Many authors don't notice that they're already burning out as they go through the process of self-publishing. How about you, do you recognize the 3 early warning signs of author burnout? Check out this article to know what you can do to prevent this from happening to you.
Today's article has three points and you're going to want to stick around for the third point. Because it's a secret as to the number one early warning sign you may be burning out as an author.
The topic we're discussing today is Do You Recognize The 3 Early Warning Signs Of Author Burnout? When you're first getting started with self-publishing, it's also exciting and such. You're just learning a lot of things.
The Hedonic Adaptation
You're growing every day, it's always a new thing and something that you just feel a lot of energy for. The problem is as you keep going in self-publishing, you begin to lose your motivation. And with it, start coming some of the early signs that you may in fact be burning out.
Therefore, you're going to want to stick around because I'm going to tell you exactly those early warning signs. And also I'm going to tell you a little bit about what you can do as an author to ensure this does not happen to you.
But before we get into the answers, check out my free Self-Publishing Checklist. To make sure that you are not skipping any of the necessary steps to win and succeed at the game of self-publishing. And you will find some of the secrets in this checklist.
But moving right along from my own story. When I first got started, I was producing books and learning every single day like I was commenting, it was so exciting. You know that feeling you're reading this article because you can feel it bubbling up as an author.
Check out this related article: The Lazy Author's Way To Self-Publish
Or just a writer who's getting started, you feel that motivation, that desire to write your book. To get it down onto paper or onto your computer. The problem though for me, as I hit a point where the books were selling, this is the funny part of it initially any sales were amazing.
But then the sales started to increase which made it even more fun but the problem was that at some point, the funds started to go away. It's one of the reasons for this is called Hedonic Adaptation. This is where things that please us adjust our standard of what is normal.
And before we know it, going to Disney World every day becomes a burden and no longer a pleasure. In the same way even with the books making lots of money, some of them selling thousands and thousands of dollars a month in sales.
You still have an issue with trying to deal with, well, that's the new normal. And then if it goes down a little bit in one month, you start to feel like "oh, this is going terribly wrong". And this is one of the reasons we start to have a problem.
But there was a second problem I had, I looked at why it wasn't fun? I found out that a lot of the tasks I was doing is repeat or repetitive. Since then, I hand out these tasks to virtual assistants that can very carefully and accurately go through those same steps that were burning me out.
In order to ensure that my books are continuing to get published on track. And so that was something that I found to help deal with this repetitive task problem. When you're learning new skills, it can be exciting it can also burn you out with that if there are too many things.
That's one of the things here with self-publishingmadeeasynow.com is trying to keep it easy. So that we break the tasks down into their parts and only do one thing at a time. Until we figured it out and this learning and growing as we're mastering the skills of self-publishing, these things work together.
To help build even more motivation and energy that we're able to use in our business. To continue the process of putting books onto the market and getting them to sell with our marketing as we learn. But the repetitiveness of the whole process, once you've done it a thousand times, it becomes a bit of a problem.
So what happened was I pivoted while still continuing to publish books and create books on these platforms. And staying very much in touch with the marketplace of books and other authors.
Do Not Shift To Another Niche
I went on to helping others which is one of the reasons even this blog and my Youtube channel exist. Because I felt those early warning signs of burnout hitting my own self-publishing things. And I realized I need to try something different but without shifting the niche which is within self-publishing.
So that was the thing, it gave me that new energy but without shifting the niche. And the reason you don't want to shift what you're doing, it's because you have to restart everything over. You'll find you're going to reach a burnout point on whatever you end up doing.
So we keep the doors open, we try to outsource the things for which no longer bring pleasure to us. And at the same time, we're continually trying to hold our focus on that one thing.
So if you're writing books and are very excited about woodworking, I don't suggest you switch from woodworking to something else. Stay in woodworking and ask how can I make this more fun? And so it was a big aspect for me. I enjoy teaching other people.
Even if I've done something a thousand times myself personally and have trained thousands of people to do these exact same skills, I still find great pleasure in helping other authors get their books onto the market and publishing.
Following the easy steps that I have, there's nothing that brings me more delight than seeing an author struggling with the same things that I struggled with. But I'm no longer struggling with and I'm able to help pull along and push if necessary these authors to do that.
And that's one of the reasons I offer Coaching in order to give you that motivation. If you're feeling this burnout, this can be a very great place to start. I personally have a business coach that I go to on a bi-weekly basis.
To ensure that I'm not skipping the steps necessary to succeed at my long-term goals. So you need to consider that as an option yourself if you find yourself burning out. But maybe you're not there yet.
