First-person industrial complex. How utterly brilliant. And how profoundly telling, of us, of our careers, our writerly dreams and the psychological state that comes with it all (having a "complex").
I used to freelance a lot as well. For The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety, mainly, but this was for print. In the mid 1990's. So now I can't even find my name in their online archives—all I have is the print articles, scanned of course. Living in the SF Bay Area, you physically cannot survive on a freelance income. You need to figure out a different path. For me, it's running my own business, and being a highly versatile writer and strategist. But what I love about Substack is that no one tells me what I can or cannot write. This is my sandbox, and I love to play in it :)
Ha, Birgitte, I'd never thought about it before but "complex" is a very rich term here, as you point out. Funny. You're very very right about freelance income and how it's impossible to live on, and how Substack gives some room to play. Cheers!
I've been thinking about this a lot! Specifically the role editors, magazines, and other gatekeepers play in building writing careers. The landscape has absolutely changed, BUT I don't know if I totally agree with Leigh that an essay in a digital media outlet gets you nowhere (I subscribe to her substack and really enjoy her takes!) Funny enough, the NYTs Modern Love column reached out to me yesterday to write a follow-up to an essay I wrote for them a couple of years ago, and I began reflecting on how that essay launched my writing career. It was my first publication, I got my literary agent from that essay (even though I didn't think it was the great loll). Having your writing appear in major outlets I think does still matter--I think the central problem, at least for writers hoping to be traditionally published, remains, and that's that publishing houses are always trying to figure out what sells books, is it a viral essay in The Cut? Is it 100,000 followers on TikTok? And the answer continues to be a mix of: we don't really know and it depends and sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't lol. I think getting published in these outlets helps with credibility (many bigs substackers on the journalism side have these places on their resumes). What I feel is 100% true, and that I think you're getting at with this essay, is that writers give away too much of their power to gatekeepers. Things don't get published all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the piece. The key is knowing when you've gotten a "no" because the essay etc needs more work vs because it's not a good fit, or they already picked up a similar essay. For some writers, being published in a certain caliber of outlet is more important than being published at all (Also see the Big 5 or nothing people lol). But I *think* many writers just want to write and be read, however that looks. As writer Torrey Peter says, when you find your readers, everything else (the presses and big magazines) follows. Thanks for writing this!!
"writers give away too much of their power to gatekeepers". yes a THOUSAND percent! And I feel, personally, it's because many of us are so humble and self-deprecating. We're the opposite of tech bros. Ha.
You won the Modern Love lottery. 😊 I sold a book in 2015 off a viral essay in BuzzFeed. It’s not that this doesn’t happen anymore—it’s just that there are fewer outlets to pitch and fewer writers getting lucky in this way! So I can’t in good conscience counsel my clients to just “pitch a viral essay” to sell their books anymore. It’s not happening the way it was 10 years ago.
Really, really loved this, Cat. It's been a while since I was in the freelance writing arena -- I was back in the mid-2000s, which I can't believe is 20 years ago! -- but I remember, oh all too well, the yearning to get my stuff in those bigger publications, hoping the smaller ones would be a stepping stone on a set of stairs that would always be going up. I had some fascinating experiences, did some work I'm really proud of to this day, but ultimately it was just too financially challenging for me to sustain, so I went back to the UX design world (where I still work today, even though I write my newsletter on the side).
I was actually thinking about this over the weekend before seeing your essay in my inbox this morning. It's all *so damn hard,* isn't it? And yet, there's still a part of me that, if I wasn't doing it, would feel stifled -- there's a creative impulse in me that I have to let out, and would feel like I'm really letting myself down if I didn't. That doesn't make any of this any easier, but it does mean it's still better to be on the path than off it entirely. (I hope, anyway!)
Terrell, wow, yes, I really really feel you on the freelancing points. It's all so damn hard, uh huh, agreed, and I'd feel stifled and frustrated without it. Cheers. What a funny business this all is.
Catherine, a good article...and mostly accurate...the ladder has morphed into an M.C. Escher style device: sometimes your climbing a ladder, other times your going down a staircase, then perhaps gliding on a conveyor belt. The main thing is you are "not yielding;" you keep moving, experiencing all life has to gift you. That's why it's the PRESENT.
As someone sort of new to the 2024 publishing scene, I've been pondering this a lot.
When crappy things happened to my kids as they were growing up, I used to say to them, "And how might this be an opportunity/" (Yes, I was that mother 😂)
Now that they're grown & flown (and out of earshot), I have no one else but myself to ask that question of – most recently, pondering and re-pondering the whole how to publish my books conundrum.
