A few years ago, the sales efforts to distributors would begin as early in the production of your video as possible. In this way, you may have been able to set up pre-sales (selling your project to various markets before it is a finished product). This guaranteed you'd see a profit before one inch of video had rolled.

But in the world of low-budget videomaking, these golden days are history. The vast majority of all distributors you contact for possible representation of your video will ask if a screener is available. In other words, they don't want to hear about your tape until it's a finished product. And believe me, there is no room for argument. No matter how beautiful a picture you think you can draw describing the merits of your yet-to-be epic, nobody wants to listen.

Trying to presell a low-budget video today is basically a useless activity. If you have a finished video, great. It's time to get selling. But even if you're not to this point yet, the following information will be valuable in your quest for reaching the masses. Advance planning has never been a detriment.

Confirming a distributor's interest in the type of product you have to offer is the first step in establishing contact with the buyers. You don't want to waste your time and money by mailing your expose on animal mistreatment to an exercise video distributor. You must survey the list of potential buyers, systematically deciding which fit the profile of an interested party for your project.

When searching through the different classes of buyers, contact the highest level of distributor that handles your type of product first. These guys are in the business to sell videos. It's what they do. They have the facilities and contacts available to move your video into numerous markets, some you may have not even known exis…