Dean W. Smith's getting wound up to do a post on the way writing focus and business focus can interfere with each other for pro writers. This is a comment I left on his leadup post:

I have my own suspicions about how "product" takes over from the writing, but I also suspect that you're going to hit most of the same points I would. Some of it at least hits similar buttons across all types of business, an addiction to advertising and 'push' is pretty universally a sign that the business owner may be focusing on things outside of what really makes the business work.

In a very important sense, I'm very glad that I'm still working a day gig, at least with respect to this particular point. I have only so much time out of my day to devote to writing and all the other stuff surrounding it. By far, I'd rather be writing new stories than any of the other crap. It's not even close.

I also wonder how much of this is the constant 'ding' of the smartphone. It's easy enough to close your email browser on the computer, turning off the e-leash and finding anything at all else to do besides chase the momentary rush can be extraordinarily difficult.

I've seen people quit smoking more easily than walk away from the pull of social media. Look at what happened with twitter; as soon as the writer community at large realized how much of a time sink that thing is, instagram and tumblr and so on were standing in the wings waiting for the next e-generation to come along.