Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
82 WriteMentor WOWCON Special with Stuart White and Melissa Welliver
391 Plays3 years ago
WriteMentor's founder Stuart White is back, along with dystopian YA author, Melissa Welliver fresh off the back of winning her first award with debut, The Undying Tower. It's almost time for the 4th WOWCON, WriteMentor's annual online conference and they tell us all about the amazing things that are going on and the awesome guests they have lined up. I also snuck in a question about Stuart's writing and his epic plan to self-publish, sell 1000 copies and get 100 reviews all in one year.
To find out more about WOWCON head over to www.write-mentor.com.
Signing up to the Patreon will give you access to the Discord server, where you'll be able to interact directly with Jamie as well as many of the previous agents, authors and editors who have been on the show. You'll also be able to see who the upcoming guests are and put forward questions for Jamie to ask them.
Get a whole month with WriteMentor's Hub for free using the coupon code 'Write&Wrong'.
The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes
Jamie, Melissa and Noami talk about the best and the worst writing tropes!
Click here to find all of our guests' books as well as the desert island library over at bookshop.org.
Click on this referral link to get 30% off your first three months with Zencastr.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi guys!
00:00:00
Speaker
Quick one before we get into the episode.
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Zencaster, which is the production suite that I've used from the very beginning of this podcast.
00:00:06
Speaker
And if you're interested in starting your own podcast, hang around at the end of the episode for our 30% discount referral code.
00:00:12
Speaker
Thanks.
Banter & Guest Introduction
00:00:13
Speaker
So our podcast is called Right and Wrong.
00:00:14
Speaker
Are these your notes?
00:00:16
Speaker
Are these your notes about what we're going to say?
00:00:19
Speaker
Anything is a short answer.
00:00:21
Speaker
So how many novels did you not finish?
00:00:24
Speaker
Oh my God, so many.
00:00:26
Speaker
It was perfect.
00:00:27
Speaker
What's she talking about?
00:00:28
Speaker
This is not a... Ooh, a spicy question.
00:00:32
Speaker
I love it.
00:00:34
Speaker
This is a big secret to getting published is you have to write a good book.
00:00:39
Speaker
I heard it here first.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
00:00:45
Speaker
It's a double guest special today with writer and founder of Right Mentor, Stuart White, and author of the award-winning underlying tower.
00:00:58
Speaker
Melissa's back.
00:01:00
Speaker
Welcome, guys.
00:01:01
Speaker
First and foremost, congrats, Melissa.
00:01:03
Speaker
Fresh news.
00:01:04
Speaker
You're now an award-winning author.
00:01:06
Speaker
How's it feel your first award?
00:01:08
Speaker
Feels pretty good.
00:01:09
Speaker
You know, obviously I always knew this day would come because I'm so confident in my own abilities as all writers are.
00:01:14
Speaker
So yeah, I'm excited it's finally happened.
00:01:16
Speaker
No, no, it's really nice.
00:01:17
Speaker
I'm so excited.
00:01:18
Speaker
It's really nice as well because it was voted for by readers and people on Twitter.
00:01:22
Speaker
My people are on Twitter.
00:01:23
Speaker
So it was very nice.
00:01:24
Speaker
Great stuff.
00:01:25
Speaker
And you get a trophy and everything.
00:01:26
Speaker
Not all these awards get trophies.
00:01:28
Speaker
I know.
00:01:28
Speaker
I can't believe I get a trophy.
00:01:30
Speaker
I'm so excited.
00:01:30
Speaker
It's in the post already.
00:01:32
Speaker
Oh, that was efficient.
WOWCon Overview
00:01:33
Speaker
I know.
00:01:33
Speaker
Amazing.
00:01:35
Speaker
And then the other big news, upcoming soon, Right Mentors, WowCon.
00:01:42
Speaker
Lots to talk about.
00:01:43
Speaker
So let's jump into it with, well, which one of you has the better elevator pitch?
00:01:50
Speaker
Probably Melissa.
00:01:51
Speaker
Are you making me do it?
00:01:54
Speaker
Here she is, award-winning Melissa.
00:01:56
Speaker
Here she comes.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yes, so WOWCon is the WriteMentor Online Writers Conference and it is completely, well, we hope so, accessible to people.