You will be if you're along the path of writing books. You will eventually hit a point where it becomes difficult. And when you get there, I'm telling you don't try to go it alone.
But let's move on, Do You Recognize The 3 Early Warning Signs Of Author Burnout? Number one, the tasks are no longer fun, they just leave you feeling numb and they're sucking your energy.
That's writing a thousand words a day, it's editing your books, it's working on getting the covers, and it's running the ads. They're repetitive, you've done them already. You're not maybe seeing the progress you'd like to see or you have seen the progress and it's actually okay.
But it's just so repetitive, it's sucking the life out of you. And your hobby has now become a job and in a sense that becomes difficult. And so we need to find new ways to freshen this up but this is a huge sign when the tasks are no longer fun.
We have a problem, you need to slow down, wait a minute and see what's wrong with what you're currently doing. Number two, you have no focus and your productivity is cracking under the pressure when you start to focus on doing a task.
The energy that was there, the enthusiasm that was there to do it before, it's gone now. And so you see these other things like Netflix, news, social media, and the plunging of your phone. It's calling you away from doing the very thing that brought you so much joy before. Why is that?
Well, it's because you've just gotten so used to it. It has become old and we need to mix it up to make it a little spicier. Figure out ways in which we can make what you're doing still within the same niche or genre but at the same time not so boring.
Maybe within a community, this is a big issue here or again a coach, there are different options available to you. To make sure that you are not going to fail when it comes to this whole self-publishing thing.
The third and the secret answer of the day is that you're going to see this early warning sign. It's that you're not taking any breaks, you're just pounding away hour after hour on trying to achieve or write these books.
Get Some Help
You're losing that creativity, it's just seeping out of your system. You don't have it anymore and these are the warning signs you may be burning out. And if you burn out, you're not going to make progress when it comes to your books any further.
So this is something you need to take very seriously. Because in reality, as authors, it works a lot the same way many other areas you start along this path of writing your book. And before long you start, it starts to lose its fun, it starts to become a burden.
We're not taking the breaks that we need to take and suddenly we're burnt out. We're making no progress and we just say "okay I need to do something else". That's a very unfortunate and avoidable thing.
I want to give you some of the tips to avoid it. The first thing is to take breaks, that's why the secret there was you need to give yourself some breathing room. Get out into nature, take some walks. How is your fitness doing?
Eating healthy food and exercising is not only good for your health, but it's also good for your hobby. So by taking the breaks that you need to give yourself a little self-care, it goes a long way at making sure you're not going to reach that burnout.
The second thing is don't switch genres or the niche that you're in. You need to stay focused on this because we're building an audience. And as I've mentioned many times before, that audience will follow you through your books.
But they are not going to follow you if you switch the genre and the niche that you're writing in. And so hold the focus. If you're writing about woodworking, find new and fun ways to make it work for you. So within woodworking, do not move away from woodworking until it's just killing it.
And you can move on to a different business idea at that point. But generally, you should not be switching the niche that you're in. Figure out a way to make it more fun, you can pivot a little bit but stay within that.
This was a mistake that I made in the early days. And I suggest that you do not stick with a single idea or a single thing. If your fiction books are on Highlander or let's say Viking romance novels, living here in Norway it's near the whole Viking thing.
But if you're doing Viking romance novels, well then, do not switch away from that. Stay with the Viking, you know you might move on to other fiction with Vikings. But generally, you're going to want to stay at least with the same theme with the same audience that you have.
You're building an audience, it's going to take you 3 to 5 years to build that audience. It's going to take you 10 years to make a killing with regards to what you're doing with that audience. So start now and you'll thank me later.
You'll work through it like in a marathon. When you hit the wall and you don't feel like running another single mile, just watching these runners running the Bergen Marathon here on the west coast of Norway, I got a feeling about this whole thing and when you hit that wall, you could quit or you could work your way through it.
So that you're able to finish the race. And that's really what this is all about. The final thing is to get help, to be part of a community, and hire a coach. That's the reason I hire, I work with a coach and other people to keep me motivated.
Conclusion
You can see how this works, we're working with each other to help each other stay motivated. So that we're able to stay in it for the long race. Unlike the hare, running and burning out so fast.
We're going to be more like the tortoise, nice and easy, steadily moving through the steps. We're keeping it easy and we're pivoting as necessary to keep ourselves in the race. This is so important when it comes to winning at self-publishing.
So my question for you today is do you feel author burnout? If you feel you're getting some of these early warning burnout signs, I need to know because then I can make articles and videos that are specifically designed for you.
So go ahead and let me know below in the comments, write "Yes" if you are hitting author burnout and "No" if you're not. And check out my other articles and videos for more answers to your self-publishing questions.