ARCHIVES OF December, 2010
By Steven Pressfield | Published: December 13, 2010
Sean Van Vleet is a Chicago-based musician, songwriter, and lead singer of the alternative-rock band Empires. In March, Empires released their highly-anticipated sophomore effort Bang and have spent much of 2010 on the road in support of the release, with stops at SXSW, Verve Music Festival, and CMJ Music Fest. MTV.com called the album “great, all ethereal and doomy like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club or the Black Angels, but with a little bit of My Chemical Romance snarl thrown in for good measure.” Alternative Press said the band has “set about doing this right. It’s a sentiment reinforced by these sterling alt-pop tracks boasting delicious symmetry of texture and tension.” Empires recently put out their first music video for the song Bang and are set to release a brand new 7″ vinyl in January 2011. For more information, please visit www.weareempires.com.
I know how a writer experiences Resistance. How does a musician experience it? What form(s) does it take for you? When does it hit you? How powerful is it? (more…)
By Shawn Coyne | Published: December 10, 2010
[This is post #2 of a story by Shawn Coyne. Read post #1, Getting the Meeting.]
So there we were . . .
On Wednesday Dec. 1, 2010 at 10:37 a.m. Steve and I took the two seats at the head of the 14th floor conference table, in the Random House building in midtown New York. Steve was in the left chair. I was on the right. 
Counterclockwise from me sat the head of Crown’s eBook group, then Steve’s editor, Steve’s editor’s assistant taking notes, an empty chair, Crown’s head of marketing, Steve’s in-house publicist, the head of Crown’s publicity department, and then back to Steve. We were told that the publisher was stuck on a call but would be in as soon as she could. She asked that we start without her.
Uh oh . . . Not a good start.
If the publisher is not in the room for a meeting to discuss what to do to sell your book, you’re in trouble. Big book publishing is just like any other corporate hierarchy—a soul-sucking political minefield—and you need someone who can guide you around unforeseen trip wires. [See Steve’s treatment of hierarchy vs. territory in The War of Art] I’d been on this stretch of land before.
Here’s why it is crucial to have the publisher in the room: (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: December 8, 2010
[Continuing our "What It Takes" series, an inside look at the process of publishing and promoting a book in 2010-11 ... here's Post #3:]
The first book signing I ever did was for The Legend of Bagger Vance. It was at a Books-a-Million store in Lakeland, Florida. I flew 3000 miles from Los Angeles.
Nobody showed. Not a soul. I felt terrible for the store manager, who had set up a beautiful table with stacks of books and even a poster-sized photo of me. We were there at seven in the evening, all alone. It was like a scene out of the life of George Costanza. The manager and I wound up dragooning innocent customers in the aisles. We were lucky we didn’t get arrested.
It got worse. The next day I drove to the Golf Channel to do a TV interview about the book. I walked in to the reception area, introduced myself and took a seat. I could see the receptionists speaking uneasily into their headsets as they relayed the info back inside. After a few minutes, a producer came out. “This is gonna sound odd,” he said to me. “But who are you and why are you here?”
The producer who had booked me had been fired the week before. He had neglected to tell his successor about me–or me or my publisher about his own departure.
I can honestly say that, of all the promotional tactics that have been employed on behalf of my books, only one has ever really worked:
A rave in the New York Times. (more…)
