2020 Panel: Writing Alone in Community

Marines 0:22
Hello and welcome to BookNet Cast and BookNet Fest 2020. My name is Marines.

Samantha 0:27
And I’m Samantha Lane and we are the co-organizers of BookNet Fest, an event that invites readers who typically gather online to Orlando, Florida every year. The event for 2020 in person had to be cancelled, so everything has been moved online and you’re listening to the panel portions via podcast, and this panel is being sponsored by Little Bee Books and OwlCrate. Little Bee Books is a children’s book publisher dedicated to making high quality, creative, and fun books for busy little bees ages zero through 12, offering an inspired selection of early learning concept books, board games, novelty books, activity books, picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, gift sets and more. On August 25, 2020, little be released The Riverdale Diaries Volume One: Hello Betty. Kirkus Reviews said this graphic novel series breathes new life into old characters. Betty Cooper and her buddies from Archie’s Riverdale series are reimagined for middle grade readers in this full-length, full-color graphic novel written by rising star Sarah Kuhn and drawn by critically acclaimed artist J. Bone. You can check out the Riverdale Diaries at your local library or wherever books are sold.

Marines 1:25
You can check out all of our content on our website at booknetfest.com, and today we are joined by some guests.

Claribel 1:31
Hi, I’m Claribel A. Ortega. I’m the author of “Ghost Squad.” And I also host my own podcast called the Write or Die podcast, which drops every Monday. And if you’d like to follow me online, I’m at claribel_ortega on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.

Nina 1:50
Hi, I’m Nina Moreno. I’m the author of “Don’t Date Rosa Santos,” a YA contemporary novel, and the upcoming “Our Way Back to Always” which will be out in 2021. You can find me at Twitter at nina_writes and also ninamoreno.com

Liselle 2:08
Hi, I’m Liselle Sambury. I am the author of “Blood Like Magic,” which is coming out in 2021, in the summer from Simon and Schuster. You can find me online on YouTube where I talk all about traditional publishing and my experiences and also on Instagram and Twitter, all under Liselle Sambury.

Marines 2:29
Every year at BookNet Fest, we try and have and incorporate some sort of content that is writing focused and author focused and authortube focused, as part of just sort of the larger book community. Sam and I are not writers. We are the hosts of this podcast so we’re not writers, so I’m like really, really interested to kind of pick your brains and and get your side of this conversation about community as it pertains to writing and the author community. So I guess the best place to start is for you all to share with everybody just sort of your writing journey, I guess, or like how and when you got started writing and I you know anything you’d like to share about how that has progressed for each of you.

Claribel 3:10
I’ve been writing for a really long time ever since I was little. I, I love to write. I wrote poems and song lyrics and all that kind of stuff. And I sort of avoided it. I’m one of those people who told me to do something, I will do the opposite. So everyone told me like “you’re a good writer. You should write.” and I was like, “no.” But then eventually, in college, I was like, “wait, I actually really do love to write” and I tried to get into my school’s Creative Writing Program. But it was very.. it was very skewed to like literary adult fiction, and not anything that I was really interested in writing or good at writing. And I didn’t get in and I decided, well, I can do journalism, because I can still write, and they can’t keep me out because all you need is a good GPA. And I’ve got that. So I focused on, you know, learning the tricks of the trade of journalism. I was a reporter after graduating from college. And I still didn’t really have a mind to write fiction, because I didn’t really feel like it was possible for me. Like growing up, like the authors that I looked up to were like RL Stein, right? So I was like, well, that’s the kind of person who writes books like not me, you know? And that sort of was ingrained in my head for the longest time. And it wasn’t really until a couple years out of college when I had a death in the family and I was trying to sort of deal with the grief of that, that I got an idea for a book. It’s like the manifestation basically of my grief in a character who’s like really messed up, just came to me one day on my commute to work. And that’s when I started writing my first book and then I couldn’t stop. I just kept getting ideas and like now I have to have like a spreadsheet of ideas because my family’s like we literally can’t keep track of all your projects and like where they are are in the pipeline and like what’s coming next. So I have a spreadsheet for my family and also for two of my friends, writer friends who are constantly confused by what’s going on. But yeah, that is, that’s pretty much my journey in like a really quick nutshell.