I'm thinking this BIG5 sad state of things might be just the obstacle I've needed to do the indie route, put together my own imprint and get my books out there.
The best moment of my writer’s life was many years ago when I decided that my attitude had to shift from “pick me, pick me” to “I pick me.” I’d already built an email list so it wasn’t that move so much as how I directed my career from then on. I thought of myself being in business. Creating a market for what I had to say.
The ladder has always been disappearing- 32 years into this gig I agree with that wholeheartedly — and I have stopped worrying about it. Maybe that’s age — for sure it’s part of it — yet I still have big writing goals I just recognize there’s multiple ways to achieve what I want.
I always love your articles and how you think Cat! 🌟☄️
This is so true it hurts. I work in the theatre, the death knell of which has tolled since its inception.
We are so quick to subscribe to the *systems* of doing things - the *way* theatre is produced, the *way* novels are published - none of it is really dying. We are changing; it is changing. The systems are the messenger, not the message. Maybe it is time to enlist better ones.
It's hard because it can feel like multiple jobs rolled into one: it's *doing* the work and *learning to do the work* a new way. And part of that work is not getting jaded and weighed down by the negativity surrounding the concept of evolution. Because ultimately, isn't that the point?
It is the blessing and curse of the creative mind -- always wanting to forge a new path forward to the unknown, but then...we have to forge a new path forward to the unknown.
Our capitalist consumerist society, rather those ruling and perpetuating it, are all aglow now that AI has arrived - now even writing can be obtained on the cheap.
My cats name is Timicin and often people will respond "Tennyson?" And I don't correct them. Tennyson is a genius. And this post is oddly comforting honestly. You and Leigh are providing some clarity and I thank you!
Sarah, you're so welcome! Thanks for reading. I LOVE Tennyson as a cat's name (or nickname). Must be among the best I've ever heard. So agree he's a genius. Reading a biog now and it turns out he was a marketing genius too. Shouldn't be as surprising as it is. But I plan to write about him at some stage. Anyway, cheers! Glad to hear about the clarity. Tell Tennyson I said hi.
Oh I loved this so much, Cat. I could go on and on. It's all so true (you had me at "the hour of our death approacheth like a pizza in the Domino’s Tracker.") And also? I have those same pots and pans banging in my own head ... It's all too easy to get mired into depression with all this. Most lately, I am trying (feebly!) to alter my perceptions of what I want/reasonably expect/demand from my own writing. For me, Substack is definitely a step in the right direction.
Thanks again for writing. I will be re-reading this many times!
Ah, Sue, thanks so much for the kind words. Big fan of YOUR Substack - insightful yet unobtrusive, which is a feat at any time but even more so when the world's this noisy. Always look forward to your posts.
I'm with you--in more ways than one. After starting out as a journalist (way back in the '80s), I turned to academia and wound up writing a lot of (largely unread, I suspect) articles and books for fellow professors and students. When I tried to break into the mainstream market, I failed and failed and failed again. (In this respect, I'm not like because you succeeded. Congratulations!) I never left academia, but I still would like to write for a broader audience, especially after I retire. I'm here on Substack, too, writing for 86 subscribers. It's a start, I guess! This whole thing of finding a market is indeed an ever evolving mystery, as Poe well knew. That's another connection. I found your Substack because I thought I would read something about Poe this morning, since I'm scheduled to give a talk about him this afternoon. Finally, "Ulysses" is one of my favorite poems, too. I have it memorized.
I spent my high school and college years learning everything I could about how to make it as a professional writer. Then I graduated and it felt like the world id been learning about and preparing for no longer exists. It’s been five years and I have one professional byline, a mountain of rejections, a pile of work that no one wants to publish, and a writing degree that feels completely useless. I thought I’d be in the beginning stages of my career by now. Instead I have nothing. It’s hard to feel anything except despair and hopelessness.
