Q+A: Annie Zaleski on Cher, Stevie Nicks and Pushing Past Writing Fears
Interview with a prolific author!
Our Q+A series continues today with author Annie Zaleski! Her next book is I Got You Babe: A Celebration of Cher, due out on May 6.
Tamara Palmer/Music Book Club: Congratulations on your Taylor Swift book becoming a NYT Bestseller. Did that take you by surprise?
Annie Zaleski: Absolutely! You never write books thinking they’ll become a bestseller, much less make the NYT list, which is an enormous achievement. But I’m very proud of the book, so it was incredibly rewarding that it ended up resonating with so many people.
How did your upcoming book about Cher come to fruition? What is it like?
An editor I had worked with before reached out and said she was thinking about pitching a Cher book and wondered if I was a fan. That would be a resounding yes! The book ended up as a hardcover with tons of photos and Cher-fabulous design, along with entries about her entire life and career—leaning into her music and movies, of course, but also covering things like her amazing ’90s catalog, her Barbie doll, her philanthropic work, her family, and more. I’m very pleased with how it turned out!
You also have a Stevie Nicks book coming! Please tell me about that. Stevie is very special to me. I once got to meet her and her wardrobe director backstage at a show in LA, and the director gave me a tour of Stevie’s garment rack, including the “sleeves of Rhiannon.”
I’m very excited about this too! I can’t really talk about this one yet, but rest assured her shawls will be given thorough real estate.
What are some of your favorite music books? If this is like picking favorite children, what are some of your recently released favorites?
Such a big question! I love Kathy Valentine’s memoir, All I Ever Wanted. I respect Kathy so much as a musician (and as a person) and her book was so vivid and well-written—really, the gold standard of memoirs. I also like Caryn Rose’s Why Patti Smith Matters, which helped put Patti in such smart cultural context, as well as Ann Powers’ recent book on Joni Mitchell, Traveling, and Tanya Pearson’s Pretend We’re Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the ‘90s.
Are you a very disciplined writer, or do you have some typical writing routines?
I always want to be more disciplined than I am, truthfully. I tend to write better when I have long periods of unstructured time when I don’t have to answer email, do interviews/take phone calls or get distracted by other things. So my preferred routine is clearing multiple days to really dig in and focus. I write on computers only these days (no writing longhand!) so that gives me flexibility to also jump around where need be if I’m working on a big project, which is helpful to me—if I get writer’s block in one area, I just move to something else.
What advice would you share when it comes to being a productive and prolific author?
Don’t let imposter syndrome or the fear of rejection hold you back—and also don’t compare yourself to other people or their accomplishments. Do what’s best for you—and do your best work—and good things will follow.
Previously in our Q+A series:
More letters from Tamara Palmer
I would particularly appreciate some new subscribers to California Eating before I apply for a nonprofit reporting grant that involves this project later this month!