Marines 5:14
That reminds me of every time my family asks me, “I thought you were done writing that book, Nina.” I’m never done writing this book.

Claribel 5:23
Make a spreadsheet.

Nina 5:24
So yeah, I was a typically big reader. I was super obsessed with a lot of YA series. This is like, early 90s, so it was these like skinny little books that would get at the grocery store by like Katherine Applegate. And I was obsessed. And I wrote a lot of fanfiction, but I wasn’t online because my mom didn’t really let me go online. So it wasn’t like I was in a community writing, I was just sort of writing by myself. And I would print out all these manuscripts and sort of three hole punch them and put them in a folder. And then that was it. Like, there wasn’t, “well, you can become a published author, Nina, one day. Like that wasn’t even like Claribel said– it was like not on my scope at all. Went to college, I was gonna try to be a journalism major, because I did like to write. So I was like, well, this is how you write right? You become a journalist. But that wasn’t for me. And then I became a history major. And then finally, I just ended up as an English major, because I really liked to read but not the stuff that I was getting. And then I moved home and I got super depressed, and it was not great. But I sort of rediscovered YA and set my first query, oh God, in 2013? All of them rejected. Form rejections, up and down. And then I did Pitch Wars. And that was early, early days, Pitch Wars, like, I think it was December 2013. And I didn’t get my agent until 2015. And so it was just stubborn, stubborn, I’m gonna write this book, and I’m gonna put this book out.

Liselle 6:59
I started writing– It’s actually like, not the happiest story, but I was 13 and I was a fat kid, which nothing wrong with, but I was teased brutally by one boy about it. And I would go home, and I was sad. And for whatever reason, I decided, writing was the outlet that I was going to use to feel better. And I would just sit and write until literally until I felt happy enough to kind of just go on with the rest of my day. And I only really started writing I guess more seriously, when I got into high school. We had a writing club there. I was too intimidated to join when I was a freshman, but the next year, I was able to join. And I was in that all throughout high school. And really, that kind of fed my love of writing. And I really wanted to be a writer, but I had been told that like, I don’t know, I had this idea that writers are like starving, and you can’t make a living. And you’re going to be really sad. And it’s gonna be really hard. So I was like, I’m going to go to university for something like, quote unquote, practical. So I went in for linguistics, and I didn’t really write throughout University except in the last couple years. I joined creative writing courses, but it was very like, like Claribel said, like, academia, like focused on Adult literary fiction. I remember I read a first chapter to my group of a werewolf book I was writing and they despised it. They could not stand it. And so I was just doing that I thought the route to being an author was writing short stories and getting published in like literary magazines, and then eventually an agent plucked you out of obscurity and then you had a book. And it took me until I was like 22. And I became a book blogger, and I was in that community to like, learn more about writing and like genre writing, and YA and it’s pretty much like very serious crom then on, and ended up getting my agent and my deal. And I’m very happy about all that.

Marines 9:08
I know I started this by saying that I was not a writer and I will amend and say that I’ve been writing my whole life. I just don’t have like a novel story in me like I don’t have that idea. And so hearing I guess it was Nina saying that she wasn’t online, my follow up question is, I used to write poetry like all over the internet. I used to have poetry all over these websites. I actually contributed a lot of book reviews and short stories and things to a small website that I later found out was like, run by a bunch of librarians in New Zealand, and I was just like submitting my angsty poetry to this website. So is there anywhere online that houses some of like your old poetry or fanfiction or writing or early days or anything like that?

Claribel 9:52
No, I’ve wiped everything. I used to write on Tumblr a long time ago, but you can no longer find any of that.

Marines 10:00
I worked really hard to erase myself from LiveJournal.

Liselle 10:06
I was on all I was like LiveJournal and like fanfiction, I would read it, like voraciously, but I never wrote anything myself on there. I just like couldn’t commit to it. I think there’s probably some like, guy online forums where I role played or something and that’s like the most.

Samantha 10:22
So you guys all kind of mentioned just now some sort of fandom slash writing communities that you were maybe adjacently a part of, or at least looking at yourselves. So you know, we view writing as the solitary activity, which it is, you’re the only one sitting there writing your book, but we’re here talking about, you know, the writing community. So how did you find the writing community and what have been the benefits of being a part of a community of writers.

