Welcome to our new Blog!

Welcome to the launch of “The Business of Acting Blog!”

When The Business of Acting book was first published in 2002, we launched our companion Web site at www.TheBusinessOfActing.com. That site was designed to be a source of information and resources in support of both the book and every actor who reads it. At that time, we also introduced our “This Week in The Business of Acting” newsletter, which was created to pass along news, comments and answers to many of the questions I receive about the business of acting.

Each week, I would personally review, compile and write the newsletter. Each week the list of subscribers to our weekly journal continued to grow (there were over 5,000 people who were connected). Each week, each newsletter would always generate a round of rather interesting comments and questions from actors – and people who were seeking careers as professional actors – and I attempted to do my best in passing along the best advice and information I could.

Then two things happened. The responsibilities of actually doing my work for my clients began to interfere with my ability to keep the newsletter coming every week. At the same time, other online services for actors had cropped up and, quite frankly, were doing a much better job with a full line of services they were making available to actors that were (and are) an enormous step up from the advice column I was producing. Credible sources like ActorsAccess.com (from Breakdown Services) and LACasting.com (from Casting Networks) have gotten into the business of services for actors and they are excelling in their endeavors.

I am in the business of managing talent. The book has been a terrific opportunity for me to assist others, but the ongoing commitment of the weekly publication became one we had to, unfortunately abandon.

My brilliant and creative Web guru and designer, Matthew Solari, began talking to me about this thing called “blogs” probably two years ago. It all seemed way to complication for my non-technical brain. Yet, I was missing a platform to be able to communicate with so many people who continue to e-mail me.

So, here we are months and months later and, again, Matthew is right. The best way for me to be able to have an ongoing dialogue with readers – and create a community where news, information and input from industry professionals can be shared – is by embracing this now not-so-new technology. And so here we go.

I thank you for joining our new community. I encourage you to send along your questions and comments. In the process of addressing these items, I will also share with you information and news worthy of introduction and the occasional guest commentaries by and interviews with various industry professionals about the business of acting.

Stay tuned for our next posting, which will address one particular, potentially harmful issue that was recently raised by a student of mine (in my Emerson College Business of Acting class) having to do with ethics in resumes. This is a big one for me. I’ll share my thoughts and comments on this next.

Brad Lemack