You’ve heard of the law of conservation of energy—how energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transferred or transformed. What if I told you the same principle applies to your author career? Just as energy can’t be endlessly produced without input, neither can your creative output. Sustainable authorship hinges on understanding this balance and managing it like the precious resource it is.
The author as an open system
Think of yourself as an open system, constantly absorbing and generating energy. Your inputs—life’s demands outside your writing, cash, inspiration, and even market demands—are all crucial. The outputs? Creative works, marketing efforts, and reader engagement. Like any system, imbalance can lead to burnout or underperformance. Without managing this flow strategically, you risk overextending yourself and depleting your creative reserves and business operation resources.
The energy equation of creativity
Consider the balance between creative input and output. Just like overproduction in any system can lead to diminishing returns, the same holds for authorship. Constantly churning out content without taking time to replenish your inspiration can lead to burnout. This ties to a larger business energy cycle and the profitability of the overall operation. You have the most control over your creativity and output, so to get your business to begin attracting the money input, you must expend more creative output to jump-start an outside source of the most critical energy input necessary for a startup—positive cashflow.
The sustainability challenge
Let’s not gloss over the financial pressures that drive unhealthy cycles. The feast-or-famine nature of author income, coupled with market demands, can often lead to poor business decisions. How do you sustain your career in an environment where success feels like an unpredictable lottery? Balancing your creative output and commerce becomes crucial, and finding your place on that spectrum defines your trajectory.
The profit-creativity cycle
Profit doesn’t just sustain your lifestyle; it fuels your creativity. But be wary of chasing trends blindly. The sweet spot lies in finding a balance where your output aligns with market potential. Success here isn’t about compromising; it’s about strategically aligning your art with commerce.
Personal satisfaction
The whole enterprise needs to be satisfying. It must make you feel fulfilled and meet your emotional and financial needs. What is interesting to me isn’t financial success. Some of the happiest authors with the most sustainability aren’t making six and seven figures. They have optimized the system around a different set of inputs and outputs.
Conversely, I’ve observed some very unsatisfied people who have achieved remarkable financial outcomes yet are never satisfied and seek outside validation.
Getting the right mindset around success helps you avoid wasting energy on ego-driven diversions.
The role of relationships
Your relationships within the industry also shape your energy balance. Whether it’s publishers, collaborators, or customers, these connections can drain or recharge your creative reserves. Learning to navigate these relationships skillfully is as critical as mastering your craft.
The inconvenient truth
The reality is that sustainable authorship, as some perpetual motion machine, is a false premise. Your success in this field is more than just producing creative work; it’s treating your career like a holistic system. This approach may not be easy, but it’s the foundation of a resilient, long-term career.
Tapping into your creative energy is a non-cash source of power to fuel your business. The business becomes an energy amplifier, but without a working business cycle, the inevitable result will be burnout.
Why?
Because you keep tapping into your only energy source and outputting it without any new inputs. There’s no conservation or input of energy, resulting in a net negative.
Respecting the business energy cycle
To earn a living from your writing, you must first ensure your business converts creativity into cash to support itself, then your lifestyle. This massive energy transformation needs to be built and maintained.
Cash becomes crucial for converting and allocating your creative energy in other ways. You can use it to hire people, pay for reach, or invest in alternative income streams.
In startup mode, when creative energy is your only source, you must respect that there’s a finite amount of time before your business becomes unsustainable without marketplace interaction producing a return of energy as profit.
Respecting your creative energy cycle
Your creative energy is finite. The key is balancing inputs and outputs to create a career that not only survives but thrives over time. Take a moment to assess where your energy is going. Is it all focused on the 4% that generates 64% of your results?
If not, you’re lacking energy conservation. In a startup, you don’t have any time or energy to waste.