Acting: Make It Your Business - How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor

by Paul Russell

Make It Your Business, written by an award-winning, veteran casting director, puts the power to land jobs and thrive in any medium - stage, film, TV, or the Internet - directly into the hands of the actor. This blunt, wise, and often hilarious guide overflows with cutting-edge audition, marketing, and networking strategies, combining traditional techniques with those best suited for the digital age. Well-known actors and powerful agents make cameos throughout, offering newcomers and working professionals alike a clear-eyed, uncensored perspective on survival and advancement within the entertainment industry.

324 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Paul Russell is an award-winning casting director, director, and former actor with a career in entertainment that has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios (20th Century Fox, Warner Bros), television networks (NBC, CBS, HBO), Broadway, and at TONY award-winning theaters.

He's presently writing two new novels involving actors, sex & deceit... a typical day in entertainment.

Reviews

[Rachel Y · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from reading this book. It's crazy because so much of it is 'common sense' but I really feel like it's honed my sense of what's important in growing my career & maintaining some semblance of sanity. Favorite sections: rejection, agents, auditioning.

[Jaime Soria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This extremely thorough actors handbook gives a detailed look into every aspect of launching and maintaining an acting career. It's an enjoyable read, flows easily, while offering valuable information vital to audition and booking success. I recommend all of my acting friends add this book to your to-read list immediately. Paul leaves no stone unturned, and covers every topic imaginable, even showing various examples in the differences of cover letters for e-mail vs. snail mail submissions, and CD vs. Agent general submission. His material is a just a teeny bit behind on the importance of e-mail submissions and social media, and the focus is a bit more towards the New York Theatre scene than the L.A. Film and Television scene, but if you start this book already knowing that, I think you'll enjoy all the wonderful information he provides. He describes his writings as "actor-handbook-with-a-bit-of-bite", and that's a very accurate description. He doesn't sugarcoat anything. This business is hard, and requires devoted hard work and study in order to work consistently. I enjoyed his "Group of Eight" which were eight actors he interviewed, gathering their opinions on everything from auditions, to communicating with agents. Their stories and advice pop up in various sections of the book. One of the Group of Eight was James Rebhorn, who passed away in 2014. I can remember seeing Rebhorn in so many different films over the years, and it was interesting to hear his perspective on maintaining an ongoing career and how he ran his "business." We should all be so lucky to have a career as successful as his, and his advice is invaluable. One of the last sections of this book was on agents: how best to get in contact for submissions, interview protocol, and maintaining relationships with the agents you sign with. This section allowed us to hear from both the agents and the actors points-of-view, and to me demonstrated how far we still need to come with our communication skills. I think being respectful and honest with everyone, and remembering that everyone is human will help maintain industry relationships and reward you with career longevity.

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say that the best thing about this book is the fact it is recent and up to date. Other books of the same topic are very outdated and unhelpful. The moment I see a recommendation for black and white head-shots I know it is time to move on to the next book. Pauls' writing is very easy to comprehend and it is the only book I have found that talks about modern marketing for the actor, he even provides lite instruction on how to do some of the media marketing. The book is not without fault though. At times, there are things that are the personal preference of the casting director or agent that is passed off as fact. Yet in this business nothing is cookie cutter and everyone prefers something different, as in life. The book does provide a formula for the modern actor to follow, and it is a great formula at that. This is a must read, must have book for any actor at any point in their career.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Russell's work is written from the perspective of one who knows well a range of roles in the industry, for he has worked for years as an actor, a director and as a casting director. He writes with compassion and insight, but doesn't spare reproach in his effort to help those of us seriously looking to succeed by improving our understanding of the business of acting, or to deter those who aren't ready or equipped to deal with its challenges. Keeping in mind that the book is geared more toward the issues New York actors face than those in Los Angeles, one can apply its principles anywhere. Published in 2008 (at least the edition for Kindle that I read), it is still one of the more recent books put out on the subject. Comprehensive for its time, I hope he puts out another edition before the 10 year mark with the developments he's participated in since he first wrote it. Still totally worth the read and reread.

[Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for the actor trying to learn the "business" aspects of the, well, business of acting. Russell has a lot of experience and wit to boot. There are lots of helpful scanned examples of resumes, headshots, cover letters, postcards, websites, etc., that professional performers need to stay current and get their name seen by casting directors and agents. My only criticism is that it is already a little dated, as is evident by some of the examples. It lives up to its subtitle, though: it helps you to avoid common mistakes and gives you the basics for hopefully achieving some level of success.

[Louis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be quite interesting and I believe it will be useful. However one must note that while it is applicable to all actors, when you get to the nitty gritty, the largest focus on this book is on Stage actors and representation of this group. The book does go into all of the others, but the primary focus is Stage and the NY area.

It was written after web sites became the norm, but before the current social media scene as well as the latest Web series scene.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugely helpful. Full of great ideas and strategies delivered with a refreshing dose of humor.