There were many valuable insights from authors who responded to our June 2021 survey, so we have included selected quotes with permission from the authors.
These answers are in response to the question: What makes you most stressed and anxious — and not relaxed! — about being an author?
“Deadlines, pressure to perform, not writing enough, dying before I can tell all my stories but all the while my brain is stewing on the stories and they won't come out until fully formed but the clock is ticking and time is flying and there aren't enough hours in the day and each day slips by faster and faster, and where did they go and now I have to get back to my WIP but my brain is still thinking... you know, that kind of thing.”
Josh Kilen
“It is stressful and not at all helpful to maintain a productive mindset when one's daily priorities are at war with each other daily. The constant tug and shove between, writing and daily life chores is wearing. One is supposed to compartmentalize writing, marketing, research, household chores, family obligations, and outside interests, but that requires the discipline of a Jesuit monk and rarely works well. That daily feeling of thrashing about in a sea of ‘I should be doing: I must do this: I have to get that done: Am I wasting my time?’ is what triggers the stress and destroys inner peace.”
Rick Grant
“Information overload in all areas. Feeling like I'm always behind because as soon as I learn something, algorithms change! Wanting to just write, but knowing that I need to keep up with marketing too. People trumpeting loudly about how we must do the next thing to stay viable.”
Rachelle Christensen
“The feeling that I should be doing this thing and that thing and the other thing for marketing while also churning out dozens of books at high speed in order to compete commercially. The pressure to write commercial fiction if I want to be counted as a ‘real’ indie author. It feels like an unfriendly space for those of us who want to take more time and focus on our art. Yes, art.
I decided to try the indie path for the artistic freedom it offered me, but the culture around it seems to be one of high-pressure, high-speed, commercial production. If I’d wanted to be a factory worker, I would have worked in a factory.”
E.P. Clark
“Trying to keep up with what others are doing, whether it's paying attention to a peer's word count, sales numbers, or amount of books they are putting out.”
Zach Bohannon
“The uncertainty and isolation. Will this book sell? Am I making the right decision focusing on this series instead of my other series? Do I write what brings me joy, or what I think will sell? Do I try to combine both? Do I go wide or KU? Have I chosen the right branding to attract readers who get me?”
Gillian St. Kevern
“I am incredibly worried about making a mistake with my writing and equally worried I am making a mistake BY trying to write at all.”
Sharon Markatcheff
“I am very new in my author journey and I worry about literally everything. Can I make it a viable career when I have so little time to write around two small children, should I self or traditional publish? With traditional, will an agent want it and then will a publisher? In self-publishing: how will I manage to juggle everything and do it professionally? Will I end up spending very scarce money to never see it again? Will people actually read my book and if they do, will they find it any good? These things go round and round in my head until I feel like I’m going to have a panic attack and often take away the actual joy I get from writing. I want to be successful and yet sometimes the list of things I need to do paralyzes me.”
Anonymous
“If there is one characteristic I see far too frequently among beginning writers it is a deep uncertainty and fear that can only be corrosively damaging and is perhaps the greatest barrier to any feeling of joy and satisfaction they might get out of their endeavours. I’d like to see your book combat that.”
Rick Grant
“FOMO and terror I'm doing everything wrong every time I see someone do something different. That goes along with why I dislike being on social media so much — it's so hard not to compare what I'm doing to what other seemingly happier and more successful people are doing.”
Anonymous
“Sometimes, checking the sales reports too often and not seeing my income increase how I hoped it would locks up my creative energy and makes me fixate on the data instead. Data is great, but agonizing over it at the cost of producing - writing - only compounds the problem and piles on the stress.”
Mana Sol
“The number of things indie authors are expected to be able to master, not just writing the book but building up a social media following, selling dealing with rights etc.”
Lottie Clark
“The need to keep up with the on-going spinning of writing, publishing, and marketing causes me a huge amount of anxiety. I'm afraid that if I stop running, I'll never start again; or that if I slow down I'll fall behind — even though I know there is no one to fall behind because I'm the only one running in the race. Nothing about my author life is relaxed.”
Jeff Elkins
“Not being able to allocate enough time to writing/marketing. Before setting out on the path to being an author, I had no idea how much post writing work there would be. I knew there would be some editing and formatting, but not how much. The biggest surprise has been how much effort has gone into marketing (website, social media, email lists, adverts, etc).”
Mark Probert
“The overwhe...