Spending hundreds of hours every year doing academic work on book chapters, journal articles, and conference papers when I don’t even have an academic job — and am thus doing it all for free — is highly exploitative. So, after my current projects wrap up in the next couple of months, I’m not going to do these things anymore. I want to do more academic research and writing, but the system is not set up to pay anyone directly. That needs to change.
It does indeed.
I’m not sure what to say except that I am grateful for what you’ve done (I’m working on a book on theology and progressive rock at the moment) and completely understand your decision.