(Note: This article is Part Two of a Three Part Series. Please click here if you missed Part One.)

Watch out with all these submission resources! It seems like there is a new submission service popping up every other week with some fancy name that indicates stardom is just a click away!  It can be overwhelming searching through ALL of them looking for roles and projects that you may, or may not, be right for on an hourly ... daily ... weekly basis.

So ask yourself, what are your financial & time Investments when self-submitting for projects?

Some submission resources that you receive casting notices through you pay for, and then there are others that you do not. But in ALL cases you do invest money in submitting - be it through the cost of duplicating your headshots & resumes, the cost of the envelope and shipping charges or if your resource allows you to submit online you pay to post your photos, resume and demo reel.

Are you keeping track of all your efforts and investments in submitting? Know that tracking each submission as an investment is valuable if you want to move your career forward. It’s part of being in business. Having a way to see right in front of you how you submit, what you submit, where and when and to whom is a good start.

In the Contacts section of PerformerTrack you can track the history of each resource you use to see how often you are submitting and through the “Submittal Source” area in PerformerTrack's Audition Round Form, you can see what results you are getting from your efforts. Cross-reference that with the Expenses section and soon you’ll know if you are really getting the best “bang for your buck!” If you are more of a paper person and you are using Submission Tracker Holdon Log then you’ll love the inserted "Overall Results" page (after every 50 submissions) where you can reflect and tally to determine your results.

When you can see your results, ask yourself?

• Am I getting the auditions I want?
• Are these turning into bookings?
• Are the bookings helping my career?
• Am I getting paid for my work whether it be via money or through receiving my promised copy?
• Is this a wise investment?

Remember, you are investing your time regardless of what you are paying for (monetarily speaking) to submit through a resource. Even if the resource is FREE it’s very important to take into account the time it takes to read the trade papers, surf through websites, blogs and list serve notices, hunt and peck through postings from your college or union, and don't forget the time it takes to maintain social profiles, keep your resume, photos and demo reels current, and package your submission materials.

Your time is NOT unlimited! Your time is valuable!

Are you not finding the union work you want because what you are seeing is a lot of non-union work?...

Then this service might not be a good fit for you.

Are you not finding the paying work you want?

There are a lot of no/low pay jobs out there on these services vs. the roles that pay which are often offered and negotiated behind the scenes with agents and production companies...maybe it's time to produce your own content.

Are you not being brought in for Series Regular Roles or Lead Roles?

Perhaps your resume reflects primarily Under 5 or Featured Roles. Maybe it's time to tighten up your resume or create your own projects where you are the Lead or have stronger roles with better billing than you have right now which will then supply you with better footage to promote.

Your auditions aren't turning into bookings?

It's possible that your headshots do not represent the product of "you" if you are submitting pictures from when your hair was longer, or when you had hair, maybe it was 20 pounds ago...If this is the case then consider that when you walk into audition for a role and you don’t look like that character why casting can be instantly disappointed and frustrated. They are looking to cast the person in the headshot, not something else!

To put it this way, imagine if you ordered a Coke and a 7-Up was put in front of you, would you be happy? No! You asked for a Coke!

You got off to a rough start at your audition because you were late and/or unprepared?

That for sure will tick off whoever is running the casting session. They want to fill the roles. They are hoping to see maybe 40 people for a role, not 400! Know where you are going, get there early, know the product or show you are auditioning for and know who is involved. A quick and easy way to make sure you know everything you need to know in order to be on time, prepared and organized for the Audition is within the first "brick" of the Audition Form Page in PerformerTrack.

Are the bookings helping my career?

Just like you don't want to spend your entire performing life in class, you also don't want to spend your entire performing life on set of student films, no-low budgets, or on stage with non-paying productions. Once you get experience on stage or on set, decent footage and some connections to stay in touch with, wouldn't it be nice to focus on creating, submitting and auditioning for roles that PAY?!

Then you can focus on promoting your demos/clips, and get out there and network...instead of being on set or on stage for no-low pay gigs spinning your career in unproductive circles when you'd rather be on set for paying roles!

Am I getting paid for my work whether it is via money or through receiving my promised copy?

Again, it's nice to "work for free" when you are getting experience, gathering footage, collecting contacts and acquiring reviews, but we all have bills to pay and we need to be paid for our talents. So if your goal is to be paid and all you are submitting for is no pay projects--STOP! Shift your focus to getting your reels together, promoting yourself and ...creating your own projects.

Is this submission service a wise investment?

Hmmm... are you starting to see the hours that you are submitting? Go ahead, log the time you spend looking for casting notices, clicking and submitting and stuffing envelopes...wouldn't you rather be flushing out ideas for a short film that you can star in, market and produce with some of your Industry contacts? Or, how about getting out there to networking events and meeting other people who are in the position to create a role for you, recommend you to casting or heck direct cast you. Now wouldn't that be nice? It's totally doable.

Oh, and then financially speaking, are you paying for 1 Submission Service? Are you paying for 2 Submission Services? How about 3, 4 or even 5 of them every month? The question you want to constantly ask yourself is "What is my ROI (Return On Investment) with each submission service I pay for?"

Think about this...treat submission services as if they are pseudo agents. Similar to an agent, with a submission service you can sift through various auditions and submit through the service "directly" to the casting director. If the casting director is interested in seeing you they will contact you. So, if you treat the submission service like an agent then the cost of the submission service should be at least 10% of what you make from that service.

Example: If you are paying for 4 services a monthly fee of $10-$20 a month, at the end of a year one service could be between $120-$240 a year. Times that by 4 services that's $480 -$960 a year. Therefore, these services should garner you a 90% ($4,800-$9,600) ROI in booking payments or the equivalent of that in connections, footage, etc.

Track your money and time investments to see which services are "worth it" for you and then consider "reinvesting" the money you would spend on these submission services that aren't working into paying for other things that you might want or need to move your career forward like headshots, classes, procuring representation and producing your own projects.