How to Fail as an Artist, My Best Tips: Your Creativity Wants You Back Paperback – May 19, 2026

If you've walked away from your art - or feel like you're about to - you're in good company.For decades, writer-director Ela Thier tried to "make it" in film. She chased greenlights, collected enough pass letters to wallpaper New York City, and waited to get discovered. Meanwhile, a sock puppet named Mr. Stop, who lives in her head, kept urging her to quit.Since accidentally writing How to Fail as an Artist, My Best Tips on a whim, she wrote and directed a feature film starring an Oscar-winning actor, and is in development on three feature films with major attachments.Spanning five decades of creative life, How to Fail as an Artist, My Best Tips is an anti-hustle manifesto disguised as a confessional memoir. The book is a passionate love letter to artists and all creatives in need of a cry, a laugh, and a flashlight. Read more