venue booking advice needed

i moved to a new state earlier this year and expanded my solo project into a band. i already had a following in the state i was previously living in bc of friends in school. i played shows in school and if i was invited to play with other bands, i would.

i’m out of school now and since i moved, i made an account to help keep track of what’s going on in the local scene (i.e. promote local bands and their shows). this account got pretty popular and venues and bands started sending me shows to promote.

when i finally found band members and tried booking shows for my band, suddenly the venues wanted nothing to do with me. it was basically “if we don’t already know your band and you haven’t played with us before, fuck off” it sucked because those same venues would book shows and then try to send them to me to promote after the fact (they knew i ran the account). i keep trying to meet more bands but it’s not going anywhere and the local bands already know who to hit up for filling a bill.

my band has only had 2 shows this year after months of trying to book. i’m not losing hope, but it’s super discouraging. is there anything i can do to be better at book shows?