Saying no

It’s easy to burnout in this industry.

For me, it’s a combination of

1. Guilt

I care about my readers and the declining reading rates so I want to do everything to help a school or a library

2. Ambition

If I push really hard, maybe my book will do better?

3. Fear

If I say no, will they ever ask me again?

With my Fairytale Hairdresser series, I really wanted it to do well so I threw all my time into writing and promoting it. I did event after event for independent shops and for Waterstones. I did enjoy doing them but the events were unpaid and there was a spate of a year or two when every single Saturday and Sunday I was somewhere in the country doing a 10am event, occasionally to a packed shop, but sometimes to three children. And parents aren’t always appreciative. They sometimes see you as a free babysitter. In one Waterstones this happened:

Parent: How long are you going to be?

Me: Around half an hour

Parent: Great. I’ll just leave my three-year-old and five-year-old with you and pop to the florist.

EVERY weekend

Unsurprisingly, after two years of this, I pretty much collapsed in a heap. Nowadays I’m much more careful about what I agree to. I ask myself which boxes the event ticks…

• Is this for money?

• Is this for (worthwhile) promo?

• Is this for joy?

• Is this for a cause I care about eg a charity?

• Am I going to benefit in another way eg learning something new?

Often, events are a mixture of at least two of the above.

First, let’s get in the mindset of telling ourselves:

I am a professional and my time and skills are valuable

Now, for my boxes…

Money

There is a power imbalance in the books industry. For some reason, lit fests think that the people who are drawing in crowds (the authors/illustrators), the people who actually DO the event (the authors/illustrators), the people without whom there would be no event (the authors/illustrators) aren’t all that important. Some of them seem to think that offering us vouchers instead of cash is ok – I’m looking at you, Waterstones. Some of them ask us to donate our fee back(!). Some of them ask us to wrap our VAT inside our rate so we get paid less.

I have a lot to say on all of those points (and at Society of Authors we DO raise these issues).

There seems to be little understanding of how much energy and time lit fests take from us. The preparation, the travel there and back, the stress all take their toll. I still find it incredible that - with no training, no dress rehearsal, nobody checking my ‘script’ - I’m put on a stage at a packed festival and expected to know how to entertain an audience with an age range of 2 years old to 80 (because five-year-olds often come to my events with a younger sibling or a grandparent.)

BUT I do get promo out of lit fests, and I do find the well-run ones fun. I get to stay in a hotel, hang out with a load of author mates and see other authors’ events. So those tick the joy and promo boxes for me, if not the money one. (That doesn’t stop me pushing for higher rates for all of us).

If I do an event purely for the money (ie there’s no joy, promo or learning), I want reasonable money. If it’s not enough to justify my time, I turn down the event. A full-on school visit tour can take a lot of energy, and I usually spend the next day lolling about on the sofa to recover. If I add up the prep time, travel time, event time, recovery time, it can sometimes mean 3 days of time for one day of paid event so I want to be compensated fairly.

Promo

One of the trickiest things is that, in traditional publishing, we don’t see our sales figures in real time. We don’t know if doing an event to three kids at a bookshop has a knock-on effect on our backlist over the next few months. Maybe it does? Maybe those three kids brought their new book in to show-and-tell and then their whole class bought the book on the back of that?

That makes it hard to assess the true promo value of doing an event. Who knows what work will lead to other work? Because of this, I’m quite strict about the promo category. If I can’t see proper value in it, and the event doesn’t tick one of the other boxes, I often say no. Surely, it’s better to spend the time writing another book which is - ahem - actually, my JOB?

Joy

Some events bring fun perks.

As part of the Agatha Christie lit fest a few years ago, I got to STAY overnight in Agatha Christie’s estate in Devon. I love Devon so it was a joy to be there anyway. But the massive cherry on top was that for one night, my husband and I had Greenway National Trust property almost completely to ourselves. It was a warm June night and we danced about in the deer park, the walled gardens and along the woodland walk to the river. It was absolute heaven and so, so special. Of course, we took a lot of photos of ourselves as dead bodies in various poses.

Swanning about at Greenway

If I get a chance to travel somewhere I love, or have never been, or I get an usual perk, I do say yes even if the money isn’t great. Ask yourself: ‘Will this feed my soul?’

Charity/Causes

I do give my time (and legal expertise) for free to Society of Authors but being part of a union is a cause I care about. I want to empower authors and illustrators; I want us to have better contract terms and good treatment from publishers. I do get joy out of it, too. And I learn new things.

Schools and libraries often press me for free events. Sometimes it’s really hard because reading for pleasure is another cause I care about, and I particularly care about children who lost out on reading during covid times. There’s a cohort of kids who didn’t have books at home and missed the essential skills – and the joy - of reading. So, I find it difficult turning schools down but I DO. I can’t do a completely free school event. It ruins my business model and isn’t fair on other schools (or in some ways, other authors. I feel like a bit of a ‘scab’). If I want to do the school, I help them think of ways to cover the visit eg teaming up with another school to share the cost, working with a private school in their area, or I might do discounts for solid pre-orders etc.

Knowledge/Learning

Recently I did an event for free at the World Fantasy Convention. It was a panel on fairy tales and I assessed that it wouldn’t take too much prep time, I would get joy out of it, and I would learn something. And I did! I was great to be on a panel with some very knowledgeable people who spoke in such an interesting way about fairy tales, myths and legends. I learned loads and I now have some ideas about how to do another event to adults. That’s important to me because I am far more used to doing events to kids rather than grown-ups, and I want to increase my skillset.

What about you? How do you assess what to say no to? What are your boxes you need to tick?

Please don’t burn yourself out! It’s totally fine to say no. You are not a bad person if you don’t do a low-paid event, even if it’s for a worthy cause.

You are a professional, and your time and skills are valuable.