028: Writing Q&A, Part 3
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writing q&A, PART 3
Welcome back, we are doing another q&a episode. I'm very excited for this one, we got some good questions, like q&a episodes one, part one and part two, I put out a call on my Instagram for questions. And I got a lot of them a lot. So if I don't get to your question, I'm sorry. I'll save it for a future q&a episode. And try my best to get to it. But I got a lot it was a little surprising and overwhelming how many I got money many more than I did when I posted for part one and part two. I also sometimes get questions that I don't feel like I can really answer questions about the specifics of self-publishing or like poetry or children's books, things that I just don't have a lot of expertise or knowledge in. So just keep that in mind too. If you submit a question that's kind of outside of my area of expertise, I won't be able to answer it.
Okay, so the first question I wanted to touch on is a question that was sent to me after Part Two came out. But before I put out a call for questions, and I looked through my DMs, I went back it was sent maybe a month ago, a while ago, and I could not find the Instagram DM. And I'm so sorry, to this person. I'm not going to have your exact question. But I know it was something to do with impostor syndrome. Like how do you deal with impostor syndrome as a writer? And I thought that was a great question, because that is something that I have dealt with as a writer. And I've heard from so many writers that this is such a common thing to experience. So let's talk about what impostor syndrome is, first, if you've never heard it, or maybe you've heard it, and you're not quite sure what that means. So impostor syndrome is this, this feeling of doubting your skills, doubting your abilities, and feeling like you are a fraud, and it's only a matter of time before people figure out that you have no idea what you're doing that you can't write that you can't create that you can't do whatever it is. This idea has been around for years. And originally, it was applied to women who were women in their careers like high achieving women who felt like imposters and frauds. And a lot of it just comes down to self-doubt, right.
But there's something there's something about imposter syndrome that makes us feel like we alone are experiencing this that everyone else has this whole writing thing figured out that everyone else knows what they're doing. And we are the only ones who are struggling with feeling like this. And that is so not true. That's one of the dangerous parts about imposter syndrome. It can make us feel like we're unique, it can make us feel like we alone are experiencing fears and doubts and wondering if we're really cut out for this whole writer thing. And I just want to affirm that that is not true. If you are feeling imposter syndrome, you are not alone. Who knows about statistics of percentage of writers who feel this way, but I'm gonna go on a limb and make make up a statistic. I feel like it has to be 99.9% of writers at some point will experience imposter syndrome. It's just the nature of the game. So how do you get how do you deal with imposter syndrome? Well, to deal with impostor syndrome, it's not a matter of thinking of something or reframing something or doing something once and then suddenly, you're all set. And you're never going to experience those feelings again, because that's not realistic, they're probably going to come up again. So first of all, remind yourself that you're not alone. Everything I just said that every writer experiences this at some point. So you are a member of a wonderful club of people of writers who have experienced self doubt and have felt like frauds and wonder if they can really do this. So you're just you're just a writer, going through the process of writing a book, if you've experienced that. That's all that means.
The second thing that can help with impostor syndrome is to kind of look objectively at what you've done to look at to see if you can gather evidence that This isn't true. So I want you to look at what you have accomplished. Maybe you've written an entire book, maybe you've written multiple books, maybe you've started writing a book, even if you haven't actually written a book, you can still look at your accomplishments, you know, maybe you've started outlining an entire book. That's amazing. A lot of people never get to that point of actually putting their ideas down on paper. I also want you to look at other areas of your life where you've experienced impostor syndrome. Or maybe you just have a lot of accomplishments, like, maybe you're new to writing and you haven't written a book yet, but you have been killing it in your career. Right? Maybe you feel like you are an incredible parent. That's an amazing accomplishment, right. Another thing that can help with impostor syndrome is remembering to celebrate things that you do celebrate every single word that you write, celebrate completing the end of a chapter, celebrate writing your outline, celebrate whatever it is, taking time to pause, and acknowledge those things can really help. Okay, there's a lot we can talk about with impostor syndrome. But for the sake of brevity, I'm just going to end there. But again, just know you're not alone. This is very, very, very, very common.
Okay, next question. How to find an agent or a publisher, I have no idea what to do, I'm lost. So the good thing about this issue is there is so much information online about how to find an agent. If you want to get traditionally published, which it sounds like this person does, because they asked how to find an agent or publisher. If you want to get traditionally published, you do need to find an agent first. So don't worry about the publisher, part of it. Focus on finding a literary agent to represent you. There's some episodes that I have of this podcast that deal with querying, which is the process of sending a sample of your manuscript to your agent to an agent that you might want to represent you. There's also just tons of information online about how to find agents who represent the type of book that you're writing, how to write a query letter, strategies to use, there's so much information. So my first suggestion if you're totally starting from scratch, and all of this is completely new, is to just go online and read, read blogs, a lot of literary literary agents have given interviews or written articles themselves, where they talk about what they're looking for. So you can just sort of read, you can listen to podcasts, or read articles of writers that you admire. Sometimes they'll talk about how they got their agent, what the process was like for them. There are hybrid publishers where you pay a small fee, and, you know, they'll they'll publish your book for you. So there's definitely it's not just self publishing, or traditionally published, to being traditionally published, where you have to find an agent, there are some small presses that you can you can use to publish your book.