Liselle 10:47
I found the writing community through book blogging. So, when I was 22, and I’d finished university and a year of college, and I was in my first like, adult job, question mark, I had a lot of free time. I was essentially just there to be a body to answer the phone. And I decided that I was going to read more since I had more free time, I didn’t have homework. And then I found out about book blogs. And I was like, I’ll just do that, during my spare time at work. And I started this book blog. And then I started following people. And some of those people were writers. I remember distinctly following Paper Fury, who is Kate, and she’s an author now as well. And I just was like, oh, wow, like, this is cool. She’s doing all this writing. And then I kind of got into Twitter, and discovered all the different writers and that was really how I got entrenched in that community.

Nina 11:41
For me, it was pitch wars, in 2013, whatever it was, and that by proxy Twitter, because before then I was really just sort of figuring it out and winging it on my own. You know, I was going to books a million buying that huge book of agents and sort of reading blogs a lot, a lot of blogs, but I wasn’t like communicating. I wasn’t sharing my writing. I wasn’t I didn’t have other writers to sort of vent to really until Twitter and then, you know, that led me to the you know, debut group once I did sell, but not necessarily the formal like Facebook one, that always happens, because, you know, I’m so bummed that that one never sent me my arc back. Just people like I debuted alongside and was like, riding alongside at the same time.

Claribel 12:28
For me, it was, it was a couple different things. Pitch Wars was like the first one, I tried to get into Pitch Wars in 2015, I believe. And I also didn’t get in. Whatever Pitch Wars! And what ended up happening was it was– you know, there’s a lot of like, people talking to each other when you’re trying to get into pitch wars, like on Twitter, and you’re like doing all of these, like different games and like getting to know one another. And I was like, “Hey, does anyone anyone want to join, like, a hang out chat, right, where we can all like talk to each other.” And so a couple of people joined. It was maybe like, I don’t, I don’t know, maybe like eight or nine and then that group, like dwindled down to like the four people who didn’t annoy each other, which was me and like three other people that I got along really well with, and we stay friends till this day. And that was like the first like– I got my first CPS and everything like that. And then after that I did DVPit the year after. And that’s when I met a lot of the people who I’m still really good friends also, with like Kat and now I’m part of organizing DVPit with Beth. And it was mostly like just the online contests and Twitter, really. That’s what helped me find my community. At my old job, I used to travel to conferences also. And I would say that I did meet a lot of people at these conferences, but everything started off of online, like the seed was online. And then the conferences just sort of like solidified thing

Marines 14:03
That sounds really similar to sort of how Booktube works as well. Like we all met online because of these things, and through Twitter and videos. And then like the in person stuff kind of came after. And the other thing that you know, I kind of think about is that this started very much like hobby-like for me, you know, making stuff online talking about books. And and then when I started growing, when opportunities came from publishers, when we created this event, there was an aspect of like, “oh, okay, like now this is also professional?” And that kind of changed the way that I view relationships with people, including publishers and people viewing my content. So is it the same for you? Has your relationship with other authors or aspiring authors or writers changed throughout your writing career as you’ve gone through from drafting to publishing, and now on to second books?

Claribel 14:54
I would say yes, for a lot of different reasons. I think in the beginning, when you’re first starting out, you’re sort of like wanting to make friends with everyone. But as you, as you sort of get deeper into your career, that becomes more and more impossible, because there’s so many people versus just like one of you, right? So I can’t possibly be friends with all of the people that I encounter now, because I don’t have the bandwidth to do that. And that gets really hard because it’s like, you don’t want to feel like you’re snubbing people. And you can always be kind to everyone, right? But you don’t have the same sort of capacity to, to make everyone who you meet in the writing community part of your life the way that you did in the very beginning. So in that way, it has changed and, and there are definitely certain things that you figure out as you grow. And as you you realize, like, hey, the things that I say, like, have consequences for my career. Like the things– the dumb stuff that I say on Twitter– even even not just professionally, but even with, like, the way people take things very seriously that you say like, the bigger your platform becomes. And it’s like, at a certain point, I had to realize, like, “Oh, I can’t just tweet the way that I used to before because there will always be people who read into it.” And who read into like, series of tweets to and be like, “Oh, did you? Is this a secret? Because like, I’ve been watching your tweets for like the past couple weeks?” And I’m like, whaat?

