Why I Hustle

Thinking about the long haul this morning.

Hi friends.

Today is a travel day, I’m off to Philly for a night to see my big brother, and then tomorrow I’ll be speaking at Elizabethtown College. The next day I’ll take off for Tallahassee, where I’ll be appearing at the Word of South Festival, by myself, and then also in conversation with Kristen Arnett. Then I will fly home and collapse. I hope to see some of you out there!

I’ve been working all day yesterday and today on the talk I will give. (I have no idea why I feel like I have to rewrite my talks at least a little bit every single time, and yet here we are.) I think the general theme of it at the moment is “how to be a hustler” and by “hustle” I mean “don’t ever fucking stop working on the thing you believe in (even when things aren’t going your way)” as opposed to like, “conning people into giving you money.”

I don’t really write you a lot about the actual business-y side of being a writer—although it slips in here and there (and please feel free to read my memoir if you want to know more)—because I take more pleasure in talking about the act of writing itself. It is the most dazzling part of how I spend my time. I also like meeting and engaging with all of you in person and it’s fun to be out in the world talking about literature and culture and life. But I know that writing itself is the thing I love most, even when it’s hard.

Because the publishing industry is a maddeningly shifting landscape. I can barely keep up, but I try. I don’t know anyone who has a real handle on everything that’s going on in this industry. (Although I do know a few editors/publishers who seem closer than most, or at least closer than myself.) It’s totally unreliable and unpredictable and challenging and decidedly non-dazzling, even if you do get to hold a book you wrote someday in your hand. (I will admit that part is sort of dazzling.)

But, real talk here, it can be such a frustrating career. Without even getting into the publishing industry itself, or how hard it is to get published, or get published well, and all that you must do to promote yourself, I will tell you simply that you can write the greatest book in the world and get lovely reviews and then go on to sell no copies of it, and wonder if you still even exist. (You do.)

So let’s not think about all that in this space, that’s how I feel. Let’s think about what it takes to get there instead. The beloved words. Let’s stay in the beautiful place. Let’s stay in the place that helps us to grow and nurture our soul and challenge our minds and creative selves. It is the most important part of it all.

But trust me, most days (every day) I still have to deal with the business side of things in one way or another. So if I had to give one piece of advice I would simply say “prepare to hustle.” Because I don’t know anyone who is publishing today who is phoning it in. I don’t know anyone who is coasting. Unless someone else is footing the bills for them, of course. (And to those people I say, “Dinner’s on you.”)

The goal for so many people is simply just to be able to write and hopefully publish forever. The life-timers have to move quickly and be ready to pivot and be open to new things. And we have to get up every day and do the work.

And we do it because we love it. For no other reason that we want to spend time with our words and see what cool thing can come out of it. That’s why I’m here after all these years. That’s why I hustle.

See you next week.

Jami

You are reading Craft Talk, the home of #1000wordsofsummer and also a weekly newsletter about writing from Jami Attenberg. I’m also on bluesky and instagram.