Musicians Writing Books
By Duncan Fremlin
Professional musicians need to play. It’s why they get up each day. When Covid hit and their ability to perform disappeared, they were forced to find other outlets to satisfy their appetite. Writing autobiographies became a thing. I have a shelf full of self published books to prove it.
Margaret Laurence (award winning Canadian author, 1926-1987) tells of a cocktail party she attended and when asked, “what do you do?”, she replied, “I’m an author”.
“Isn’t that interesting” the man said. “When I retire, I’m going to write a book.”
“And what do you do sir?” was her polite come back . “I’m a brain surgeon” he said.
“Isn’t that’s interesting” said Margaret. “When I retire I’m going to become a brain surgeon”.
Her reply was dismissive and rude but her point is on the mark. As with brain surgery, writing a book is not easy.
So why do it? There are many reasons, particularly for those of us who make a living in the entertainment industry.
An obvious reason is to expand their audience.
A few years into my Stories & Songs of Stompin’ Tom tour, the merchandise table needed revitalization. Repeat customers had little to buy so a book seemed like a good idea. I had no deep seated yearn to tell my story but my audience was enjoying the stories that I told from the stage so content was no problem. It turned out that as a marketing tool, there’s nothing better.
EPKs, promo kits, websites, YouTube videos are all necessary but in 2025, it takes more.
Fewer CD players translate into fewer sales. A book however is accessible to everyone. I soon learned that delivering a book to a theatre director, newspaper or magazine editor was impactful. That simple 135 page manuscript increased my celebrity exponentially and sold more shows than any other marketing tool I’ve used in 48 years.
Those who can’t or won’t write a book might reach out to a ghostwriter. Brent Jensen is one of many who make a pretty good living writing for entertainers, sports figures, business executives and more. In Brent’s case, under his Storyphora banner, he works in a number of capacities and has helped with full books from scratch, shorter e-books, copyediting, and pretty much everything in between.
To learn more about Brent and his podcast, No Sleep Til Sudbury, check out www.brentjensenmusic.com
Duncan Fremlin is a banjo player, singer, realtor, producer and curmudgeon and performs with Whiskey Jack.
Website: whiskeyjackmusic.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morethanahome/