Burnout is something we all suffer from as authors from time to time. We have a new book out and we’re trying to market it, and write the next book at the same time, maybe we have a day job as well. Trying to do too much can easily lead to author burnout. It’s hard to write the next story if you’re worried about your child being bullied at schoo,l and the fact you don’t have much time to blog or promote your current release.
Here are five ways that you can help to avoid author burnout:
1. Batch your work. Batching your work is one way to take the stress out of being an author and avoid burnout. For example: You could write and schedule all your blog posts for the week in one sit down session. Find all the stock photos you need for your blog posts for the week in one sitting. Figure out what articles you’re going to write and then do the research for each one in one sitting. Consider listening to some soothing instrumental music while you do each one.
2. That leads me to the next tip, schedule your blog posts. Don’t write your blog posts and then just figure you’ll copy and paste them into your blog the day of. This will lead to more stress for you, especially if you forget to get your blog post up.
3. Schedule your social media posts. There are great online services such as Hootsuite and Buffer that will allow you to schedule your blog media posts for free. Make sure you provide value when you do this by posting things that will help your followers, articles they may find interesting, other authors they might like that sort of thing.
4. Be reasonable about the amount of tasks you can accomplish each day. We are often unreasonable with ourselves about the amount of work we can actually do each day. Not sure about how much time you actually have? Create a done list for several days and see what tasks fill your day that are required tasks such as your day job, time spent with your children, time to make meals, and time for yourself, that sort of
thing. Once you have an idea of what a real day looks like for you, then you’ll be able to figure out how to fit in your “author” tasks best including writing your next book, and marketing it.
5. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Ask for help, and if you can afford it, don’t be afraid to pay for help. Being an author is a business whether we like it or not and if we want to be good at it, we need to be willing to ask for help when we need it. Whether that means asking your spouse to cook dinner, or keep the kids entertained so you can get some writing done, or hiring a promotions company to set up a blog tour for you, whatever it takes, do what is necessary to avoid being burned out. There’s nothing more awful than when being an author isn’t fun anymore. Ask for help!
If you take even half of these tips to heart, you will be well on your way to avoiding author burnout. Good luck!