00:02:07
Speaker
hopefully everyone most people and um it is basically a conference that you might be able to go to in person with keynotes and panels with amazing authors and talks and we've got some incredible award-winning authors aren't just me and and workshops and you can book various different levels of tickets through our website and we're really excited and we always hold it in september which number is this one stewart
00:02:32
Speaker
This will be the fourth.
00:02:37
Speaker
So yeah, the fourth one.
00:02:38
Speaker
So it's the 23rd to the 25th of September this year, Friday to Sunday.
00:02:42
Speaker
So yeah, we're really excited that the theme this year is Elevate.
00:02:45
Speaker
So we chatted about this as a team before we got down to the proper planning and we thought that it was a good theme in terms of the, I guess, the general mood of everyone, obviously.
00:02:57
Speaker
over the last year or two.
00:02:58
Speaker
We wanted to do something to try and literally elevate that.
00:03:02
Speaker
So, you know, it's elevate your hopes, elevate your writing craft, and hopefully elevate your motivation to then go on and finish your books afterwards.
00:03:11
Speaker
Something that I think something that we all need as writers a little bit at different times.
00:03:16
Speaker
Is it all online?
00:03:17
Speaker
Is it all digital or is there a physical element to it?
00:03:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's all online.
00:03:21
Speaker
So back in 2019, when I decided to start this, I just, I thought there's a lot of good in-person conferences out there already.
00:03:30
Speaker
But for someone like myself, I'm up in Glasgow and I'm quite far away from most.
00:03:36
Speaker
I also have a few autoimmune conditions which affect my health and young kids and all the rest of that.
00:03:42
Speaker
So sometimes traveling is not so easy for the in-person one.
00:03:45
Speaker
So I just thought we would do one which was online and it basically meant anyone anywhere in the world with any circumstance could come along.
00:03:55
Speaker
And that was the idea behind it.
00:03:57
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:03:58
Speaker
And also the beauty of an online event is that it's all recorded.
00:04:03
Speaker
So am I right in thinking that if you have access to the workshops, the panels, the things like that, but you miss them maybe while they're going on or something like that, you can still access the recordings?
00:04:16
Speaker
That's right.
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:16
Speaker
So we have a 30 day catch up period after the conference.
00:04:21
Speaker
So plenty of time to
00:04:23
Speaker
go back to your favorite talks or if you, yeah, if you've missed them on the actual weekend, as long as you've got a ticket, then you can get access to all of these things.
00:04:31
Speaker
It starts at £12.
00:04:31
Speaker
So it's, you know, it's quite, it is quite affordable.
00:04:35
Speaker
I just actually
Workshops & One-to-One Sessions
00:04:36
Speaker
booked for a physical conference later this year and, you know, it was a few hundred pounds.
00:04:41
Speaker
So, you know, having the opportunity to do that for just £12 is a good starting point for most people.
00:04:47
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's great.
00:04:48
Speaker
And then there is also a range which goes up for full access.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:52
Speaker
So, I mean, we've got, what have we got?
00:04:54
Speaker
We've got 24 hours of content, you know, from the keynotes to the talks to the panels and the workshops.
00:05:01
Speaker
In fact, sorry, that's wrong.
00:05:03
Speaker
It's not, it's 30 hours because the workshops are two hours long.
00:05:06
Speaker
So, and people can, you know, pick and choose what they want and sort of, you know, tailor around what it is they want to get out of it.
00:05:13
Speaker
So,
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, there's lots on and people can come and yeah, they can either go piecemeal or they can actually get everything for one, four, nine, 30 hours worth of writing talks and workshops and so on, which I think is really good value.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's almost a working week.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:34
Speaker
In terms of workshops and panels, what sort of things are being discussed?
00:05:39
Speaker
What sort of people are teaching different things and talking about stuff?
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, so our workshops, we tried, Melissa can chat a little bit about this as well, but we tried to cover all the bases, the main bases.
00:05:49
Speaker
And, you know, we've got a picture book one, we've got an editing one, one in voice, world building, plotting and character as well.
00:05:56
Speaker
So that, you know, wherever you're struggling in terms of your writing craft, there's hopefully something there for you to help elevate that element.
00:06:04
Speaker
And you're also doing, and I don't know if this is, Melissa warned me that these are selling out fast, the one-to-ones with agents.
00:06:12
Speaker
I think it's 137 one-to-ones we have on offer.
00:06:17
Speaker
I think we're about 100 or so sold now.
00:06:19
Speaker
So there are still some left, but yeah, generally people get in there.
00:06:24
Speaker
They get quite territorial about them, actually.
