The Philosophies of Work: A Conversation with Derek Sivers of CD Baby
While this is primarily a business conversation at the San Fran MusicTech Summit between Derek and Tim Ferris (author of the famed “The 4-Hour Workweek“) there are many points in the discussion for songwriters looking for success on the business side of the music world. Here is what he said on PR and cold-calling:

Derek Sivers: “When I was promoting my own music years ago, I decided I wanted to be in Rolling Stone magazine. So I bought a Rolling Stone and looked in the tiny fine print on page 6 where they publish their contact info. I knew that if I asked Rolling Stone which publicists they like, then I’d know which publicists could get me into Rolling Stone. But before calling the main number, I thought, “Hmm… I want to get through to the editorial department, so I don’t want to sound like a novice. I’ll bet if I sound like the people who do this all the time, they’ll patch me right through.” So I called up and the receptionist said, “Rolling Stone,” and I said in my best weary impatient voice, “Editorial, please,” and she patched me right through. Once on with the guy in editorial, I just politely asked, “I’m not promoting anything today, just calling from a label that’s looking for a new publicist. Wondering - which ones would you recommend?” The guy was quite nice and gave me a few names. I thanked him and now I had my specific road map for how to get in Rolling Stone!” (Full transcript)

Put Yourself in Songwriting Mode
Orlando at SongwriterAdvisor has a great two-part series on getting in “songwriting mode”. He mentions Sting’s own account of how he came up with the song “Every Breath You Take” in about 30 minutes. He continues, “So how does this happen?  It certainly doesn’t happen by accident to just anybody who has no interest in writing a song.  It happens to songwriters who put themselves in what I call “Songwriting Mode,” which is the ability to train your brain to subconsciously create any [number] of [conditions]. Part 1 | Part 2