Rosie, that makes a ton of sense and also, I’m so sorry! The landscape has changed incredibly fast, even by media-world standards, which is saying something. I was 15 years out of my undergrad when I finally sold a book and to this day one of my closest writer-friends and I constantly say to each other some version of “If I were here at this place in my career but 10 years younger, then I’d be happy, then I’d feel like I was on track.” (CC @Nat Baker!) A long-winded way of saying I really feel you and know the frustration. Here’s hoping it breaks open soon for you. It’s stunning how long it can take.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Everyone keeps telling me I’m so young and I have so much time left to build a career, but when I keep seeing people who have 20+ years of experience in the industry struggling to find work, it just feels so hopeless for someone just starting out. And all the people who are around my age and successful seem to have gotten on that ladder of traditional success you were talking about juuuust before it got pulled up. It’s hard not to feel like if I haven’t made it already, there’s just no hope. I’m really trying not to feel that way, but man, it’s difficult. :(
I've always written creatively on the side, as my hobby, while working as a health information editor. That's helped me stay (mostly) sane. I'm not constantly having to hustle and beg gatekeepers for attention, nor do I have to crank out short-form content to boost subscribers to my little baby newsletter.
While I agree with everything Leigh Stein says, the reality is that so few people have the time/energy to crank out content in pursuit of a paid byline or paid subscriptions, partly because the system is flawed; putting in more work doesn't guarantee anything when the gatekeeper is a veiled, always changing algorithm.
One of the best pieces I've read on this topic is:
Isn't there embroidery on a cushion that goes something like this: Life's a bitch, and then you die. Yup, can't argue with that. God only knows why we write when there might be some other avenue that would-- I don't know-- pay off? I suspect we are all crazy in some way yet to be discovered. Maybe they will find a vaccine for it.
First-person industrial complex. How utterly brilliant. And how profoundly telling, of us, of our careers, our writerly dreams and the psychological state that comes with it all (having a "complex").
I used to freelance a lot as well. For The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety, mainly, but this was for print. In the mid 1990's. So now I can't even find my name in their online archives—all I have is the print articles, scanned of course. Living in the SF Bay Area, you physically cannot survive on a freelance income. You need to figure out a different path. For me, it's running my own business, and being a highly versatile writer and strategist. But what I love about Substack is that no one tells me what I can or cannot write. This is my sandbox, and I love to play in it :)
Ha, Birgitte, I'd never thought about it before but "complex" is a very rich term here, as you point out. Funny. You're very very right about freelance income and how it's impossible to live on, and how Substack gives some room to play. Cheers!
We all love this sandbox.
Sure always in the first person where you are the subject not us the reader.
When did the word 'I' become the most important word in the Oxford dictionary.
No he or she allowed .
I've been thinking about this a lot! Specifically the role editors, magazines, and other gatekeepers play in building writing careers. The landscape has absolutely changed, BUT I don't know if I totally agree with Leigh that an essay in a digital media outlet gets you nowhere (I subscribe to her substack and really enjoy her takes!) Funny enough, the NYTs Modern Love column reached out to me yesterday to write a follow-up to an essay I wrote for them a couple of years ago, and I began reflecting on how that essay launched my writing career. It was my first publication, I got my literary agent from that essay (even though I didn't think it was the great loll). Having your writing appear in major outlets I think does still matter--I think the central problem, at least for writers hoping to be traditionally published, remains, and that's that publishing houses are always trying to figure out what sells books, is it a viral essay in The Cut? Is it 100,000 followers on TikTok? And the answer continues to be a mix of: we don't really know and it depends and sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't lol. I think getting published in these outlets helps with credibility (many bigs substackers on the journalism side have these places on their resumes). What I feel is 100% true, and that I think you're getting at with this essay, is that writers give away too much of their power to gatekeepers. Things don't get published all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the piece. The key is knowing when you've gotten a "no" because the essay etc needs more work vs because it's not a good fit, or they already picked up a similar essay. For some writers, being published in a certain caliber of outlet is more important than being published at all (Also see the Big 5 or nothing people lol). But I *think* many writers just want to write and be read, however that looks. As writer Torrey Peter says, when you find your readers, everything else (the presses and big magazines) follows. Thanks for writing this!!
"writers give away too much of their power to gatekeepers". yes a THOUSAND percent! And I feel, personally, it's because many of us are so humble and self-deprecating. We're the opposite of tech bros. Ha.
You won the Modern Love lottery. 😊 I sold a book in 2015 off a viral essay in BuzzFeed. It’s not that this doesn’t happen anymore—it’s just that there are fewer outlets to pitch and fewer writers getting lucky in this way! So I can’t in good conscience counsel my clients to just “pitch a viral essay” to sell their books anymore. It’s not happening the way it was 10 years ago.
Haili, loved hearing your story. Will you link when your follow-up comes out?? Searching out your original one now - huge congrats!
Thank you!! And of course, thank you for asking :) Here's the original, too: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/style/modern-love-my-choice-isnt-marriage-or-loneliness.html
This was interesting, Haili!
