Why a Sustainable Writing Practice Matters

One of the main reasons I chose to publish independently is because of how a friend was treated after she signed with one of the big five publishers.

It’s common for the few authors who do get a bigger advance to be treated as a high-risk asset. The publishers squeeze them for everything they can get out of the author as quickly as possible. This doesn’t take into consideration the health of the writer or the unsustainable schedule they are forced to work at.

I don’t think it’s because they’re intentionally trying to be cruel. They’re trying to minimize their risk and recoup their investment. It’s how businesses work. The problem is traditional publishers aren’t set up to deal with the long-term effects of this model. They want lower risk and higher returns. One-off books and short series.

This business model forces authors to absorb health risk, burnout risk, identity risk and long-term career risk by demanding shorter deadlines, overlapping production schedules, minimal recovery time between books, and aggressive revision cycles.

I question how novel writers can work at the crazy pace publishing houses push them to and not get sick. However, deciding to self-publish comes with it’s own pressure to produce as many books as you can as quickly as possible.

We as readers gobble up everything from our favorite writers and that is how it should be, but writers have a responsibility to themselves to also make sure they can continue thriving.

The seductive promise of AI is that it makes our lives easier. And it is a built into many apps and operating systems now. However, it often just makes more work to get the work back to a level of professional writing. There is no ignoring it being a part of everyday life, even if you do your best to avoid it.

In my opinion it has its use. While I do not use it in my creative work, I do use it to correct spelling and typos in emails and even my newsletters. I don’t see the point of dissecting other writers’ works to check if it was written or edited by AI. People have the right to do as they like with their work, but I do think there should be disclosure when it is used.

This reasoning comes from that same pressure that writers have to produce works at an unhealthy pace. Publishers Weekly reported the total number of books published in the U.S. in 2025 jumped 32.5% over 2024, according to statistics compiled by Bowker, led by a boom in self-published titles. Self-published titles rose to over 3.5 million, and the number of traditionally published books released last year rose 6.6% to 642,242.

That’s about 11,350 books per day, 473 per hour, 8 every minute or one new book every eight seconds, based on a normal calendar year of 365 days. So, what are we as writers to do when faced with the breakneck pace set before us?

My answer to the question is to do your best and produce quality over quantity. Write something that is uniquely your voice, invite others in to meet your weird self. Take time to build your platform, share your work, grow and learn. Consistency. Show up for yourself and your readers.

You don’t need to appeal to everyone, and trying will not sell more books, nor will writing more quickly and sacrificing the quality books you put out. Readers will notice.

The real question is, “How can I build a sustainable writing practice that consistently delivers for readers without sacrificing myself?” I would love to hear about your sustainable writing practices. Please share in the comments.

Photo by LARAM on Unsplash