Getting Your First Big “Yes!”

BY MOLLY-ANN LEIKIN
SONGWRITING COACH & MARKETEER

 
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This morning, as I took my walk up the hill behind my house, I realized that if I stacked all the no’s I’ve been told from day one, they would block the Alps. 

On the other hand, the yeses would barely make it past my ankle. 

Nonetheless, I am enjoying a great career in the music business.

Over the years, I’ve probably heard more no’s than most songwriters, because I wasn’t a groupie, I wore a bra, didn’t do drugs, and I wasn’t anybody’s daughter.  

But after seven years of “you can’t be serious,” a publisher at Warner Brothers asked me to write a song for somebody, and I was back with it the next day at 7:24 a.m. Waiting on WB's front step, which is totally out of character for drive-around-the-block-once-then-split me, I was cool when WB guy rolled in at eleven. He didn’t use my song that time, but he appreciated my passion. After 398.2 days of this, he signed me as a staff writer. 

Yes, I am talented. But everybody's talented. I just wanted it more. 

Do you?

© 2024 Molly-Ann Leikin

songmd@songmd.com

 
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Excerpt from How to Write a Hit Song in the Digital Age