What Would You Like Me To Write About?
I'm planning the rest of the year's editorial calendar for the Zogblog and "We Are All Musicians Now"—and would love to get your input.
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Back when I was at Forbes, readers often weighed in with editorial advice, exhorting me to write about everything from their favorite up-and-coming musicians to the exorbitant price of parking tickets in Los Angeles.
I wrote plenty of unexpected stories, but I didn’t have final say about what went in the magazine. With the Zogblog and We Are All Musicians Now, though, I’m my own boss! Which means, ultimately, that you are my boss—I need to create compelling posts in order to convince you to subscribe. I need produce work so scintillating you share it with your friends and colleagues. Otherwise I’m not doing my job, and the model doesn’t work.
Now that I’ve been doing this for a couple months, I’d love to get more of your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to email me directly or leave a comment by clicking the button at the bottom of this piece.
Do you want more profiles? More think pieces? Wealth lists? Album reviews? Is there a particular subject I’m overlooking? Are there individuals you’d like me to write about? Should I toss in a photo essay every now and then? I’m all ears.
While you contemplate, here’s a sneak peek at what’s on tap right after Labor Day: You can expect to see stories that draw on fresh interviews with musicians ranging from veteran pop star Taylor Hanson to hip-hop pioneer Sharon “Sha Rock” Green.
I’ll try to keep to the schedule I’ve employed so far. On Tuesdays, that means Zogblog posts encompassing newsy items at the intersection of music, media and money. You’ll get installments of WAAMN on Fridays. The Zogblog will jump from topic to topic, while the book will have a more sequential and thematic feel.
To that end, here’s my tentative outline for the rest of WAAMN (I’ll be updating the Table of Contents every week to keep navigation simple). I’ve already done many of the interviews and some of the writing in the chapters listed below, but much of it is still a work in progress and therefore up for discussion. I’ll roll out each chapter over the course of roughly a month. That should put me in position for a potential physical release of WAAMN in the second half of 2022 (more on that later).
In the meantime, you can catch me talking about my latest posts in a new weekly spot on SiriusXM channel 106—Volume—as part of the “Feedback” show. I’ll be on Tuesdays at 8:20am EST for about 30-40 minutes with hosts Lori Majewski and Nik Carter. Enjoy your long weekend!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: We Are All Musicians Now
Prologue: What Does “We Are All Musicians Now” Actually Mean?
PART ONE
Chapter 1: The Ownership of Genius
Part 1: Paul McCartney’s Biggest Regret
Part 2: How Michael Jackson Got His Master Recordings Back
Part 3: A $47.5 Million Bargain—The Best Music Publishing Deal Ever
Part 4: The Unlikely King Of Hair Metal
Part 5: Sean Combs And The Ownership of Genius
Intermission: Why Artists & Writers Are All Musicians Now
Chapter 2: The Genius of Ownership
Chapter 3: Rise of the Superfan
Chapter 4: Rockstar Investors
Chapter 5: Metaverse Universe
PART TWO
Chapter 6: Athletes Are Musicians Now
Chapter 7: Magicians Are Musicians Now
Chapter 8: Entrepreneurs Are Musicians Now
Chapter 9: Comedians Are Musicians Now
Chapter 10: You Are A Musician Now
Outro
Click here to subscribe to weekly serialized installments of my new book, We Are All Musicians Now, or check out my previous books right here.
Hi Zack, Thanks for your writing and POV. Would love to read more about creative ways artists and their teams are connecting and activating audiences. We announced the most recent Clio Music Awards earlier this summer celebrating creativity in music marketing and the use of music in commercials. There were 10 Grand winners selected including stellar work from around the globe -- Russia, Australia, and Brazil. How about an assessment of the top award-winning work? https://clios.com/music/winners
Love this take on writing a book, Zack. Mind-boggling in the best way. I'd love to hear about what literary agents and editors make of all the fiction writers migrating to Substack.
This week, for instance, Salman Rushdie finalized a deal with Substack for his next book.
Rushdie's thoughts on this move, from Lithub:
"In another book of mine, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the boy hero is taken by a Water Genie to an actual Ocean of Stories. It was made up of a thousand thousand thousand and one different story streams, weaving in and out of one another. 'And because the stories were held here in liquid form, they retained the ability to change, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories.'
I’d like it if my Substack could work like that. I’d like it to talk about all sorts of stories, stories that have touched or moved or impressed or bored or even revolted me, in books and movies and on TV and in theaters, as well as stories I just plain made up."
Amazing!!