ï»żThe Author Burnout Coach
Episode 17: Whose Responsibility is It?
Hey writers! Welcome to episode 17. As you heard in the intro, Iâm on a mission to dismantle burnout and hustle culture in the book industry, and a question that often comes upâas it does with dismantling any institutionalized issueâis WHOSE responsibility is it to make change?
Is it on individual writers? Or is it up to the publishing industry as a whole to make changes?
That problem with that question is that it creates a false choice. It isnât a matter of this OR that. Itâs all about that AND baby. There are definitely issues that exist on a systemic level within publishing that, if changed, would decrease burnout for writers, editors, agents, everyone involved in the process.
But thatâs not the whole story. If it were, burnout levels would be consistent writer-to-writer. And while burnout is a problem for so many of us, there ARE individual things we can do that increase or decrease our personal levels of burnout.
Weâll look at the industry as a whole first. There are lots of things about this industry that can be stressful for writers. And while, yes, our thoughts are what make us feel frustrated, there are still common triggers in publishing that make it easy to think thoughts that cause said frustration.
Letâs start with contracts and finances!
Iâm not getting into all the specifics, as contracts can vary house to house, by size of publisher, and by fanciness of the author. (Once youâve got certain sales records or awards, you tend to get a little more wiggle room on some contract terms, but not as much as youâd think outside the major major household names.) But there are some commonalities. Things like stagnant advance sizes, advances being split into more and more segments, and non-compete clauses that can limit your ability to sell more work.
And beyond the contents of the contracts, they can also take a long, long, LONG time to get finalized. Itâs not at all uncommon to be waiting on a contract for 3-6 months. Currently, Iâm waiting on a contract for a foreign rights deal that was made over a year ago, for a book that hit shelves more than 5 months ago. Now, thatâs not to shade on the publisherâeveryone is overworked and busy and all the thingsâbut it can certainly be a source of stress when you get a book deal and canât reliably estimate when that money will come in. Especially when youâre supposed to get half on signing the contract and half on pub date (which still seems to be typical for foreign rights while domestic deals are split into 3rds and 4ths more often than not) and then you still donât have a contract five months after you should have gotten your second payment.
Thatâs something that could be easy to get stressed about.
Speaking of advance payments being split up into multiple parts - this typically means that payments come upon signing the contract, after edits are done, and at the time of publication. At least, that was how it worked for my pre-pandemic contracts. These days, a lot of contracts are split 4 ways, and that 4th payment may be upon completion of the first draft or sometimes a certain time after publication.
Now, this isnât super uncommon in areas of contract work. I think about hiring a contractor to do something, you often pay half up front and half upon completion. But with publishing, you as the writer arenât solely responsible for getting things done.
If your editorâwho is also likely burnt out and exhausted based on the way publishing has set up their job as wellâis weeks or months late getting notes back to you, that delays your ability to finish and get paid. These types of delays, combined with low/stagnant advance sizes (which disproportionately affect BIPOC and other marginalized groups due to systemic racism, homophobia, etc. and unconscious bias), and advances split into many parts, can lead some writers to take on more work than they can comfortably handle in an effort to create some sense of financial security.
Add to that a lack of healthcare and other benefits that come with more traditional employment, and publishing can really trigger your financial anxieties.
Of course, traditional publishing isnât alone in overworking employees and pushing contract workers to the brink. A lot of this stems from the toxic state of capitalism that puts short-term profit over sustainable business practices that nurture and support the humans who actually do the day-to-day work of keeping said businesses running.
So are there things publishing as a whole could do to reduce burnout, like more equitable advances and marketing budgets? Hiring more staff and paying them better so editors and publicity and sales folks arenât overwhelmed and leaving the industry in droves?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
There are probably even more interesting changes that could be made like creating opportunities for salaried writing positions or giving writers the option to be part of health insurance plans, but Iâll admit thatâs beyond my current knowledge and expertise to say whatâs a good idea vs not (and also, thereâs no way weâd all agree one whatâs best anyway).
As much as it would be amazing for the major publishers to make some of these changes, theyâre unlikely to do it on their own. Especially when there are thousands of writers willing to work themselves into the ground for the chance to publish a novel. When the industry has successfully convinced so many of us that we need to be grateful for whatever we get and never do anything to jeopardize our standing with our publisher, which so many of usâespecially on our first couple booksâinterpret to mean never rocking the boat, never asking for a deadline extension, and saying yes to every opportunity out of fear of missing the one thing that might help our books succeed.
Itâs nearly IMPOSSIBLE to advocate for necessary changes for any prolonged period of time when weâre all fucking exhausted and just trying to meet deadlines so we can get paid and cover a few bills.
I think of how much work groups like We Need Diverse Books has done to increase the percentage of BIPOC authors in the industry and how low those numbers are at so many publishers, far far far below population statistics.
So this is where the AND comes in.
For some people, thinking about publishing business practices leads to stress, anxiety, and inaction. It can make burnout worse because we think weâre unable to do anything to change it or make better. We might feel hopeless or resigned or defeated.
Which is why my primary focusâboth in this podcast and with my coaching clientsâis to shift focus to what we can do as INDIVIDUALS to reduceâand eventually eradicateâour burnout, not matter what publishing does.
Before I get to what we can do to reduce our own personal burnout (which also includes pretty much everything Iâve suggested on this podcast so far), I do want to note that by focusing on individuals I am not letting the publishing industry off the hook. Itâs not either/or. Itâs both/and.
We canât control what publishing does, but we CAN control how we think about our writing, our careers, and our interactions with the book world.
We can ask for deadline extensions when we need them. We can stop telling ourselves that we HAVE TO do anything. We can say we choose to. That weâre willing to put in some late nights for a short period of time to meet a goal. Or that weâre willing to be honest about how much of our writing time we lose to social media and to cut that in order to get writing time back.
We can practice saying no to opportunities that weâre not actually excited about to make room for the work we do want to do.
We can stop telling ourselves we HAVE TO learn the latest social media platform and then berating ourselves for not doing it or for being bad at it or for hating it. Instead, tell yourself the truth. âIâm choosing not to invest time in that right now.â And be okay with that decision.
We can talk to ourselves with compassion on the days we donât write as much as weâd hoped and celebrate the fuck out of ourselves on the days we do.
And as we do these things, as we shift our internal narrative to create more joy and fun in our writing lives and reduce our levels of burnout . . .
We become an example of whatâs possible for other writers.
We create a culture where writers arenât so fucking exhausted all the time, and when we have that extra energy, we canâif we want toâcreate sustainable ways to advocate for change on the systemic level.
So, final thoughts for the episode: if the idea of trying to âfixâ publishing stresses you out, make a list of all the things you can control in your own writing life. Make a list of the things you can doâthe ways you can celebrate yourselfâto enjoy this job 1% more every day, and get to work on that.
And when there are enough of us making that shift, when we create some industry-wide space for creativity instead of stress, weâll have a better chance of figuring out solutions to systemic issues, too.
Until next time, writer friends, happy writing!
