Guerilla Film Makers Handbook and found it useful, please, please, please, log in to Amazon and leave a review. There aren’t that many reviews, some are quite old, and there is a nasty one for the Movie Blueprint which really impacted on our ratings.

And if you do leave a review, drop me an email to let me know and we can feature it on the blog too. And when you need help from me – a vote for your film online (in a competition), a contact that I can help with, a little chat for advice, or some other help, I will help you out as best I can. It’s the way it works.  

OK so here are some fast links…

If you are in the UK, here is the current UK Guerilla Film Makers Handbook link…

And here is the Movie Blueprint link…

And here is the Documentary Handbook link…

And here is the US link for film makers in the USA…

Blimey, is that four books now!? And the new pocketbook on the way (and a sneak insider tit bit, we hope to have it as an iPhone app too!

OK, so thank you, we owe you one…

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com