A Note about Creator Burnout

Spooky season has passed. As we taper our binges of horror-themed Let’s Plays and gory makeup tutorials, we’d like to call your attention to a frightening trend that rudely lingers in our community: burnout.

It’s no secret that professional creators face serious economic and emotional challenges in our line of work. But recently, several high-profile articles have brought the destructive effects of creator burnout to the fore.

Some creators report 100-hour work weeks– completely unacceptable conditions by any other industry’s standards– and many others feel uncomfortable taking vacations for fear that their channel will lose momentum.

Unfair contract practices remain ubiquitous in the creator space. Third-party brokers of brand integration deals often calculate creator payout based solely on a channel’s audience size and engagement rates, with no consideration for the actual time and labor poured into creative, production, post-production, publishing, and audience management. This is fundamentally unfair.

When a brand makes a TV commercial, does the production crew get paid per thousand views or conversions triggered by the ad? Of course not– they get paid for the hours of skilled work they dedicate to a project. Payment for creative labor should always be calculated separately from CPMs for impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Less time spent tracking down payment means more time spent making great content. We advise creators to ask for half-payment up front, or spread out in chunks for each step in the production process.

All of these economic conditions exacerbate other socio-emotional challenges creators face. Creators widely report difficulty maintaining a healthy private life while under the scrutiny of the public eye. Some say they’re tempted to derive their sense of self-worth to the quantified success of their content, leading to moments of crisis during slow weeks.

Here’s the bottom line…

Burnout happens when creators overworked and underpaid. It happens when their health, safety, and dignity are threatened by systemic factors. At the ICG, we believe that unethical platform design, labor exploitation, and the pressures of public life are all challenges that can and must be confronted by a united community of professional creators– and we need your help.

As always, many thanks for your support– we’re glad to have you on our team.

Yours in Solidarity,

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