Best Books for Artists: 39 Picks Recommended by CEOs

Marketer Ryan Holiday studies why some creative work keeps selling for decades, from The Shawshank Redemption’s slow rise to a muddled novel draft saved by the right editor, and shows how to make, position and market books, songs or screenplays that last. Cal Newport fully agrees with its thinking.

Austin Kleon turns from making work to getting known, with ten rules for artists that favor letting people into the process, sharing something small every day and building a network through generosity instead of self-promotion. Benjamin Spall recommends it to young people entering his line of work.

Jenna Fischer spent eight hard years between arriving in Los Angeles with a theater degree and landing The Office, and her guide covers headshots, representation, auditions and callbacks, making original work with peers and spotting scams. Jon Hamm hopes every young actor landing at LAX gets a copy.

Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant describe becoming full-time independent authors by treating self-publishing as a business: knowing the ideal reader, covers, titles, pricing, releases on several platforms and a marketing plan built on reader psychology. Kaci Lambe Kai finished it set on living as an independent creative.

Professional artist Lisa Congdon maps the ways artists earn a living, from illustration and licensing to selling prints and teaching, with chapters on goals, several income streams, bookkeeping, copyright, pricing, galleries and agents. Maria Popova credits her with debunking the idea that money and art are opposed.

Maureen Ryan, a co-producer of the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire, lays out low-budget independent film producing as a series of production meetings with checklists, from twelve weeks before the shoot through postproduction. Musician and filmmaker Andi Dumitrescu rereads it as a business book.

Jeff Goins calls the starving artist a myth and replaces it with rules for creative careers: apprentice under a master, steal from influences, collaborate, take strategic risks and earn money in order to fund more art. Scott Perry pulled it from his stack to read next.

David Sherwin’s business reference for designers draws on interviews with studio heads, account and project managers and working designers, and deals with managing projects, client relationships and the path to leading a design team. Kimberly Gloria Choi recommends it to young people following her path.

Steven Pressfield’s book is mainly about beating Resistance, his name for the self-doubt and delay that stop people from making things, and his answer is the professional’s habit of showing up daily for the craft. Joe Rogan used to hand copies to his studio guests.

Austin Kleon’s ten lessons for writers, artists and designers are mainly about the creative process: study, credit and transform influences, work with the hands, keep side projects and share work in public. Ryan Holiday defends its idea of remixing the masters as the core of making art.

Patti Smith’s memoir of her bond with a young photographer follows two broke artists in sixties New York who promise to support each other while they chase their art, later sharing a room at the Hotel Chelsea. Seth Godin says it changes how people live, not how they work.

Bobby Hundreds tells how The Hundreds grew from a DIY label started by outsiders into one of the few early streetwear brands to last, and explains the business behind the scene. Ronnie Fieg calls it a map for starting a brand while keeping its community.

Chase Jarvis, founder of CreativeLive, treats creativity as a daily habit and lays out his IDEA system, imagine, design, execute and amplify, which he applies to creative careers as well as single projects. Daymond John calls it a roadmap for creators and entrepreneurs chasing a dream.

Mason Currey compiles how 161 novelists, painters, composers and scientists organized their working days, from Trollope writing before his post office job to Kafka resenting his office work; the subject is routine, not business. James Clear notes that all of them kept a set time and place to work.

Lewis Hyde treats a work of art as a gift rather than a commodity and draws on anthropology and economics to ask how creative work can survive in a money-driven culture. Austin Kleon took from it the value of a day job and of generosity toward an audience.

Hugh MacLeod, a copywriter who began drawing cartoons on business cards, distills creativity into 40 short cartoon-led keys, among them warnings against watering work down to sell it or waiting to be discovered. Derek Sivers calls it concise wisdom on creativity from an artist.

Steven Pressfield’s tough advice for writers, artists and entrepreneurs is mainly about craft: accepting that nobody wants to read the work, he argues, marks the move from amateur to professional. Morgan Housel says no book has shaped his writing more.

Paul Jarvis writes about businesses in general rather than artists, arguing that a company can choose to remain small and still make good money, with chapters on revenue targets, cash flow, crises and key clients. David Heinemeier Hansson praises its wider idea of growth built on learning and contentment.

Economist Alan B. Krueger uses the music business to teach economics, and his data on royalties, streaming, touring and merchandise show stars now earning far more on stage than from recordings, and how new artists break out. Richard Thaler praises how it covers every stage of the industry.

