How to Write a Hit Song will show you exactly how the hit songwriters work, and how you can carve an unstoppable path for yourself in the music business. You can do it!
“Best book on songwriting I ever read! Really lit a fire under me.”
How to Write A Hit Song
By Molly-Ann Leikin
Paperback, 152 pages
This inspiring, personal, fast-paced and perennial best-seller teaches you the fundamentals of writing and marketing your words and music for pop songs, country songs, gospel songs, contemporary Christian songs, alternative songs, rock songs, and dance songs, so they can become hit songs.
In “How to Write a Hit Song”, there are exciting chapters on creating strong, original melodies, and tracks, lyrics that say something new, the importance of an unusual, original title, co-writing, finding the right collaborator, overcoming writing blocks, making money in the meantime, stimulating creativity, and making time to write.
This magic book even includes a special chapter devoted to “I Need to Wake Up”, by Melissa Etheridge, which won an Oscar. Melissa gave Molly an exclusive interview. Just for you.
“How to Write a Hit Song” is an easy and very funny read. If you’ve been writing and writing and writing songs but not getting anywhere, or you’re brand new, wanting to do it just right, these pages can change everything.
As of this writing, four of Molly-Ann Leikin’s clients who’ve read “How To Write A Hit Song”, have Grammy nominations, another won an Emmy, and so far, over six thousand other readers have placed their pop songs, country songs, dance songs, gospel songs, rock songs, alternative songs, and contemporary Christian songs in movies, TV shows, on CD’s, and in commercials. Their music and lyrics are downloaded all over the web. That’s a lot of income streams! More every minute! And that’s a lot of money from songwriting royalties!
Whether you write, sing, or produce your own songs, write the words or compose melodies only, this landmark book features simple, playful exercises for learning each point of songwriting and marketing craft.
Praise for How to Write a Hit Song
“Molly Ann has long been one of my favorites. A very knowledgeable lady. Loved her magazine and love her books.”
“After reading “How To Write A Hit Song”, you will know exactly what to do with your lyrics and music, your CD’s, mp3’s and tracks, and most importantly, how to get them to all the right people. ”
“Finally! A book that really helped us! My band and I read all the other books. Went to the seminars. Paid the lawyers. But this book has opened our eyes, sharpened our pencils, and got us going. Our songs are ‘way stronger, and now we have a major deal on the table. Put your egos away and listen to this lady. She knows her stuff. This book will change your life and career, too.”
“Molly-Ann Leiken presents an insider’s look at the challenging and rapidly changing role of a professional songwriter. When someone with a house full of gold and platinum records sits down and says, “This is how I did it!” The rest of us are blessed to listen and learn.”
“Best book on songwriting I ever read! Most songwriting books recycle what other people have already said, but How To Be A Hit Songwriter is original. Really lit a fire under me. It’s powerful, nurturing, funny straight talk, and makes the whole process of writing songs seem so simple. After reading it - twice - I feel I can really DO this now. Can’t wait to tell my boss what he can do with his job...”
"Molly-Ann Leikin is clearly a woman who likes difficult challenges. After all, every serious songwriter, including, no doubt, Ms. Leikin, has a shelf full of books about "How To Write Songs." They (and she) have even read some of them. Maybe, even all the way through one or two.
Yes, Virginia, many gifted songwriters can't write readable prose, particularly for the length of a book. Furthermore, when they try, they usually write much too much of it, since it is almost always the story of how they succeeded in the music business.
Blessedly, Molly-Ann Leikin does not fit this pattern.
She can write prose and interestingly, too. Her column for the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase Musepaper no doubt helps her write short.
Leikin is both an active songwriter and a songwriting consultant. Her experience helping people succeed as songwriters, as well as her own songwriting experiences, are the sources from which she draws for the material in this book.
The book is short, running just under one hundred pages. Each chapter is also quite brief, with the longest, about getting songs published, being twenty-three pages. All the requisite subjects are covered, with the exception of copyright, which is mentioned very briefly on page 89.
There are exercises all along the way and Leikin often mentions tricks, tips, and traps to avoid. Having to deal with the difficulties other writers are having, she understands that one writer's bag of tricks may or may not be applicable to another's, so she presents them without insisting that they are the way. If her consulting methodology is similar, the clients won't lack for help.
My personal tests for reading books on songwriting are these: one, how far into the book do I read before I put it down and pick up my guitar; two, do I finish it; and three, did I learn anything that I still remember the next day? Leikin did well on three counts.
I stopped reading to play the Dictionary Game, which I thought very usable. I also liked the section on Power Phoning, although I don't have the chutzpah to try it. I don't think I want the highest-ranking General in the Air Force to call me back. I also read it right to the end in two sittings, only stopping long enough to lose all the money I had at poker.
And finally, I immediately made plans to contact two local performers for whom I have long thought I could write but just hadn't moved on it. I've got these tunes, see ...
Books on songwriting generally come down to whether or not the reader feels simpatico with the author. If so, the reader will accept and learn from the good suggestions in the book. If not, the best tricks and techniques in the world won't mean a thing and won't take.
Molly-Ann tries very hard to be likable and simpatico, so she can get those lessons in.
She succeeds. Admirably.”
- Paul Moffett