So so in that, in that sense, yeah, I think things do change. When you’re querying or when you’re writing your book before you have an agent, your mind is on the agent part of things, right? Once you have an agent, it’s almost like things shift. And it’s like, okay, now, it’s about getting like publishing deals. Once you have like a house where you’re, you know, hopefully like an in house author or you’re comfortable with your editor, then the goalpost sort of always changes and the way that you relate to other people changes as well, because the power dynamics shift constantly throughout your career, especially depending on how your career goes.

Liselle 17:02
I think the power dynamics is a really interesting point. Because it is a bit different than when you’re starting out. And you could like, be buddies with whomever you are expanding your circle. I find this gets to a certain point where you have to kind of evaluate and be like, “are you approaching me like, genuinely or are you approaching me in a weird way?” And I feel like those dynamics kind of shift as you go along with your career. And what I’ve always also found is there’s been, you know, some drop off, like there were friends that I started writing with, that at some point kind of pulled away from the community for their own reasons. And so it’s not always the case that like the people I kind of started off with, are the same people that I’m communicating with now.

Nina 17:52
Yeah, I think the goalposts moving, the power dynamics, and those dynamics just shifting. And I think, you know, they’re writers that I started with, and it’s almost like, we want to almost stay in the same place, like we all offer to read each other stuff, but we’re always slammed how with deadlines. So there does sort of come this understanding of that our enthusiasm never always equals availability, because it’s just so hard. But that understanding is really, really critical, because I feel like if somebody else is at the same place as me with just dealing with deadlines, dealing with a slog, they get it that, okay, I have your manuscript, and I swore I was going to read it, but it’s been a month, and please don’t hate me, I know that they get it. So there is that level of understanding is really nice. But also like, I’ve done mentorship programs, especially through Las Musas, and my of hermanas, you know, pre-published writers that are coming up. they’re the ones I’m sort of connecting with, and I’m building, you know, new CPS and new sort of beta readers. So things do shift, and you just have to be open to that sort of change, and really understanding of all the time constraints,

Marines
Regardless of how I see myself, you know, as an itty bitty channel on YouTube or whatever, you kind of have to learn how to, like match the energy that people approach you with. And sometimes I’m like, “you’re not approaching me like, hey, you’re a person!” You know what I mean? Like, they’re either like looking for something or like, “Hey, I’m a fan of whatever you make.” And so it’s kind of like navigating all those spaces of like, how are you approaching me and learning how to like match the energy back.

Claribel 19:28
Yeah, I mean, I think that’s definitely something to watch out for, but sometimes people are really sneaky with how they approach also and it’s not immediately apparent that that they want something from you, which really stinks. I think it gets hard too because like you want to help as many people as possible, like I’ve made it a point to always like, reach out to people who who seem like they’re struggling or letting people DM me to ask questions or to help them but now it’s to the point where I can’t do that for everybody. And I think that the way that I measure it is exactly what you said Marines is like seeing how people interact with me. If I’m only ever like, on your mind, when you need something from me, then I feel like I don’t really have an obligation to help you, because I’m not like, I’m not Google. I’m not like a machine. You know, I’m a human and like, at least at least, like show me that you know that and that I’m important to you in other ways other than like, what I can do for you.

Liselle 20:31
That’s really important. And that’s like, a really big thing like: you are a person on your own. You are not in information factory.

Claribel 20:39
Yes.

Samantha 20:40
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What are some of the ways that you connect with your like readership in particular with these like online platforms or communities? And what are some of the ways you draw boundaries on those platforms?

