The Freelance Academic: Reclaim Your Career, Creativity, and Mental Health

By Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Off Track Is the New Normal

I did everything right.

The degrees. The clerkship. The publications. I believed that if I followed the rules, academia would reward me with stability and purpose.

Instead, I found myself burned out and sidelined in a system that no longer protects the people who keep it running. So I stopped waiting for permission. I built something new.

In this book, I share what it takes to reclaim your career, protect your mental health, and create sustainable freelance work that uses your strengths instead of draining them.

Higher education has changed, and we have to change with it.

Read this if you want to understand:

�� higher education burnout

�� career reinvention

�� mental health in academia

✍️ freelance writing

�� professional networking

�� institutional critique

�� practical career strategy

The Freelance Academic is the empowering third book in the Real Talk on Mental Health and Neurodiversity nonfiction series. If you like honest career memoir, practical strategy, and hopeful reinvention stories, you'll love Katie Rose Guest Pryal's practical read.

*Winner of the FOREWORD INDIES GOLD Award for Careers*

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1947834959
• ISBN13: 9781947834958
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Blue Crow Publishing
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"