Productivity is a trap

So, there's a dirty little secret in indie publishing a lot of people won't tell you, and if you aren't aware of it, self-publishing feels even scarier than it actually is.
https://thebibliosphere.tumblr.com/749033453163610112

A lot of these authors aren't being completely honest with you, though. They'll give you secrets for time management and plotting and outlining and marketing and what have you. But the way they're able to write, edit, and publish 10+ books a year, by and large, is that they're hiring ghostwriters.

They sure are, and it's painfully obvious. The take-away point of this post is something I wholly agree with:

If you are writing your books the old fashioned way and are trying to build a readerbase who cares about your work, you don't need to use AI to 'stay competitive,' because you're not competing with these people. You're playing an entirely different game.

That's exactly right, I think. There's no way a single artist can compete with a corporate studio even if they wanted to... but why would you want to?

I'm not saying that writers don't deserve support, of course. Positive feedback is good, as is money. Still, I think the point of this post and its commentary, namely, that it's good (based, even) to be weird and self-indulgent and unproductive, isn't necessarily a contradiction to the goal of establishing a sustainable creative practice.

As clear and concise as possible

Not to sound like a boomer, but I need some people to learn how to write emails
https://enonem.tumblr.com/750113572652302336

Professional language acts as a social boundary setting to the protection of both parties. That matters because when you are dealing professionally with someone (be it within a corporate office or commissioning an artist on tumblr), there are going to be discussions. Maintaining that professional language ensures (at least in theory) that those disagreements are treated as part of the work. It also ensures that work will be done during work times and for appropriate recompense.

I'm working on a post about "how to commission an artist" for the gywo writing community here on Dreamwidth, and this is a good resource to bookmark.

I think my post is shaping out to be a decent guide btw. What it's unfortunately missing is info on how to commission book covers for indie self-publishing. I really need to figure that out. Soon, hopefully.