I am going to speak out about these experiences, because they cause burnout, and I feel populations who are behaving this way are a menace to society - if the only result of their behaviour is to cause mental health problems and burnout in writers, that means they are obstacles to seeing books that should be published and perhaps are delayed or derailed. Writers who are just trying to move forward and seek what they need to develop their books and move toward publication do not need constant barrage of drama from this population or demographic of people. I am one of those people.
Life has been overwhelming and I have not had stability I need to work on my writing for several years. All I need is support, and to be able to ask for what I need without constant interactions with immature freelancers being disruptive to my mental health. What does that look like?
This weekend, I talked to someone experienced with the right background in the Non-fiction genre I'm writing in. However, he bulldozed the 60 minute conversation. He decided instead of the agenda of the meeting being about me, my proposal, and my needs, he needed the agenda of the meeting to be about his opinion about the book (not the proposal, so not even focused on the same step this project is centered around), and talking about books he has worked on. At the end of 60 minutes, I felt like he slapped me with a big price tag, the only result of which was to make me feel like in order to acheive my goals, I needed money. During the meeting, the communication was not efficient. For $100 an hour, my expectations for what I get out of an hour long conversation are high. I need to walk away feeling like a lot has been accomplished, and I need to know if I hired him for 3-5 hours, I would churn out a lot of output, not spend those hours going in circles and on wild goose chases.
Then there is Reedsy. There are some strange people on Reedsy, but the staff contribute to a high level of drama on this platform. Perhaps there's a causality there. Maybe the real professionals aren't creating profiles on Reedsy, because the staff is so inept at helping you find them. Every time I hear from the customer service staff, it's clear they are all immature, and they aren't even having the same conversation when I try to convey what I am looking for. This week for example, one staff member decided what I needed was an article on how to write a non-fiction proposal and to be instructed how to work with ghostwriters. As if I don't already knows what goes into a proposal? As if I don't already know how to write a business proposal, and seek someone with that same professional level of understanding? Those are the things I am looking for, and miss Reedsy does not even have the first concept what I am talking about. However, what came next is really the appalling part. She went on a vengeful rampage and closed all of my requests for all of my books, fiction and non-fiction. One of the fiction editors whose interested in working on my novel messaged me and asked what was going on.
Here's the contrast: As a result, I went on LinkedIn and started seeing who I knew offering these services. Immediately started seeing that publishers were in my network, and new people who went to high school with me. I have always connected with young journalists in the earlier days of our careers. One writer for Forbes, who is an alumni from my university, did a profile of an M&A firm where I worked on marketing, and she's doing these kinds of services now. Perhaps she would at minimum be available for a call to mentor me on the marketing/ media strategy section of my proposal, and recommend people she knows who specialise in the genre. A journalist in my neighbourhood just returned from an investigative piece in Nepal and is offering proposal development, and is available for coffee next week. Older alumni from my high school who have large PR firms now, maybe available to help me have a glimpse into the kind of PR strategy I should describe. A friend who was a young prodigy in news production is in corporate positions now, but might have all of those connections to recommend. A friend from University. Here's the thing, all of the people who I supported early in their career have advanced to higher levels now, and those are people who are not going to have meltdowns or create drama for me that's disruptive and causes burnout.
However, throughout my blog, I have written in the themes of understanding and discovering the kinds of negative, demoralising situations people without my resources and connections have, because they should not face this kind of immaturity just trying to understand how to polish their books and writing. Seeing better representation of voices in writing and publishing means that these freelancers circling the industry can't be this abusive, can't cause huge blocks and disruptions to the well-beings of the writers just seeking support and help to achieve their goals. If I feel this way, knowing I have better opportunities and connections, I can't imagine the impact it has on writers who don't have that kind of outlet.
These people come across as predatory and vindictive. To me, it feels like if your mind isn't as narrow as theirs, if you ask or propose ideas they can't imagine, then they need to beat you down. This kind of abusive reaction feels like their attempt to enact some kind of judgement, to prevent you from having a clear head to move on and find the people you need. The intention seems to be to demoralise you as a writer so you give up. Does the pursuit of those goals require perseverance yes, but saying that the writers themselves are 100% responsible to overcome every obstacle, to summon an ungodly amount of resilience to over come the battery of 100s of these interactions is not ok. There has to be responsibility to validate that perhaps writers need to be treated more gently, and there does not need to be an expectation of mental abuse to beat writers down at every step of the way.
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