So you wanna be a rock'n'roll star? This book focuses mostly on how to properly promote your band and your music, beginning with simple things like "branding" your music and creating an appropriate logo. There's advice on how to manage a band website, work with sites like ReverbNation and Pandora and how to use social media to your advantage. Press kits are defined and explained (know what a "one sheet" is?) and for when your career really takes off, there's advice on copyright, royalties and keeping track of everything because you're gonna have to pay taxes. There are lots of career tutorials out there for musicians but they become dated very quickly; this one has both evergreen information and specific thoughts about succeeding in today's Internet-driven society.

The Little Red Book of Musicians' Wisdom
Sheila E. Anderson
Skyhorse Publishing

"Bob, you realize that the guy had a gun…" That phrase, included in the On Life and Lessons Learned chapter of this book, is attributed to jazz player Gil Evans, who said it a fellow musician after a scuffle in Spain. The book is a compendium of quotations uttered by musicians of all genres that begins with a few pages dedicated to their definitions of music; some are highbrow and some are humorous, like Louis Armstrong's quip "All music is folk music; I ain't never heard no horse sing a song." Thirty ensuing chapters are filled with wit and wisdom from everyone from Courtney Love to Tito Puente; Billie Holiday to Johnny Cash.