Nina 21:26
I’ve been really, really lucky to connect quickly with Latinx bloggers, like they took the helm as far as my book, “Don’t They Rosa Santos,” and they like– the yellow for Rosa initiative, that was all them. And I didn’t have, you know, a huge marketing push or anything. So it was, you know, waking up on my book release day. And I don’t know if I’m gonna see a post, you know, from my publisher. But there’s all of these bloggers. And so that opened a lot of channels between us where we have friendships, and we’re talking and it’s amazing. But publishing Rosa was also really weird, because like Claribel, saying, you know, I wrote that book out of a lot of grief. So in talking about the book, I have to, like tread that ground over and over and over again. I did learn that year, I have to build some kind of boundaries, because every question I’m getting is about exile and loss, and, you know, I’m just now coming to terms with you know, my dad dying. And it’s like, in talking about this really exciting thing, I have to dig into all of that. And I think sometimes that’s just the experience we have when we write something that’s so close our identities. In being a super anxious person, sometimes sharing online is really, really hard for me, because I’ll want to make that connection and I’ll want to share, you know, this really important thing to me and have other people connect and have that sort of hit of serotonin, but then I immediately like regret it. And I’m a total tweet deleter because I’m like, “oh, too much information, too much information.” So I did have to sort of learn how to navigate building those boundaries, while like creating, hopefully a space that feels like community and all those kind of welcoming aspects that I hope people get from my books.

Claribel 23:08
For me, the boundary thing gets really the most tricky, I would see on Twitter, because I’m on there a lot and I’m just very playful with like everything. And me and my friends joke around a lot and I think sometimes that leads people to become over friendly with me. I think because I’m very out there, they sort of forget that, like we’re not close friends. And I think compounded onto that is the fact that I have a podcast with one of my best friends where we’re also very sort of like casual with each other and people– I don’t know, if you guys listen to podcasts often, but like you end up feeling like you know, the people when you likw on keep listening to it, because there’s something about having their voice in your ear constantly, right? So, so me and Kat get a lot of people who are like very, like, passionate about right or die. And, and I love that. But I think that sometimes there are people who sort of don’t know where my public persona like ends, and like my relationship with my audience begins and like where that line is. And it’s hard for me to draw because I never ever want to be mean to people, but I also feel so uncomfortable when people are like overly familiar, like snarky with me, when I don’t have that kind of relationship with them. It’s like very hard to navigate publicly because it usually happens like on Twitter.

And then the thing with me is like, I think that because I tried to be like, very supportive in fact, I go through a lot of what Nina was saying in terms of regretting opening up because I think a lot of times people come to me because they feel like I’m going to be able to encourage them or listen to to them, but then I suddenly become like the sponge for their problems, right? And I can’t do that. Like I can’t, I can’t do that for every one who who approaches. It’s too difficult. And I get a lot of DMs of people sort of like dumping their like trauma into my private messages. And I think that’s because I’m very also very open about the fact that I started writing seriously because my brother passed away. Just like you Nina like, that’s like something that’s very hard for me to navigate because on the one hand, I want to share it because I want to help people. But then I think people see me as like sort of this like receptacle for like their similar pain. And they will just sort of tell me their stories unprompted. And that can be traumatic sometimes, because if you’re not ready for it, if you’re not wanting to hear that kind of thing, to just be bombarded with it is it’s hard. So I, I try, like my DMS are closed now. I only get notifications for people who I also follow. There’s been like a lot of things that I’ve had to put in place to sort of protect my mental health, and protect me from myself. Because like, I will be like, “yes, everybody come, I will be your mother now.” And, and I want to help everyone so badly all the time, but it does get overwhelming.

Especially, there’s one thing that I don’t think people talk about enough, because I think it’s a little bit uncomfortable, but when you reach a certain point in your career, like after you have an agent after you have a book deal, the the worries that you have are very different from querying writers, or brand new writers. And I think that it can feel like “don’t worry, like, you’re fine, like, you’re really fine.” But when we were at that point, we were also freaking out, you know, but it’s so much harder to relate once you’re past that point a few years past that point, because it’s like, you know that you were being dramatic, in hindsight, but when you’re dealing with it, it is hard, and it feels like the end of the world. So I think that that’s also a hard thing to navigate sort of like who you are, like lending support to, and how you respond to the things that they’re freaking out about to you. And like you not dismissing those things, but also like I can’t give you querying advice, the way that that someone else who’s closer to it is because I’m so many years away from it at this point, you know? So it’s just a lot of different things that that we have to deal.

