The Luthier’s Library

by Fred Battershell

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 3, #5 & #6, 1975



The Successful Craftsman — Making Your Craft Your Business
by Alex Bealer
Published by Barre Publishing
Distributed by Crown Publishers, New York 288 pp. $9.95

Here is a book that promises a great deal and delivers nothing of lasting value; and in so doing, manages to betray it’s author’s profession: advertising. Yes, fellow luthiers, here is ad executive Alex Bealer telling you how to gain fame and fortune from your chosen craft.

The blurb on the inside jacket cover of this book modestly advises the reader that this book... “answers some very tough questions facing the artist/merchant.” Questions such as how to find suppliers, how to market your product, how to price your wares, and where to work are alleged to be answered completely in this book. They are not.

Like so much of the products produced by the advertising industry, this book is actually a systematic collection of half-truths and some very half-answers.