Thank you!!
Thank you! :)
Really, really loved this, Cat. It's been a while since I was in the freelance writing arena -- I was back in the mid-2000s, which I can't believe is 20 years ago! -- but I remember, oh all too well, the yearning to get my stuff in those bigger publications, hoping the smaller ones would be a stepping stone on a set of stairs that would always be going up. I had some fascinating experiences, did some work I'm really proud of to this day, but ultimately it was just too financially challenging for me to sustain, so I went back to the UX design world (where I still work today, even though I write my newsletter on the side).
I was actually thinking about this over the weekend before seeing your essay in my inbox this morning. It's all *so damn hard,* isn't it? And yet, there's still a part of me that, if I wasn't doing it, would feel stifled -- there's a creative impulse in me that I have to let out, and would feel like I'm really letting myself down if I didn't. That doesn't make any of this any easier, but it does mean it's still better to be on the path than off it entirely. (I hope, anyway!)
Terrell, wow, yes, I really really feel you on the freelancing points. It's all so damn hard, uh huh, agreed, and I'd feel stifled and frustrated without it. Cheers. What a funny business this all is.
Thanks for this reflection!
Catherine, a good article...and mostly accurate...the ladder has morphed into an M.C. Escher style device: sometimes your climbing a ladder, other times your going down a staircase, then perhaps gliding on a conveyor belt. The main thing is you are "not yielding;" you keep moving, experiencing all life has to gift you. That's why it's the PRESENT.
Love that Escher analogy, Jon.
As someone sort of new to the 2024 publishing scene, I've been pondering this a lot.
When crappy things happened to my kids as they were growing up, I used to say to them, "And how might this be an opportunity/" (Yes, I was that mother 😂)
Now that they're grown & flown (and out of earshot), I have no one else but myself to ask that question of – most recently, pondering and re-pondering the whole how to publish my books conundrum.
I'm thinking this BIG5 sad state of things might be just the obstacle I've needed to do the indie route, put together my own imprint and get my books out there.
Kristin, my hunch is you were right to tell your kids that - it's so often true. Been enjoying your Substack lately, too!
Thanks so much for reading, Cat, I appreciate your time ☺️
Yes, how might this be an opportunity? Well, it's dressed in some crappy clothes at the moment, so I'm not sure if I'll invite it in.
The best moment of my writer’s life was many years ago when I decided that my attitude had to shift from “pick me, pick me” to “I pick me.” I’d already built an email list so it wasn’t that move so much as how I directed my career from then on. I thought of myself being in business. Creating a market for what I had to say.
The ladder has always been disappearing- 32 years into this gig I agree with that wholeheartedly — and I have stopped worrying about it. Maybe that’s age — for sure it’s part of it — yet I still have big writing goals I just recognize there’s multiple ways to achieve what I want.
I always love your articles and how you think Cat! 🌟☄️
Jenn, I love this - that's a great longer-term perspective on the business and reminds me that I'm part of your audience, too. :)
I woke up at 3 am thinking I sounded like an old lady know it all!
NOT IN THE LEAST, not at all. But I know what it is to wake up like that. :)
I also drank wine last night NEVER a good idea for me. (but fun!)
Ha, I know that aspect too! Though I'm more a beer girl
This is so true it hurts. I work in the theatre, the death knell of which has tolled since its inception.
We are so quick to subscribe to the *systems* of doing things - the *way* theatre is produced, the *way* novels are published - none of it is really dying. We are changing; it is changing. The systems are the messenger, not the message. Maybe it is time to enlist better ones.
It's hard because it can feel like multiple jobs rolled into one: it's *doing* the work and *learning to do the work* a new way. And part of that work is not getting jaded and weighed down by the negativity surrounding the concept of evolution. Because ultimately, isn't that the point?
It is the blessing and curse of the creative mind -- always wanting to forge a new path forward to the unknown, but then...we have to forge a new path forward to the unknown.
Our capitalist consumerist society, rather those ruling and perpetuating it, are all aglow now that AI has arrived - now even writing can be obtained on the cheap.
My cats name is Timicin and often people will respond "Tennyson?" And I don't correct them. Tennyson is a genius. And this post is oddly comforting honestly. You and Leigh are providing some clarity and I thank you!
Sarah, you're so welcome! Thanks for reading. I LOVE Tennyson as a cat's name (or nickname). Must be among the best I've ever heard. So agree he's a genius. Reading a biog now and it turns out he was a marketing genius too. Shouldn't be as surprising as it is. But I plan to write about him at some stage. Anyway, cheers! Glad to hear about the clarity. Tell Tennyson I said hi.
