How individualism is killing your author career

Many authors I work with are independent authors, and even those who are trad published tend to be incredibly competent, self-contained people. It’s not a bad quality, but like anything, it can be overdone to the point of becoming a problem. 

That’s because some challenges are too big for us to face alone, and even if we could, maybe our time and energy would be better spent elsewhere in our business. 

It feels good to complete something all on your own. We can gain a lot of respect for ourselves and self-worth from it. But when we don’t also practice the skill of accepting help and seeking out collaboration, individualism can bring your author business to the edge of catastrophe, and you might not even see it coming.

Here are three ways the pattern of individualism, let alone rugged individualism, might be about to kill your author business:

1.You’re not the best person for every job. 

Just because you can do something on your own doesn’t mean it’s better if you do. Not relinquishing control over aspects of your author business that you have no reason to be good at is a sure sign that your individualism is less about competency and more about being afraid to hand things off.

Maybe your ego struggles to ask for help, or you don’t trust people to do what they say they will, or maybe you have unrealistic expectations that no one (even you) can live up to. Until you address the underlying fear that keeps you taking too much on yourself, your author business will be stalled exactly where it is… or it might come crumbling to the ground the next time you have a minor health emergency or an unexpected loss.

2. You’re missing collaboration opportunities that could turn into something big

Other people can be annoying and disappointing, sure, but so can you, and learning to work with that in others is the price you pay for collaboration. It’s a price worth paying, though.

With the industry shifting as wildly the way it has been lately, and with so many big changes on the horizon for authors, you’ll simply be left behind if you don’t learn the necessary skills to network and collaborate with others.

Look back on your career. How many of the breakthroughs you’ve experienced are a result of collaborating with others, either through writing projects, cross promotion, coaching, or just swapping stories over a drink? Probably a lot more than you’re inclined to realize without pausing to consider it. Much of success is luck, and collaborating and networking increase your odds exponentially. 

3. Congratulations! Your business now owns you.

You probably default to patterns of individualism because you want to feel in control of your life. It’s an essential human need to feel like we have agency. But when too many aspects of your business rely on you and you alone, you’ve actually lost control of your time and freedom, and you’re being led around by your ear rather than making smart decisions.

Wouldn’t it be nice to find a way for your business to keep functioning if you took a week or even a month off to rest, read, travel, and refill your creative well? You’re unlikely to do that so long as you put individualism on a pedestal above everything else… and as long as your sense of self is too wrapped up in proving how strong and competent you are to be able to hit pause.

Without necessary time away from work, you’re unlikely to spot problems before they get too big or opportunities before they pass you by. What you ARE likely to do is burn the hell out.

Individualism is something I’ve bumped up against my whole life, so I get how good it feels to be able to say, “I did that.” I also know the toll it takes on your mental, emotional, and physical health when you don’t have other options available to you and how rare it is that someone with this deeply engrained pattern actually does stop to admire and appreciate what they’ve accomplished. 

If you want to explore other options and avoid letting individualism kill your author business, check out my Liberated Writer 6-Month Group Coaching that starts in April of 2025 and the Liberated Writer 5-Week Course that starts in May of 2025. Depending on your finances and how committed you are to tackling your current challenges, one of these might be just the support you need. You don’t have to go it alone.

One thing you can try in the meantime to address your overactive individualism is go to someone who knows you well–a spouse, for instance–and ask them where THEY think you do too much on your own and could ask for more help. And then listen. You might be shocked by their observations.