So you know, that's also a decision to make is if you want to try to do that route, or if you want to try to find an agent first, who will then sell your book to publishers. But the first step before you even do either of those things is to make sure that your book is done, to make sure that your book is edited, that you feel really, really good about it because you have to query or try to find a publisher with a completed manuscript. So make sure that your book is really solid before you start doing any of that.
Okay, next question. I've finished writing my first draft, what should I do next? I love this question. If you haven't done this already, please take a pause and celebrate. It's so easy to jump right into the editing and revising process. Just please take some time to celebrate the fact that you wrote an entire freaking book. And that is amazing. And you deserve to celebrate that. So please take some time to do that. Now, outside of that, I do have a podcast episode that's about tips for self-editing tips for revision. So go ahead and listen to that. If you haven't already, it's episode 24. Three tips for self editing. And one of the things that I suggest in there is to let your manuscript sit for a little while. Don't dive in right away to make any big changes, to try to edit. Even if you only set it aside for two weeks, that's going to help because you're going to come back to it with slightly fresher eyes and just kind of look at it slightly more objectively. Of course, it's never possible for us to look at our own writing completely objectively. But there are some strategies in that episode that will help you and To another thing I'll say, if you finish writing your first draft is to remember that editing is not just a one and done thing, you are going to edit your draft multiple times, you're going to go in and do the big picture stuff first, like inserting a new chapter, or changing the ending, adding a character removing a character, you're going to do all that big picture stuff first, and then you're going to go in and really add layers, you're going to clean up the sentences, maybe you're going to look at one particular character's arc through the story in that draft. So just remember that editing is a process that has many phases, you will go through many drafts. So just remember that that's part of the process.
Okay, what happens to the author's rights when they sell to a publisher? So I'm gonna be totally honest, I don't have a lot of knowledge about this, because I have an agent, yes, but we are revising my manuscript now before we send it out. So I have never actually gone through the process of having a contract with a publisher. I'm going to link to an article that I found a link to it in the description of this episode. And it's from a literary agent called Kate McKean. And in the article is called book contract, book contracts. Let's talk rights. And just a brief description of the article, it says "in the second installment of her column, Kate McCain tells us all about the rights and sub rights that could appear in your contract, when you sell your book to a publisher." So you, when you sell your rights to something, basically, it means you're giving the publisher permission to do something with it. But there's all sorts of information in this article that I think is going to be helpful for you if you're curious about this. So again, I'll link to that that episode. Really, what I'm gathering from this is that it's kind of complex, and it kind of varies. So if this is something that you're really worried about, just know that your contract will lay all of this out for you. So don't be afraid to really dive deep into the contract. Hopefully, you will have an agent who can decipher this for you and help you you know, advocate for yourself for rights, maybe subsidiary rights or different things like that. So, but even if you don't have an agent, it's worth, you know, getting some outside perspective on the contract to make sure that you know, everything is as it should be.
Okay, the last question that I'm going to touch on in this episode is tips for writing with cultural and societal awareness, and they put in parentheses avoid cancellation, but I like the I like the first part of this question. So I'm going to, I'm not gonna talk about cancellation. I'm just going to talk about tips for writing with cultural and societal awareness. I have two tips for this. First is take advantage of take advantage of social media there are so if you're writing diverse characters, or you're writing about a culture that is not your own, there are so many resources on Tik Tok, even. And I'm sure there are tons of resources on other social media platforms, I'm sure there are blog posts, podcasts, articles about this as well, where people who are in that culture or identify as a member of that diverse group, have given they've taken the time to create content to help educate writers. So there's tons of content like that. So just do your, your, your homework, you know, it's something that you have to take on to kind of do yourself, don't assume that other people are going to do the work for you. But a lot of creators have, which is really, really nice of them. So definitely take advantage of that and do some digging on social media or online generally.
And the second thing, the second tip I have is to make sure to get a sensitivity reader. Once you are done writing your book. sensitivity readers are fantastic. Basically, they're they're a it's a form of beta reading, but they're really looking at the depiction of characters who are diverse. They're looking at the descriptions of this different culture, this different world, and making sure that there's nothing stereotypical or offensive or just kind of giving recommendations on how you've written about it and maybe recommendations to make it less offensive or stereotypical, richer, more realistic, whatever it might be. Always, always, always pay sensitivity readers. That should go without saying, but I just want to I just want to say that it's a lot to ask someone to take on the labor of reading particularly with an eye for these diverse characters or different culture that you're writing about. So please just make sure that you're compensating them for that, that time and that labor that they're, they're putting into it. It's not just beta reading, it's it's something that goes above and beyond. So just make sure that you're, you're paying for that.
So again, I'm sorry, if I didn't get to your question. I will try my best to get to them next round. And I hope this was helpful. Y'all ask them really good questions. And I really, really appreciate your your input and volunteering these questions. So look for another q&a episode at some point in the future.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
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Catapult article about rights: https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/book-contracts-lets-talk-rights-kate-mckean-literary-agent-book-contracts-rights-subrights