Don't Go Pro

You don't have to sell out your art to keep the lights on. There's a third path, and nobody's selling it to you, because there's no money in telling artists to stop hustling. Don't Go Pro is the case for making a living AND making your best work, without fusing the two. "Rick Rubin's The Creative Act, but funnier and more personal." — Jamie Levine I made a great living selling out my art, and it slowly hollowed me out until I walked away from the comfortable studio and the steady checks. This is the book I wish someone had handed me before I spent fifteen years chasing the wrong thing. Almost every artist gets quietly molded into a validation hunter — chasing whatever makes us feel like enough, until we put that hit ahead of the truest work we could make. This book is the diagnosis, and the map out. They told us the safe path was safe: get a job, something to fall back on, retire comfortable. Since 1980, tuition is up ~1,200%, healthcare ~1,250%, housing ~545%. Wages? Up only ~374%. The "safe" path is a fairy tale. So why are you still hedging on the one thing you were built to do? Part One is the diagnosis: how validation-seeking sabotages your art, told through my own screw-ups. Part Two is the practice: what Sovereign Artists actually do to keep the work theirs. Not theory. Receipts. I'm not a guru. Working-class kid, no trust fund. Drummer, songwriter, producer, jingle composer who made real money making music widgets for products I didn't care about. I almost got rich and famous. I didn't — and figuring out why is the most useful thing that ever happened to my art. "A window into the mind of one of the best multi-instrumentalists I know." — GC Every print copy comes with the free PDF, delivered instantly, so you start reading tonight. Free US shipping. If it doesn't land, email me and I'll refund you and you keep the book.