Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Contrary to the standard joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall, "making it" in music is not simply about practice, practice, practice. Today, over 200,000 people in the United States work as musicians. With competition for traditional employment opportunities for musicians becoming ever more heated, today's musicians must know how the music industry works and how they can tailor their skills accordingly. How can musicians create their own professional paths? In Beyond Talent, veteran music career counselor Angela Myles Beeching offers up a comprehensive guide for musicians in search of work, demystifying the steps to success. Drawing on a wealth of real-life examples, the book untangles artist management and the recording industry and explains how to find and create performance opportunities. Guidance is also provided on grant writing and fundraising, day jobs, freelancing, and how to manage money, time, and stress. Straightforward and reader-friendly, Beyond Talent is filled with practical tips, examples, checklists, sample budgets, goal-setting exercises, and extensive resource listings. This essential handbook goes beyond the usual "how-to"; Beyond Talent helps musicians tackle the core questions about career goals, defining success, and imagining and then creating a meaningful life as a professional musician.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prelude: Confessions of a Career Counselor
• The Truth about Career Paths
• Coming Clean as a Career Counselor
• Five Trade Secrets Revealed
• Part 1 Mapping Success in Music
• What Does It Take to ""Make It""?
• Ten Success Principles
• The Entrepreneurial Musician
• Your Career Plan: Setting Goals
• Part II Making Connections: Schmoozing for Success
• It's All about People Skills
• Networking Basics
• Giving Good Phone
• Informational Interviewing
• How to Work a Room
• Part III Building Your Image: Creating Promotional Materials That Work
• Letterhead
• Bios
• Photos
• Promo Kits
• The Extras: Other Promo Kit Item Options
• Part IV Expanding Your Impact: Demos and CDs
• Context: Record Industry Basics (and What It All Means for You)
• Why Record?
• Repertoire Decisions
• Recording Options
• CD Artwork and Graphics
• Copyright Issues
• Licensing Issues
• Finance Issues
• CD Sales
• Promoting Your CD
• CD Reviews
• Part V Online Promotion: Using the Internet to Advance Your Career
• What's So Special about Web Technology in Relation to Musicians' Careers?
• The Web as Information Source
• Promotion on the Internet
• Creating Your Own Website
• Calculating a Website's Effectiveness
• Interlude Fundamental Questions
• Clearing the Runway: Removing Obstacles to Your Success
• 21 Questions for Young Performers, Abbie Conant and William Osborne
• Part VI Booking Performances like a Pro
• Myths about Artist Management
• How Artist Management Works
• Self-management: Your Best Bet
• Researching Your Opportunities
• Effective Programming: Engaging Presenters and Audience
• Booking Performances A-Z
• Negotiating Fees
• Confirmations and Contracts
• Part VII Building Your Reputation, Growing Your Audience: The Media, Publicity, and You
• Attracting An Audience
• What Does a Publicist Do? (And When Do I Need One?)
• How to Write a Press Release
• Compiling Your Media List
• Timeline for Publicizing Your Next Concert
• Part VIII Connecting with Audiences: Residency, Educational, and Community Programming
• What Is Residency Work?
• Why Bother?
• Primary Residency Skill: Talking to Audiences
• Designing Residency Programming: Basic Ingredients
• Residency Work with Adults
• Residency Work with Seniors
• Residency Work with Children
• Effective K-12 Residency Materials: Study Guides for Teacher Preparation
• Getting Residency Work
• Marketing Yourself for Residency Work
• Quality Control: Evaluating Your Residency Work
• Part IX Performing At Your Best
• Stage Presence
• Performance Anxiety
• Self-Assessment: Check Out Your Attitudes
• Interventions and Treatment Methods
• Performance Health
• Part X The Freelance Lifestyle--Managing Your Gigs, Time, and Money
• The Basics: Freelancing and Gigs
• Musician Unions
• Concerts versus Gigs
• Marketing Materials
• Gig Contracts
• Time Management
• Effective Practice
• Financial Management
• Taxes
• Part XI Raising Money for Music Projects
• Mapping Your Project
• Researching Grant Opportunities
• Applying for Grants
• Fund-raising 101
• ""Making the Ask""
• Fund-raising Letters
• Part XII Getting It Together: Your Career Package
• Types of Careers
• Day Job Dilemma: Five Key Considerations
• Teaching Opportunities
• Arts Administration Opportunities
• Opportunities in the Music Industry
• Appendix: More Resources, Please!
• Index

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Angela Myles Beeching directs the New England Conservatory Career Services Center, a comprehensive career resource office, internationally recognized as a model of its kind. Ms. Beeching has presented workshops for Chamber Music America, Eastman School of Music, the University of Kentucky, Boston University, and University of Texas, Austin. Since 1997 she has designed and facilitated the annual Young Performers Career Advancement seminar for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conferences. Her articles on career issues have appeared in the National Business Employment Weekly, Inside Arts, Chamber Music magazine, and in Managing Your Career, published by the Dow Jones. She co-chairs the annual conference of the Network of Music Career Development Officers, a group dedicated to improving music career development services. Earlier in her career, Ms. Beeching taught cello at California State University, Fresno, and at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. A Fulbright Scholar and Harriet Hale Woolley grant recipient, Ms. Beeching also received fellowships at Banff and Tanglewood Music Center. An alumnus of Boston University and New England Conservatory, she holds a doctorate in cello performance from SUNY Stony Brook.