Liselle 27:08
It can be a lot of emotional labor, when you don’t set the boundaries is kind of what I’ve come to find. I don’t yet have like a readership of people who have read the book. It’s because I don’t have any arcs or anything out there, right now. And so it’s really just been me interacting with people anticipating the book. But most of the boundaries I’ve had to set have been like around my YouTube channel and having like an author tube channel where I talk, where I really share that insider experience, I think it’s similar to that thing of a podcast where you have like, personal vlogs, and you’re sharing your personal journey, and you’re talking in that way and people get to know you like that. And so it feels really familiar. And I like want to help people, I want to like send the elevator back down and all that. But I have had to more recently kind of set up some boundaries, I ended up closing my DMs on Instagram, because I was getting some sort of uncomfortable messages. And some of those messages were also kind of coming from teens and I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable about speaking directly with the a teen while being an adult in like a private setting. I prefer to do all of that, like publicly, like in comments or like on Twitter, that sort of thing. I’d rather not be in DMs in that case.

And then on Twitter, I kind of just like– my DMs are kind of open, so I’ll hop into them and I’ll check, but I really have to make a decision about how much labor I’m going to put into something, especially when I’m getting like requests for information and like, how do I do this? And how do I do that? And what do you think about this for my specific story. And I’ve kind of gotten to a point where I have to decide how much of my personal emotional labor I’m going to put into something, because there’ll be like, some days where I’ll look at the message and I’ll agonize about it for hours, because the emotional labor of like answering at that particular time, whatever is happening to me that day can be like, it’s just like, so overwhelming, and I can’t even handle it. So that’s kind of something I’ve been learning.

Marines 29:18
I think that the you know, emotional energy that social media takes in general is something that a lot of people can relate to, like sort of outside of being an author or writing. And a lot of times, you know, you kind of get hit with the sentiment of like, well just walk away or take breaks or whatever. But I can imagine, especially since you guys started sort of telling your stories about how you didn’t really see how there was a path for you in publishing, or you didn’t see people like you publishing, how important social media has been in order to gain readership, to promote, to find communities like you’ve been talking about in terms of bloggers and people to to help, who helped out of the goodness of their hearts and their free time to sort of promote your work. So it’s not so easy. I don’t think especially for marginalized creators to just say, “well, this, this is hard so I’m not I’m not going to Twitter anymore.” Because Twitter, you know, is where a lot of what we’re doing is. So can you speak a little bit to that about how important it is to be on social medias or to have these communities, but also, if you think it’s important to have any sort of platform or connections before you publish.

Claribel 30:27
It’s really tricky because I feel like I never want to discourage somebody from like pursuing an author career without having a platform. A lot of times we do put the cart before the horse, and I see people focusing so much on the stuff that has yet to come and that’s something that I was super guilty of in the beginning. And what ends up happening is you do get impatient with yourself and with your career, and it’s not moving as fast as you want it to. And there’s one thing you need in publishing, it is patience. Everything takes so much longer than you would ever imagine it taking. And so on the one hand, I am very cautious about telling people like, “yeah, you have to be online,” or you have to have a platform, rather. But on the other hand, it’s twofold: I feel like being online is such an advantage, right? Like, it’s such a great way to be able to connect with audiences. And like there are people who have built giant platforms, and that has helped their books sell really well. So if it’s something that interests you, that you like doing and that you have fun with, then definitely go for it. And on the other hand of it, publishing is very racist. And for authors of color, a lot of times we don’t get any support for our books. Same thing for queer authors. So any thing that you can put in your arsenal, do it.

I always encourage people to learn how to make graphics, to learn how to edit videos. It sucks that we have to do so many different things. But at the same time, it’s like if you want this to be your career, and you want to do well at it, a lot of times you’re not going to get that push from the people who are supposed to be supporting you. And it can make a huge difference when you’re when you’re doing those those kinds of things and when the community rallies around you. But they have to know you’re there first, you know, and and a lot of times we have that power, we have that power to connect with them. So it is a very useful tool. I wish that authors could just sort of like write and cabins and not be online if they didn’t feel like it. There’s only like a very select few that can and those are all people who pretty much like build their following pre-social media days, right. But now I feel like it is smart to be on if you can, and especially for writers of color, queer authors, marginalized authors, I would never discouraged them from from from pursuing that platform, if it’s something that they feel comfortable doing, because it can be a help.

