Many authors are doing everything right—publishing consistently, running promotions, chasing algorithms, investing in tools—and still can’t seem to get ahead financially. The books break even. The sales spike and disappear. The stress never really lets up.

In this episode of What If? For Authors, Claire Taylor addresses a painful but essential question: What if struggling to get ahead isn’t a personal failure—but the predictable result of broken systems?

Using the Enneagram as a framework for liberation (not self-blame), Claire explores why productivity hacks, discipline fixes, virality, and AI tools often function as promising distractions rather than real solutions. She unpacks how dominant cultural narratives—bootstrapping, meritocracy, savior myths, and algorithmic “neutrality”—keep authors exhausted, isolated, and blaming themselves instead of questioning the systems designed to extract their time, money, and attention.

This episode is not about giving up. It’s about reclaiming agency, and choosing paths that reduce suffering, build solidarity, and support sustainable creative lives—on human terms.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why struggling financially as an author is not a moral or personal failure

How the Enneagram helps distinguish inner work from systemic harm

What “promising distractions” are—and how they keep authors trapped

Why algorithms, ads, and platforms are not neutral or merit-based

How savior-seeking keeps people exploitable and disempowered

The hidden cost of tying hope to virality, productivity, or being “chosen”

How internalized cultural narratives quietly sabotage creativity and wellbeing

What genuine agency, community, and non-extractive alternatives can look like

Why stepping back from writing (temporarily or permanently) is not shameful

Key Takeaways:

You are not broken—and you were never failing

Many author systems are designed to extract, not sustain

Optimization does not equal liberation

Hope does not come from being saved—it comes from collective agency

Building community is a radical act in an extractive industry

Anger can be alchemized into clarity, solidarity, and action

Resources & Links:

Learn more about Claire’s coaching, courses, and books: liberatedwriter.com

Write Iconic Characters: books2read.com/WIC

Happy writing!