Oh I loved this so much, Cat. I could go on and on. It's all so true (you had me at "the hour of our death approacheth like a pizza in the Domino’s Tracker.") And also? I have those same pots and pans banging in my own head ... It's all too easy to get mired into depression with all this. Most lately, I am trying (feebly!) to alter my perceptions of what I want/reasonably expect/demand from my own writing. For me, Substack is definitely a step in the right direction.
Thanks again for writing. I will be re-reading this many times!
Ah, Sue, thanks so much for the kind words. Big fan of YOUR Substack - insightful yet unobtrusive, which is a feat at any time but even more so when the world's this noisy. Always look forward to your posts.
Appreciate this so much, Cat. Truly. I'm very grateful our paths have crossed.
I love this article and it's so true. It's why I've made Substack my new thing.
Nicole, so glad you liked it! I subscribed to your Substack.
I'm with you--in more ways than one. After starting out as a journalist (way back in the '80s), I turned to academia and wound up writing a lot of (largely unread, I suspect) articles and books for fellow professors and students. When I tried to break into the mainstream market, I failed and failed and failed again. (In this respect, I'm not like because you succeeded. Congratulations!) I never left academia, but I still would like to write for a broader audience, especially after I retire. I'm here on Substack, too, writing for 86 subscribers. It's a start, I guess! This whole thing of finding a market is indeed an ever evolving mystery, as Poe well knew. That's another connection. I found your Substack because I thought I would read something about Poe this morning, since I'm scheduled to give a talk about him this afternoon. Finally, "Ulysses" is one of my favorite poems, too. I have it memorized.
Mark, 87 now and counting! It IS a start.
Always so glad to meet a fellow Poe and Tennyson fan. Hope the talk went well.
Yes, it did! Thanks. I just got an invitation to speak to another group about Poe. I look forward to staying in touch.
Wonderful! Glad to hear it
Gioia. : )
I spent my high school and college years learning everything I could about how to make it as a professional writer. Then I graduated and it felt like the world id been learning about and preparing for no longer exists. It’s been five years and I have one professional byline, a mountain of rejections, a pile of work that no one wants to publish, and a writing degree that feels completely useless. I thought I’d be in the beginning stages of my career by now. Instead I have nothing. It’s hard to feel anything except despair and hopelessness.
Rosie, that makes a ton of sense and also, I’m so sorry! The landscape has changed incredibly fast, even by media-world standards, which is saying something. I was 15 years out of my undergrad when I finally sold a book and to this day one of my closest writer-friends and I constantly say to each other some version of “If I were here at this place in my career but 10 years younger, then I’d be happy, then I’d feel like I was on track.” (CC @Nat Baker!) A long-winded way of saying I really feel you and know the frustration. Here’s hoping it breaks open soon for you. It’s stunning how long it can take.
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Everyone keeps telling me I’m so young and I have so much time left to build a career, but when I keep seeing people who have 20+ years of experience in the industry struggling to find work, it just feels so hopeless for someone just starting out. And all the people who are around my age and successful seem to have gotten on that ladder of traditional success you were talking about juuuust before it got pulled up. It’s hard not to feel like if I haven’t made it already, there’s just no hope. I’m really trying not to feel that way, but man, it’s difficult. :(
It's all so true and so relatable, what you're describing. DM me? Would love to send you something
I've always written creatively on the side, as my hobby, while working as a health information editor. That's helped me stay (mostly) sane. I'm not constantly having to hustle and beg gatekeepers for attention, nor do I have to crank out short-form content to boost subscribers to my little baby newsletter.
While I agree with everything Leigh Stein says, the reality is that so few people have the time/energy to crank out content in pursuit of a paid byline or paid subscriptions, partly because the system is flawed; putting in more work doesn't guarantee anything when the gatekeeper is a veiled, always changing algorithm.
One of the best pieces I've read on this topic is:
https://saraeckel.substack.com/p/the-always-deferred-promise-of-exposure
That's a great piece - thanks for linking. Enjoyed your thoughts too, Joy.
Isn't there embroidery on a cushion that goes something like this: Life's a bitch, and then you die. Yup, can't argue with that. God only knows why we write when there might be some other avenue that would-- I don't know-- pay off? I suspect we are all crazy in some way yet to be discovered. Maybe they will find a vaccine for it.