Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a first time writer with tons of experience and passion in the music field. I’m most publicly known for my YouTube channel www.youtube.com/shonsta
I’m less publicly known for my commercial composing career which I have never shared with anyone until now. Reason being that it pays so much money and is a bit of a secret between the few commercial composers who know about it.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest and first book “Money 4 Music” was just released with it’s counterpart book “The Commercial Composing handbook”. I have been composing music for commercials for quite a while and have decided to retire from it and pursue my other life passions now.
Just cutting off such a cool and lucrative secret profession never felt completely right, until one day I realized that I don’t need to be the one hogging all the coolness. I can share my knowledge with others and live on through them. This made me excited and so I wrote the two books to sort of be the two books I wish were available to me back when I was a clueless and penniless musician just like everyone else.
My goal with the two books is to educate those who have drive to see their dreams come to fruition. SO many artists are really good at art, but can’t seem to catch a break or get the inside scoop on the business side of things. The reason I split the book into two books was to keep one focused solely on the business side, and one to educate and jump start the artistic side of commercial composing.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to write with more enthusiasm than most in the instructional field. I’ve read some very good books about music throughout my career and while they were all very informative and well-crafted, it was a chore to get through them. This is why when writing my books I decided to just be candid and make my teaching a bit more conversational rather than instructional. I love to infuse my enthusiasm and make things fun so the reader doesn’t dose or put the book down. Hopefully, I have achieved this 🙂
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I draw a lot of my inspiration from self-help authors and books like “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss, “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki, and anything from Tony Robbins.
What are you working on now?
I’ve become a director in the past few years and that is the reason I have sort of left the commercial composing career behind. Doing mainly commercials and music videos, but I have several film scripts that I plan on executing at some point in this life 🙂
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Time will tell hahaha, but I launched these first two books of mine via Amazon KDP Select. So far so good. It is only day one as I’m writing this and the book is already at number 1 in Music Business”. Which feels awesome!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new authors is to just write! If it is something you love, or you have to get something from your brain out and into the world, just do it! *Insert Shia LaBeouf video here.
Ignore the noise of all the outside factors and people. Do what you love to do. As for how to be a good author, I have no idea! I’m just taking my own advice and doing what I feel I need to do to get my knowledge to others and enjoy the journey of learning something new. As for the business of being an author, let’s catch up in a few years 😉
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Trying to please everyone is the quickest path to failure.
What are you reading now?
Mainly my Netflix menu.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Being my first book, I plan to see how this beast works before writing my next book. I have several topics that I am strongly passionate about covering such as photography, anxiety, and more music related topics. I am a bit all over the board, but I have lived a very interesting life and believe I have a lot of helpful things to share 🙂
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
3 or 4 survival guides.
Author Websites and Profiles
Sean Gordon Website
Sean Gordon’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account