There's a mantra that real writers know but wannabe writers don’t. And the secret phrase is this:

NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T.

Recognizing this painful truth is the first step in the writer's transformation from amateur to professional.

From Chapter Four:

“When you understand that nobody wants to read your shit, you develop empathy. You acquire the skill that is indispensable to all artists and entrepreneurs—the ability to switch back and forth in your imagination from your own point of view as writer/painter/seller to the point of view of your reader/gallery-goer/customer. You learn to ask yourself with ev­ery sentence and every phrase: Is this interesting? Is it fun or challenging or inventive? Am I giving the reader enough? Is she bored? Is she following where I want to lead her?"

"No one's insights about the craft and journey of being an artist have guided me in the day-to-day struggle of this profession more than Steven Pressfield. Wherever you are, whatever you've been called to make, you need to read this book...and everything else he has written."

— Ryan Holiday, Bestselling Author of Ego Is the Enemy and The Obstacle Is the Way

YOU ARE AN ARTIST ... AND YOU HAVE AN ARTIST’S JOURNEY

I have a theory about the Hero’s Journey. We all have one. We have many, in fact. But our primary hero’s journey is the passage we live out, in real life, before we find our calling.

The hero’s journey ends when, like Odysseus, we return home to Ithaca, to the place from which we started.

What then?

The passage that comes next is The Artist’s Journey.

On our artist’s journey, we move past Resistance and past self-sabotage. We discover our true selves and our authentic calling, and we produce the works we were born to create.

You are an artist too—whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not—and you have an artist’s journey. Will you live it out? Will you follow your Muse and do the work you were born to do?

Ready or not, you are called.

"A life-changer...Inspirational!" Marie Forleo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything is Figureoutable

Are you losing your "war of art"?

Are you being defeated by a tendency to procrastination, self-doubt, fear, distraction, and perfectionism? Are you self-sabotaging your loftiest artistic entrepreneurial dreams?

The antidote is in nine words: PUT YOUR ASS WHERE YOUR HEART WANTS TO BE.

Can you shift your artistic identity—your "ass"—from the shallow, fearful, superficial Ego to the wise, loving fearless Self? Can you commit to your dream for the long haul and for keeps? In this book, bestselling author Steven Pressfield delivers the tough-love inspiration to help you make this life-altering transformation.

In the Sunday Times bestseller Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield tells the breathtaking story of the legendary Spartans: the men and women who helped shaped our history and have themselves become as immortal as their gods.

'Breathtakingly brilliant . . . this is a work of rare genius. Savour it!' DAVID GEMMELL

'A tale worthy of Homer, a timeless epic of man and war, exquisitely researched and boldy written. Pressfield has created a new classic' STEPHEN COONTS

'A really impressive book - imaginatively framed, historically detailed and a really gripping narrative' ***** Reader review

'Beautifully written and a great joy to read' ***** Reader review

**************************

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

480 BC: At a bleak pass in a far-flung corner of eastern Greece, three hundred Spartan warriors faced the army of King Xerxes of Persia, a massive force rumoured to be over a million strong.

Their orders were simple: to delay the enemy for as long as possible in order to buy time for the main Greek armies to mobilize. For six days the Spartans held the invaders at bay. In the final hours - their shields broken, swords and spears shattered - they fought with their bare hands before being overwhelmed . . .

It was battle that would become synonymous with extraordinary courage, heroism and self-sacrifice.

It was a battle called Thermopylae.

A dazzling and profoundly moving tale of love and war, honour and revenge from Steven Pressfield, author of the Sunday Times Bestseller Gates of Fire.

"Beyond the best battle scenes I've ever read - brutal, bloody and thoroughly gripping" -- DIANA GABALDON

"Steven Pressfield...makes the distant past seem real and immediate. This is historical fiction elevated to the status of myth." -- DANIEL SILVA

"Pressfield writes with a quality and style akin to classical legend...a joy to read" -- JOHN WHITBOURN

"A gripping, un-put downable read!" -- ***** Reader review

"Great reading. Thrilling, exciting and then some." -- ***** Reader review

***************************************************

TO THEM HONOUR AND LOYALTY WERE EVERYTHING...

1250 BC: Theseus, king of Athens and slayer of the Minotaur, set sail on a journey that brought him to the land of 'tal Kyrte', the 'Free People', a nation of fiercely proud and passionate warrior women whom the Greeks called 'Amazons'.

Lovers and fighters they owed allegiance to no man and distrusted the Greeks with their boastful talk of cities and civilization. When their illustrious war queen Antiope fell in love with Theseus and fled to Athens with the king and his followers, so denying her people, the Amazon tribes were outraged. Seeking revenge, they raised a vast army and marched on Athens.

History tells us they could not win, but for a brief and glorious moment, the Amazons held the Attic world in thrall before vanishing into the immortal realms of myth and legend.

From the pen of Steven Pressfield, author of The Sunday Times Bestseller Gates of Fire comes a captivating, gripping and atmospheric novel of military might and war.

"Awesome...this is an extraordinary work - an instant classic." -- DAVID GEMMELL

"Gripping, moving and literate...rarely does an author manage to recreate a moment in history with such mastery, authority and psychological insight." -- NELSON DEMILLE

"No one writes better historical fiction than Steven Pressfield" -- VINCE FLYNN

"This book doesn't 'grab you from the first page'; it slowly envelops you in silken claws until you realise that this story owns you" -- ***** Reader review

"Powerful and insightful" -- ***** Reader review

"Absolutely brilliant" -- ***** Reader review
********************************************************
WHAT LENGTHS WILL THEY GO TO TO ACHIEVE VICTORY?

330 BC: Alexander The Great launches his bloody and brutal campaign in the Afghan Kingdoms...

Among the ranks of Macedonian infantry is Matthias. The youngest of three brothers, he is eager to prove himself, but as he joins the front-line, he comes to realise that warfare has changed. The Macedonians face a new kind of enemy, and must learn to fight a new kind of war.

Experiencing fear, euphoria, horror and shame, Matthias and his comrades undergo a rite of passage as they, soldiers of a Western force whose code is secular and humanist, confront a proud Eastern warrior people who possess a fervent willingness to die for their cause.

Just to survive, Alexander's men must shake off the trappings of 'civilization' and adopt the same unorthodox and barbaric tactics as their foe - but is that a price worth paying?

In the Depression year of 1931, on the golf links at Krewe Island off Savannah's windswept shore, two legends of the game—Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen—meet for a mesmerizing thirty-six-hole showdown. Another golfer will also compete—a troubled local war hero, once a champion, who comes with his mentor and caddie, the mysterious Bagger Vance. It is Vance, sage and charismatic, who will ultimately guide the match, for he holds the secret of the Authentic Swing. And he alone can show his protege the way back to glory.

Written in the spirit of Golf in the Kingdom and The Natural, The Legend of Bagger Vance reveals the true nature of the game in a story that is unforgettable.