Interview with Author/Drummer Jill Sager

I met Jill Sager in a writing group several years ago, when she’d just started working on an instructional book for hand drummers.  During my time at U.C. Santa Cruz, my dorm-mates and I would creep into the redwoods after dark to drum, but–having been told in the fourth grade that I lacked rhythm–I denied myself the pleasure of sounding my barbaric yawp and just listened.  Now, with Sager’s book in hand, I feel inspired to pick up a hand drum and try a few beats.  Here’s an interview I did with her via e-mail in early September:

MH: You’ve been a drumming teacher for years, working with students of all ages at Hands On Rhythm and Drum School in Eugene.  What inspired you to write a book?

Jill Sager

JS: Two things fueled my idea to write an instructional hand drum book.  I was a hand drummer and I knew there were people, mostly adults who wanted to drum but were not interested in traditional culturally specific approaches or becoming professional drummers.  These same people wanted to have fun in drum circles but of course still needed to learn how to drum.  Where and how were they accessing information?  So I opened a school to reach these people.  It turned out to be a good idea.  With very little advertising, I started to fill classes at the school and I got calls from community groups requesting I teach at schools, senior centers, recreation centers, conferences, at pain management seminars – it went on and on and I realized I could reach more people if I wrote an instructional book.

I also knew the resources that were already on the market.  What could I recommend to my students? At that time there were some books and DVDs but none of them basic enough for that beginner beginner.

So essentially, for the close to 7 years from conception to product, my passion to get the drum book done and published was an obsession fueled by the continued increase in popularity of hand drumming and the lack of adequate materials for people who had never touched a hand drum or any musical instrument before.

MH: You and I were in a critique group together several years ago, and you’d just started a draft of Beginning Hand Drumming. Will you describe the process of organizing your wealth of information on drumming, and how you approached writing and revising the book

JS: By the time I actually sat down to write the book I had been teaching for about four years and had a very clear curriculum.  Discharging it to paper took me less than six weeks.  It was cathartic and I wrote it all in long hand.  Organizing it however became a task.  I had so much material.   I gave it to a friend and mentor of mine who has a much more linear head than I.  Sarah looked at all the material and restructured the chapters completely.   Her help was invaluable in getting me re-organized and the first and second and third revisions were much easier because I had a clear outline in place.

When I was close to the final edit, I approached another friend, a great writer, JoJo Jensen who was already a published non-fiction author.  She agreed to help me with the final edit and if not for her I don’t think the book would have been finished. She kept me on task, very important for someone like me who gets sidetracked easy, she made fabulous suggestions, and asked the right clarifying questions.

MH: Tell us a little about Carl Fischer Music, and how this organization came to publish your book.   Did you approach them, or did they approach you?  If you made the accompanying DVD, will you describe a little of that process, as well?

JS: I approached Carl Fischer Music, but not in the way you might think.  I spent my own money to attend the largest music industry trade show in the world: National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) in order to do research on my project.  I walked into the Carl Fischer Music booth, a very traditional publishing house, mostly known for the classics, got to talking to a suited gentleman to get more info about their hand drum catalogue and asked him what he thought of my idea.  I never told him I was writing a book.  He said it wouldn’t fly.  I thanked him for his opinion and he gave me his business card.  Turns out this guy, I thought was a salesman, was the CEO of the company.

Six months later I’m in NYC visiting my mom and I nervously contact this CEO, but hey, he gave me his card.  I didn’t even think he’d remember me.  But he did and in the middle of our discussion he throws out, “now what was that idea you were talking to me about at NAMM?”   At that point, I laid out an incredibly well researched marketing plan, and then he asked me, “Are you writing this book?”

The accompanying DVD was their idea.  These days most music instructional books are accompanied with a DVD or CD.  Their drum editor asked me to write a script, which I did.  Then they flew him and I down to LA to get that part of the project professionally filmed and edited.  Once it was all done, their marketing department decided to put the entire book into the cover of a DVD package.  Better shelf space they said.  That wasn’t my initial hit for the book, either was the name, but I had no problem getting on board with those changes.

MH: How have readers been affected by Beginning Hand Drumming? What fan mail have you received?  Has the book increased interest in drumming, and in your school?

JS: I don’t know if the book and DVD have increased hand drum interest, but I have been surprised by who has bought the DVD/Book set.  I had originally written it for the beginner beginner.   But then when I had other drum teachers review it for me while it was still in draft form, they told me they would use it themselves to teach their students.  I didn’t expect that.  And since it’s been published, I have found out that general music ed teachers are using it in their classrooms with their students.  I have also found out, that other musicians are using it to teach themselves how to hand drum and that is exciting.

Of course still the best reviews for me are when I read on Amazon or Netflix that someone actually has succeeded with the intentions I put out there.  When that beginner beginner drummer writes how they’ve learned something and they and their family are having fun with the materials, I have to admit, that makes me very happy and I do a little dance of pride all by myself.

Here are Sager’s tips to remember when writing and publishing a non-fiction book on a subject for which you have a particular passion:

• Let others review it.  Be open to advice about your project, your writing, and make sure you understand who your audience is when you write your piece.  I think any writer – but especially in non-fiction, is so immersed in the subject, the vernacular, too close maybe, so it’s great to have other eyes on a project to insure you’re really being clear to your targeted reader.

• For first timers like me, publishers really want to know how you’re going to make them money.  I didn’t actually have to write a book proposal, but every component was laid out and in my head.  Also make sure your manuscript is tight when you send it in; a real finished work.

• Don’t let anyone get in your way.  I had many negative comments and rejections about my idea during the seven long year process.  I had drummers, publishers, peers saying no way to the idea, even the CEO of Carl Fischer Music said no about a year before he changed his mind and offered me a contract.   Just say yes to yourself and keep going – that’s what passion is.  No matter how hard the process gets, once you’re knee deep in it and then neck deep in it, sure you can quit for your own reasons, but if you still feel passionate about it, if you still feel the idea has merit, if you’re still excited and hopeful by the outcome, the intent, and want to keep going; then don’t let anyone or anything derail you.

For more about Jill Sager and her work, please visit www.handsonrhythm.com .

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