I mentioned this post in my last good vibes one, and am returning to it now as I feel like we always need reminders to be kinder to ourselves. I have been feeling frazzled and frayed the last wee while, and was prompted recently to do a wee tally of what projects I have on the go… at which point I realised why I’m feeling so frayed. Honeys, beloveds, I am hustling as hard as a spoonie can hustle. And that’s not ideal.

First though, a writing update: Still beavering away at Quiet Walkers – it’s currently just over 90k words, with perhaps another 8k to go. But I have also been writing pitches & synopses (shudder), and might in the near future be able to announce something lovely. It’s true! Friends I am back in my vague era – there have been positive things happening chez moi! I don’t know when I’ll be able to share more, and I’ve also got a lot of balls still in the air. But here’s a small and irritatingly secretive YAY!

I’ve been really happy with my writing progress recently, given constraints from semi-regular events and other Life Things. And while Quiet Walkers is very much A Draft, it’ll be great to get it completed in the next few weeks.

But as I said, this last year has contained a lot of not waving but drowning. As you may have detected from my subtle hints over the last 84 years, I’ve been really struggling with this whole publishing malarkey, but this article isn’t another moan about uncertainty and timelines, I promise. Instead I wanted to talk about what ‘trying hard’ and ‘doing everything you can’ and ‘hustling’ looks like outwith the perception that hustling has to equate to posting short form videos every day, or thrusting business cards on innocent bystanders at conventions.

(I’m talking about the hustle to build a career here, not the hustle to market a book.)

I’ve talked previously about book marketing and why authors need to give themselves space to only do as much as is sustainable, and a recent thread on Bluesky by the extremely experienced Delilah Dawson said similar. But we often focus on this kind of reader-facing work when we think of the hustle – events, social media, newsletters. And while that’s a part of it, the work to build a career looks a little different.

For a lucky (very) few authors, publishing support, zeitgeist, (talent,) and luck have given them a fairly stable career platform from which they can keep working with only the level of hustle they wish to commit to.

For most of us, striving to create a viable career as an author takes a lot of shapes. It definitely includes feeling pressured to perform online in ways that aren’t necessarily enjoyable or comfortable, for the sake of building a platform. But it can also include building community connections, e.g. by volunteering for organisations, chairing events, mentoring etc. Because a) community is amazing but also b) you never know when that community might open a door for you. Or perhaps it looks like creating secondary income streams around writing, both for the CV entry and so you have a little more financial resilience, or can even afford to make it your part time or full time occupation. Freelance writing or editing are common additions for a lot of writers, though they are competitive and time consuming. Or perhaps you might write IP work – whether that’s within big franchises or stand alone book packaging projects, IP can be a solid income stream for many authors, and a way of building your credentials alongside your original work. The hustle might also take the form of working hard at keeping your name in circulation by pursuing short fiction publications.

I’ve friends who are variously brilliant at all these things, and whatever route they’re following it’s all going to be helping strengthen the foundations of their career. Whether by giving them financial security from which to write, strong community support, or an expanding list of author credits – it will help them stay the course in this ridiculous industry.

I am not in a position to do most of those things. I don’t have the financial freedom to attend many events, not even my own lol. I don’t have the health capacity to commit to sitting on committees or delivering on long term mentoring support. And my health also means the extremely tight timelines prevalent in IP work, or the high turnover-high resilience needed for the short fic market would break me into tiny pieces. (I’m also profoundly allergic to video format social media, so I’m not becoming an influencer any time this millenium).

I’m not special for having these restrictions. Many writers are working with fewer freedoms than I have, and in fact I have one thing that’s in short supply for almost everyone – time. My writing time is severely curtailed by my health, but I don’t have a ‘real’ job so what healthy time I have is all my own (and my cats’, apparently) (Snicket has just appeared to shout at me).

So what else can hustling look like?

Well, as I have recently realised, for me, it looks like what can only be described as ‘how many projects can one person put out into the world before she combusts?‘

I have at present, a novella, two novels, some samples, some pitches, and several short stories all out under consideration in one form or another. I’ve also had a couple of short stories commissioned, and some others awaiting edits before they are yeeted at magazines. I don’t know which, or how many, of these projects will pan out, which is why I’m pursuing all avenues.

But that is a lot of projects in editors’ hands at the same time. We talk about working on the next thing, but as a friend said, this is a little like sticking your hand in a patch of nettles hoping to distract from a bee sting.

It’s definitely draining, having that many things murmuring away in the back of my mind, and I’m really glad I finally stopped to take notice of it so I can be a little more forgiving of myself for dropping various balls (to the authors who’s blurbs are/were late… sorry! I love your books!). But I’m also kind of proud of myself.

I don’t have much flexibility for how I hustle. But within the limitations I have, I am putting myself out there. I am chasing possibilities as hard as I can and in the face of fairly relentless uncertainty, I’m finding new things to hope for rather than just throwing up my hands and giving in. Which is no small thing.

It’s also a lot of fun developing different projects, of course. I love all the ideas and stories I have been working on and will be delighted if/when any of them move forward. Despite the Everything, my brain is forever thinking up new shiny worlds, and it’s always going to be a delight to get to explore them.

BUT. (Because there’s always a but, right?)

I, and my friends pursuing IP work or editing gigs or short fiction acclaim, or volunteering for every board or networking at every event possible… We need to be careful. This career is so riddled with uncertainty and instability and poor pay for the work involved, it feels like if we aren’t hustling we’ll drop off the map instantly. If we aren’t doing the thing all the time, all those doors we’ve wrestled open are going to close.

And maybe they will.

But is an open door worth it if we’ve burned out so badly we can’t write?

I talk endlessly about resilience in publishing. That isn’t just about managing your marketing efforts, or learning to process rejection and comparanoia. It’s about this too. Treading the line between doing everything you can to build a viable career as an author, whilst doing only what you can sustain without harm.

I’ve had good news this week, which has bolstered my flagging reserves no end. And I am lucky to be in a position where I get to strategise between projects. But I also have to ensure that part of the strategising is ‘having hustled a million projects into life, how much can I commit myself to without breaking?‘. My agent, bless her, is having to be the sane voice of reason as my year of uncertainty is making me a little unhinged over-optimistic.

Yes, this entire post is a letter to myself. FutureRaine is gonna be so damn mad if I overcommit now. Someone please take my pitches list away from me.

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Thank you as always for reading. Because accessibility in publishing is important to me, I keep all my craft and publishing posts free, so any shares or tips are greatly appreciated. Wishing you a fabulous weekend.

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