If You’ve Been Waiting for a Sign, This Is It by Katherine Gibson Easter

 

I’ll be honest—I knew when I applied for a picture book mentorship in 2019 that I didn’t stand a chance.

After all, the manuscript I submitted was the first—and only—manuscript I’d ever managed to complete. I wrote it in one sitting, and sent it off with barely any revisions. I knew it was fruitless. Knew that there’d be countless people applying for the same mentorship. People who deserved it a lot more than yours truly. Why was I wasting my time? 

Because after years of picking up my writing dream and setting it back down again, I wanted someone, anyone, to know that I’d finally stuck with it long enough to actually produce something. Maybe that something was garbage (I was 99% sure it was), but someone was going to know that I had done it. That it was my garbage. 

And then, just when I’d forgotten about it, I got the call. Ann Finkelstein’s sweet, mellow voice telling me that I’d won the mentorship with Lisa Wheeler. Which meant that at least three people had read something I’d written and deemed it not-garbage.

Reader, I was elated. 

That is, until I realized what I’d actually gotten myself into. Lisa Wheeler, an author whose work I loved, was going to be spending the next year working with me to edit and polish six picture book manuscripts. There was just one problem: I didn’t have six manuscripts. I had one: the one I’d sent in. And no ideas for what to write next.

What followed was a year of writing boot camp for me. As Lisa worked with me to polish one manuscript, I would frantically work on drafting another one, always trying to stay one small step ahead so I didn’t waste her time. 

It was challenging, keeping that pace on top of a full-time job, wedding preparations, and then later, a global pandemic, but it was also the best thing that could’ve happened to me. I didn’t have an excuse to put off writing. I couldn’t sit around, waiting for my muse to visit. I had to go over there myself and bang her door down.  

Not only did the mentorship force me to take myself and my writing seriously, but it also gave me the encouragement I needed when I needed it most. It’s embarrassing, dusting off an old dream and wondering if you’re stupid for holding onto it. Why not just let it go and move on with your life? 

But Lisa believed in me. Her feedback made my stories stronger—and made me a better writer—without once discouraging me. There was no reason to feel embarrassed or stupid. Bad first draft? Fine. Bad second and third drafts? Also fine. It’s writing, not brain surgery. You’re allowed to make mistakes. 

The one thing you’re not allowed to do, if you want to be a writer, is give up.

And I had given up. Many, many times. I was the reigning champ at giving up. But then the mentorship fell in my lap, and I couldn’t quit. I had been given an amazing opportunity, and I had to see it through. 

So I didn’t give up. And I haven’t since. 

Since the mentorship, I now have over a dozen drafted picture book manuscripts and a 90,000 word novel. I don’t write every day (I still have a full-time job, and now a baby on the way), but I write most days. And all of it—the works and the habit—started with a submission and a phone call. 

So if you’re wondering whether you should apply for a mentorship: do it. This is your sign. This is your permission slip to take yourself seriously. Because you can absolutely do it. 

Or, if you’re like me, you’ll figure it out as you go. 

 

Katherine Gibson Easter is an acquisitions editor for Zonderkidz, having previously worked for Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. She graduated from the University of Denver Publishing Institute in 2013 and has spent the last ten years editing and publishing award-winning children’s books.

 

[Note: Your mentorship experience may differ from Katherine’s. You and your mentor will decide on the submission schedule and the number of manuscripts exchanged.]