Murphy’s Laws of Songwriting

What Publishers Really Want

WANTED!
Young, yet mature, male or female writer/performer; prolific in lyrics & melody; able to produce & pitch own demos; requires little financial support from publisher; has some track record; lives next door to office.

The above listing might be the typical Want Ad you would expect a publisher to post (if publishers did, indeed, do such things) when searching to find and sign a new songwriter.

The 7:00 Am Rule

If you're ready to stop being "warm and fuzzy," go for the throat and write a hit -- read on, you're ready for "The 7:00 a.m. Rule." Everybody already thinks you're crazy anyway, so you might as well be successful and crazy. It will make your mother and your bank manager happy.

A Look at the Number One Country Songs of 2004

Most writers follow their hearts. Only when the song is finished - when they've created someone who never existed, in a place that never was, doing something that never happened - do they really begin to think about commercialism and what to pitch to whom. There are other writers, however, who purposefully sit down to "go for the throat;" who hunt for a radio hit and don't aim at having a #2 song. After all, for most of us, the theory behind joining the world's second oldest profession (writing for money) is to be the lead dog. Remember if you're not, the view never changes.

And the Award Goes to

Long ago, and not so far away, drive time was the time it took to get to grandmas for Sunday dinner; country music was played on mom and pop radio stations; and couples went out on a Friday or Saturday night, had a couple of drinks, and danced in each others arms to cheating songs. Putting on country music was like slipping into a favorite pair of well-oiled boots or an old pair of jeans.

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