Elizabeth Gilbert writes mainly about inspiration and living creatively despite fear, with the attitudes and daily habits that support creative work rather than its business side. Mark Manson read it among the writing books he studied before his first book and liked it more than he expected.

Luke Sullivan and Edward Boches teach the craft of advertising and follow an ad creative’s career from finding the first job to building campaigns, defending good work and succeeding without selling out. Irina Nica credits it with teaching her to think on the page and find her own voice.

Seth Godin argues that conformity no longer brings safety and that making art, for him a stance open to anyone and not a gift of birth, is now the less risky course. Scott Perry credits it with shaping his vocation and his sense of what creative work takes.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s biography, built on more than one hundred interviews, follows Jay Z from Brooklyn street dealing to a music career and a business empire of clothing, clubs, cognac and streaming. Ryan Holiday reads it as a business book on how hustling techniques built that empire.

Scott Perry applies Stoic ideas to creative work, contrasting creatives driven by passion with artists driven by purpose, and asks readers to match their values with their talents and serve the people who need them, with short exercises in each chapter. Seth Godin calls it time well spent.

James Andrew Miller’s oral history of Creative Artists Agency shows the representation side of entertainment, from five agents leaving William Morris in 1975 to a firm handling actors, directors and musicians and reaching into advertising and finance. Sir Martin Sorrell has recommended it.

Don Thompson looks at how the 2008 crash changed the contemporary art market, arguing that prices rest on branding, back stories, money and status as much as passion, with stories from dealers and auction house insiders. Pilar Ordovas recommends it to anyone learning about the art market.

Rock promoter Bill Graham tells, with Robert Greenfield, how he built a concert business around the Fillmore venues and helped launch acts such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. Live Nation’s James Murphy tells newcomers to the concert trade to read it for the industry’s history.

Dorie Clark writes for consultants, coaches, podcasters and bloggers rather than artists in particular, laying out how to build a brand, monetize expertise and develop several revenue streams for an independent career. Marvin Liao has it on his reading list.

Edward Winkleman’s guide is written for gallery owners rather than artists, but it shows the other side of the deal: business plans, location, cash flow, art fairs and how galleries attract and keep artists and collectors. Zach Feuer wishes he had known its contents before opening his gallery.

Grace Bonney gathers more than 100 women, from ceramicists and tattoo artists to architects, comedians and hoteliers, who describe how they built creative work and businesses, mixing inspiration with practical advice. Cat Williams-Treloar brings it out whenever she wants inspiration.

Scott Belsky, founder of Behance, studied productive creative people and teams for six years and is mainly concerned with execution: organizing projects, killing ideas freely and putting conflict inside a team to use. Andreas Zhou still uses its methods to escape analysis paralysis.

Gordon MacKenzie, after three decades at Hallmark Cards, writes for creative people inside large companies, showing how to stay inventive amid the tangle of rules and habits he calls the giant hairball. Todd Henry says no book shaped his early career more.

YouTube’s chief business officer Robert Kyncl tells how creators built careers and audiences on the platform, with stories of its stars and dealmakers, and gives advice to aspiring creators. Marvin Liao has it on his reading list.

Steven Pressfield describes leaving amateur habits for a professional practice as a change of mind that demands real sacrifice, a mindset book rather than a business manual. Jacqui Pretty reads it as a call to treat art as daily work, not a hobby.

Marc Ecko traces his path from airbrushing T-shirts as a misfit kid to founding Ecko Unltd and Complex Media, and argues that an artist’s instincts plus business savvy fall short without an authentic core. George Lucas praises how Ecko built a brand out of art and pop culture.

Questlove gathers lessons on creativity from his own career and from artists he has worked with, covering mentors and apprenticeship, creative networks, critics and the pitfalls of success. Jimmy Fallon thinks nobody is better placed to write about being creative.

Michael Ovitz recounts growing Creative Artists Agency from a tiny start into the strongest agency in Hollywood by packaging actors, directors, writers and producers into deals. Marc Andreessen calls him the Jedi master of modern Hollywood.

Gallery owner Edward Winkleman examines, from the dealer’s side, how the contemporary art market changed after 2008, from art fairs and mega galleries to online sellers and contracts for representation and consignment. Dorsey Waxter calls it well researched and useful to newcomers and veterans alike.

Iain Robertson’s textbook for arts management students explains how the international art market works, including valuing and investing in art, artists who sell without dealers, and markets from China to Brazil. Gallery owner Sundaram Tagore praises its depth and breadth.