Steven Pressfield Blog
Foolscap Anything
I’m excited to announce we have a new series to add to the blog! When we were promoting The Authentic Swing we asked for questions you’d like Shawn and I to answer in an hour long podcast. We received an overwhelming number of great questions, over 250 of them, and in that first hour only made it through about a dozen. So Shawn and I got back on Skype and decided to start recording more. This space on Mondays will be for short audio clips—however long it takes for us to answer just one question. If you’ve already signed up…
Developing Multiple Revenue Streams
The Nov. 18 edition of Fortune Magazine contains a story about Barefoot Books and Nancy Traversy, who: Pulled out of national store chains years ago because they made her eat large quantities of unsold books . . . AND Severed her relationship with Amazon this year out of frustration over its discounting of her products. AND Sells via partnerships with companies like Lakeshore Learning and a network of home-based sellers called Ambassadors. AND Marched into the digital age with its award-winning Barefoot World Atlas app for the iPhone and iPad, already downloaded 4 million times. (Side note: That app is…
Advanced Forms of Resistance
[Some quick notices before we get into today’s post: [Remember the “Ask Me Anything” Q&A we did a few weeks ago? The hour-long audio went out then to everyone who had signed up for First Look Access. Well, since then Shawn and I and Jeff have recorded three more half-hour AMAs from that original batch of questions—questions we didn’t have time to get to in the first AMA. [We’ll be sending the first half-hour audio out by e-mail on Monday. The other two will follow between then and the New Year. All are free, no sales pitches. [If you have…
“Poof Goes the Middle Class”
When I was a kid my dad’s dream for me was that I would become an engineer and work all my life for Lockheed or G.E. In other words be an employee. That was how the middle-class dream expressed itself in the days of American pre-eminence post-WWII, before the European countries had rebuilt their shattered economies, before the rise of Asia, India, South America, before outsourcing, before globalization, before the satellite and the microchip and the web. Now all we hear is that the American Dream is dead. As I write this, I’m looking at an article in the L.A….
Resistance and Self-Loathing
Hang on while I make the case that self-loathing is a good thing. I don’t mean only within the comedic-material sphere, within which self-loathing has been mined for years by Woody Allen, Howard Stern, Richard Lewis, and the godfather of them all, Philip Roth in Portnoy’s Complaint. What exactly is self-loathing? It appears almost always as that nasty, brutal voice in our heads. “You’re a loser, you’re a bum, a worthless waste of oxygen. Look at you. Do you imagine that someone like you could produce something original, something of quality, something that anyone else would care about? What ideas…
Portrait of a Launch
The launch of Steve’s new book, The Authentic Swing, was unlike those preceding it. Steve, Shawn, Jeff and I (a.k.a. The Black Irish team) charted a new course after benefiting from the advice of a launch pro. Just as his personal experiences proved valuable to us, our hope is that some of ours will be of value to you—whether you’re launching a new book or business. Two different goals existed for why Steve wrote The Authentic Swing and why it was launched. The Authentic Swing was written for readers who’ve continued to ask Steve about the “how and why” behind…
Writing and Money, Part 3
In last week’s post I made a case for writing out of love. This week lemme dig into that idea a little deeper. The profession of writer (or musician or filmmaker or athlete) is not really a “job” like other jobs. It’s not like working in a coal mine or toiling in a cubicle as a telemarketer. It’s not something we do purely to put food on the table. We write or paint or dance out of love. We would do it even if nobody paid us. In the fields of the arts and entertainment, the principles that apply to…
Writing and Money, Part 2
Today’s post is a follow-up to last week’s Is Money Necessary?, which was inspired by Charles Rosasco’s recent note to me: Jack Lemmon won an Oscar for his performance in “Save the Tiger,” written by Steve Shagan I’m really sick of hearing famous actors/writers/musicians talk about how unimportant money and success are (that it is “just the work” that fulfills them). How do we keep expecting to get paid/make a living? Again, what I have to say here is not intended as “wisdom” or as any definitive statement. It’s just my own take on the subject. To me, the most valuable…
The Metrics of a Bestseller and the “Oprah Effect”
New York Times “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous” Bestseller list, October 20, 2013 What makes a bestseller? What is the “Oprah Effect” on books? I’ve thought about these two questions on repeat through the years—and finally have a set of answers. Let’s start with the bestseller question. What Makes a Bestseller? The War of Art will debut at lucky #13 on the October 20th New York Times bestseller list for Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous titles, showing that alternate routes can lead to the list, too. Backlist titles can make the list. The War of Art is over 12 years old. Titles…
Is Money Necessary?
I’m stealing the title of today’s post from Maureen Dowd’s terrific book, Are Men Necessary? What got me thinking about this subject (money, I mean) is a note I received from a writer named Charles Rosasco. Thanks, Charles, for letting me use your real name: No problem: it’s just brain surgery Could you comment on money and writing? I’m really sick of hearing famous actors/writers/musicians talk about how unimportant money and success are (that it is “just the work” that fulfills them). I know what they are saying but I hardly think famously successful people are in the position to…
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers— advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
THE WAR OF ART
Read this one first.
It identifies the enemy—what I call Resistance with a capital “R,” i.e. fear, self-doubt, procrastination, perfectionism, all the forms of self-sabotage—that stop us from doing our work and realizing our dreams.
Start here.
Everything else proceeds from this.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.