To find the publishing company that's right for you, read Billboard Magazine. If you write country songs, look on the country chart. If you're a pop writer, look on the pop chart. But don't be a gospel writer looking for a music publisher on the rock ‘n roll chart. Music publishers are very specialized and so are their connections.

This appeared in Barney Brantingham’s column in the Santa Barbara News-Press before the publisher went ballistic and fired everybody. I hung this special column on my fridge, and want to share it with all of you.

Many songwriters tell me that melodies flow out of them like beer from a tap, but writing lyrics make them ache all over. I tell them they are in good company. Almost every other client shares their problem when they contact me

For the past year, I've been keeping a talley of where the best songs come from. Hands down, the quality of the writing by the non-singing songwriter is far superior to the material written by singers.

I thought you would enjoy the tale.

A few years ago, I had some free time, and wanted to give something back to the community that had nothing to do with music. I was introduced to a very shy, robust, young woman named Svetlana Barkash, who had just arrived from Latvia with her husband and two young daughters.

Choosing just the right music for your wedding is as important as the love, the ring, and the dress, so it deserves as much care and attention. In the most memorable and beautiful nuptials, no matter how large or intimate, the music has an actual personality that compliments the theme, tone and setting of your event.

My writing partners are talented people just like you who usually have part of a song but need help finishing it. Maybe you’ve written a first verse but are stuck there. I start with what you have and take it the rest of the way.

There is no songwriter I ever met who didn't have trouble with a bridge now and then. And there is no songwriter among my clients who doesn't try to negotiate his/her way out of writing a bridge every time out.