Nina 32:48
Absolutely. I think as far as the platform, it absolutely can help as far as reach and the amount of marketing because the the amount of marketing we already have to do on our own, and especially as Claribel was saying, marginalized authors who are out here trying to publish, like, yeah– I don’t know if there’s anything that we can do that will compare to what publisher support would look like, but if you’re out there being authentic, and I think one of the perfect examples of that is Claribel– you’re doing something that you’re passionate about, and people see your personality, they see who you are, you’re going to have such a bigger reach. People are going to share the content you put out. They’re going to see your book, more people are going to see your book, but also, it can’t get in the way of the writing. You know, I think it was Elizabeth Acevedo said that, you know, she’s learning to say no, because if it’s not in service of the book, then what am I doing? Because we can kind of get obsessed with this, you know, “what content are we putting out? What content are we putting out” and like your draft is sitting there empty. So as long as I think the platform doesn’t become where you’re putting more work towards it than what you’re trying to create, then you just it’s finding that healthy balance,

Liselle 33:57
Absolutely agree with both of you like, especially on, you know, finding something that you like and finding a platform that you like, because I’ve worked professionally in social media, I get that question a lot, where people are like, “well, do I have to be on everything?” Absolutely not. You don’t have to be on everything. You should find something you like, and stick with that and do well with that, because that’s how you can be genuine and that’s where you can enjoy the process. I feel the same way about like marginalized creators. It’s good to have that platform to have a degree of that, but also to have that connection to other marginalized writers, to especially those that are further on in the career that might be helping you as well, and just creating community around yourself because sometimes there are frustrating experiences within publishing that are specific to being a marginalized author and being able to have a community of people that are experiencing those similar things. just for that support system can be super helpful. For me personally, I don’t think I would have ever kept up with writing as long as I did if I hadn’t joined that community. Like I really needed that support from other people to be serious about writing long term, but also to kind of help me with expectations. You know, when I queried my first book when I was 18, I gave up immediately. I had no idea what I was doing. I got three rejections and I was like, “well, that’s it.” But it being in a community, I was like, “okay, more people are having struggles like this.” And yeah, for me, it’s just so super helpful. Not just the platform, but really that community aspect as well.

Marines 35:35
You guys have mentioned throughout just certain communities that you have participated on, and you know, are familiar with, but if we could end just with shout outs from you guys about either a community that you participate in, or love, or somewhere where you’ve gone to for resources, or anything of that nature that you’d like to share with our listeners today.

Claribel 35:56
I will shout out DVPit because it’s done so much for marginalized authors. Beth is a legend. And the community is incredible.

Nina 36:06
A really great group that both Claribel and I’ve been part of is Las Musas, which are Latinx debut authors. And, you know, we’re old madrinas now, but it’s a really great mentorship. They offer a mentorship program, and it’s been really cool to see it sort of come up from the ground up.

Liselle 36:23
I’m gonna shout out author tube, which is, you know, writing an author, YouTube. You don’t have to make videos to be a part of it. Lots of people do like live streams where we’ll chat and you can like, join the little live chat on the side, and we’ll write together and you meet other people in the community and get, you know, get writing done and chat about all things writing. And that’s been really wonderful.

Samantha 36:47
And on that note, that wraps up our conversation about writing in community. Thank you to our guests for being here. And thank you again to our sponsors, Little Bee Books and Owlcrate.

Marines 36:56
To join in on this conversation and to keep up with everything that BookNet Fest is doing, you can follow us on Twitter @booknetfest. I am @mynameismarines.

Samantha 37:06
I am @thoughtsontomes.

Claribel 37:08
I’m @claribel_ortega

Nina 37:10
I’m at nina_writs.

Liselle 37:12
I’m @lisellesambury.

Marines 37:14
This has been a BookNet Fest production, edited by me, transcribed by Sam and the music is by Stephen Chin. Bye!

Samantha 37:21
Bye