So you want to be a rock star. Or the next pop sensation. Or a country music artist. Or perhaps you're more intrigued by vital roles behind the scenes. The Realist's Guide to a Successful Music Career reveals all the ins and outs of building a viable career in today's ever-changing music business. With blunt honesty paired with expert insight and encouragement, this empathetic guide covers everything from building your brand and expanding outreach, to finding and playing gigs and smart touring, to critical marketing and developing your sound. Packed with practical, real-life guidance and avoidable missteps, the book vicariously takes you both onstage and backstage, into the recording studio, and on the road. And because experience is the best education, The Realist's Guide to a Successful Music Career contains exclusive interviews and wisdom from a wide range of all-stars and music insiders, including: Huey Lewis - Susan Tedeschi - Chuck Leavell - Victor Wooten - Taylor Hicks Ivan Neville - Jake Cinninger - Nikki Glaspie - Pete Shapiro - Alicia Karlin Vince Iwinski - Kevin Browning - Syd Schwartz - Chris Gelbuda - Robbie Williams Whether you're a seasoned pro looking to grow or an emerging talent looking to break out, The Realist's Guide to a Successful Music Career is the right note mentorship you need to take your gifts and passion to the next level.

Starting Your Career as an Artist is a comprehensive manual full of sound advice for artists seeking to advance their professional careers. Veteran art career professionals Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller show aspiring artists how to evaluate their goals, create a plan of action, and use their talents to build a productive life in the art world. Chapters cover topics essential to the emerging artist, such as building community through networking, collaborating, and finding mentors; setting up a studio; health and safety for artists; artist’s resumes and CVs; developing marketing plans; finding alternative exhibition venues; and refining career aspirations. In addition, the book includes inspiring and insightful interviews with professional artists and well-known players in the art scene. http://www.facebook.com/StartArtCareer

The Reader's Guide to Music is designed to provide a useful single-volume guide to the ever-increasing number of English language book-length studies in music. Each entry consists of a bibliography of some 3-20 titles and an essay in which these titles are evaluated, by an expert in the field, in light of the history of writing and scholarship on the given topic. The more than 500 entries include not just writings on major composers in music history but also the genres in which they worked (from early chant to rock and roll) and topics important to the various disciplines of music scholarship (from aesthetics to gay/lesbian musicology).

A straight-shooting Silicon Valley executive reveals insider career strategies to becoming a great leader, developing your network, succeeding without wasting time, and managing trade-offs between your work and life so your life works. Patty Azzarello became the youngest general manager at Hewlett-Packard at age thirty-three, ran a $1 billion software business at thirty-five, and became a CEO at thirty-eight-all without turning into a self-centered, miserable jerk. In Rise, Azzarello shares the insider secrets to advancing your career (while having a life) in three practical steps: Do Better: Set ruthless priorities, and work and lead more strategically to deal with frustrating obstacles. Look Better: Build your credibility with the people who can help (or blacklist) you. Connect Better: Develop your network without being political. Get on "the List" of people who get the best opportunities. Whether you are just starting up the corporate ladder, stuck midcareer, transitioning, or eyeing the corner office, Rise shows you the difference between getting ahead and just working hard.

The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Academic Biology is an indispensable guide for graduate students and post-docs as they enter that domain red in tooth and claw: the job market. An academic career in the biological sciences typically demands well over a decade of technical training. So it’s ironic that when a scholar reaches the most critical stage in that career—the search for a job following graduate work—he or she receives little or no formal preparation. Instead, students are thrown into the job market with only cursory guidance on how to search for and land a position. Now there’s help. Carefully, clearly, and with a welcome sense of humor, The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Academic Biology leads graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through the perils and rewards of their first job search. The authors—who collectively have for decades mentored students and served on hiring committees—have honed their advice in workshops at biology meetings across the country. The resulting guide covers everything from how to pack an overnight bag without wrinkling a suit to selecting the right job to apply for in the first place. The authors have taken care to make their advice useful to all areas of academic biology—from cell biology and molecular genetics to evolution and ecology—and they give tips on how applicants can tailor their approaches to different institutions from major research universities to small private colleges. With jobs in the sciences ever more difficult to come by, The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Academic Biology is designed to help students and post-docs navigate the tricky terrain of an academic job search—from the first year of a graduate program to the final negotiations of a job offer.

Universal basic income. A 15-hour workweek. Open borders. Does it sound too good to be true? One of Europe's leading young thinkers shows how we can build an ideal world today. "A more politically radical Malcolm Gladwell." -- New York Times After working all day at jobs we often dislike, we buy things we don't need. Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, reminds us it needn't be this way -- and in some places it isn't. Rutger Bregman's TED Talk about universal basic income seemed impossibly radical when he delivered it in 2014. A quarter of a million views later, the subject of that video is being seriously considered by leading economists and government leaders the world over. It's just one of the many utopian ideas that Bregman proves is possible today. Utopia for Realists is one of those rare books that takes you by surprise and challenges what you think can happen. From a Canadian city that once completely eradicated poverty, to Richard Nixon's near implementation of a basic income for millions of Americans, Bregman takes us on a journey through history, and beyond the traditional left-right divides, as he champions ideas whose time have come. Every progressive milestone of civilization -- from the end of slavery to the beginning of democracy -- was once considered a utopian fantasy. Bregman's book, both challenging and bracing, demonstrates that new utopian ideas, like the elimination of poverty and the creation of the fifteen-hour workweek, can become a reality in our lifetime. Being unrealistic and unreasonable can in fact make the impossible inevitable, and it is the only way to build the ideal world.

This second edition of Beyond Talent provides user-friendly real-life advice, examples, and perspectives on how to further a career in music. Understanding the unique talents and training of musicians, veteran music career counselor Angela Myles Beeching presents a wealth of creative solutions for career advancement in the highly competitive music industry. Step-by-step instructions detail how to design promotional materials, book performances, network and access resources and assistance, jump start a stalled career, and expand your employment opportunities while remaining true to your music. Beeching untangles artist management and the recording industry, explains how to find and create performance opportunities, and provides guidance on grant writing and fundraising, day jobs, freelancing, and how to manage money, time, and stress. The companion website puts numerous up-to-date and useful internet resources at your fingertips. This essential handbook goes beyond the usual "how-to," helping musicians tackle the core questions about career goals, and create a meaningful life as a professional musician. Beyond Talent is the ideal companion for students and professionals, emerging musicians and mid-career artists.