00:06:27
Speaker
We do occasionally get a grumpy email, don't we, Melissa, to say, oh my God, there's no one-to-ones left.
00:06:33
Speaker
Can you please go to the agent and ask them to do another four or five so I can get one?
00:06:38
Speaker
Yeah, that happens actually quite a lot.
00:06:40
Speaker
And Melissa has to put on our most polite reply and say, well, they're already doing 10, so we're not sure if we can ask them to do much more.
00:06:49
Speaker
My most polite reply, that's just me all the time.
00:06:52
Speaker
I'm always very, very polite.
00:06:53
Speaker
But I understand why, because we've got some, so we've actually got some editors as well this year.
00:06:57
Speaker
Because we had to think about it and we were thinking, you know, not as many agents are taking on.
00:07:02
Speaker
It's been all over Twitter and stuff that not as many are taking on.
00:07:06
Speaker
new clients at the minute or perhaps especially because it's summer like they weren't too sure so we actually looked at getting some editors which is nice because if you're already agented you can have a one-to-one with an editor um so we've got loads we've got Kez Lupo who obviously you've had on here from Chicken House and we've got someone from Macmillan's Children's I seem to remember and oh gosh all sorts like it's crazy so I'm not surprised they're selling out quick to be fair yeah yeah I mean it is invaluable um I remember many years ago one of the first sort of
00:07:34
Speaker
big interactions I would say that I had when I was getting into this whole sort of writing community industry was a one-to-one with an agent.
00:07:43
Speaker
And it was revolutionary, I would say.
00:07:46
Speaker
And they just have so much insight and knowledge to share.
00:07:50
Speaker
And if you're in that one-to-one environment, literally with your manuscript there, it is so valuable.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah,
Panel Discussions & Experiences
00:07:57
Speaker
they're super valuable.
00:07:58
Speaker
I've had two in the past as well.
00:08:00
Speaker
And you just get you get more than just like an appraisal of your manuscript as well.
00:08:04
Speaker
You get sort of the, you know, the industry insight into what they'll tell you what's what's selling well and what isn't.
00:08:10
Speaker
And if your manuscript fits in with that and so on.
00:08:12
Speaker
And that that really is valuable knowledge.
00:08:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
Sort of like having a psychiatrist in many ways, a professional book, professional psychiatrist.
00:08:24
Speaker
Melissa, you're chairing some of the panels.
00:08:27
Speaker
Is that right?
00:08:27
Speaker
I am, unfortunately for the people I chaired before.
00:08:30
Speaker
Oh my goodness, poor them.
00:08:32
Speaker
Yes, I'm chairing some panels.
00:08:33
Speaker
So what's really nice is because it's flexible and we can put on a lot.
00:08:37
Speaker
It means that we can pre-record some stuff.
00:08:39
Speaker
So I can already say that my two panels were really, really fun.
00:08:43
Speaker
Well, I had fun anyway.
00:08:44
Speaker
So I've got one.
00:08:46
Speaker
I've got one about writing friendships and that has Cynthia Murphy and Naomi Gibson, who we know very well, and George Bowers.
00:08:55
Speaker
So that's a really fun one because we're all in the same debut group, but we also knew each other a little bit before.
00:08:59
Speaker
So people can bear a ticket if they're interested to find out how our little meet cutes happened.
00:09:04
Speaker
And yeah, we've got one about the hub as well, which is exciting because it was really nice to get on three people from our hub, which has, you know, sort of 200 odd members now.
00:09:13
Speaker
And we managed to find...
00:09:14
Speaker
someone who's at the beginning like more well i'll say the beginning of a writing journey we've got katina on there who's you know a little bit she's not quite um got uh into her publishing groove yet and she's just finished one of her books actually she's finished her middle grade like for her first draft so she's really excited then we've got rachel davis who just is i don't understand how she's got time i think there's 50 of her because she has like a million books out this year it's crazy yeah um yeah it's absolutely it is it is isn't it i think i mentioned that on the recording
00:09:40
Speaker
And we've also got Sarah Daniels, who's just had her debut dystopian YA come out with Penguin.
00:09:47
Speaker
So that's quite exciting.
00:09:47
Speaker
So, yeah, we've got some really good little groups of people, I think.
00:09:51
Speaker
And we had some really interesting conversations about how essentially both the panels, we had conversations about how connections in writing can really help at every stage of your career, which was really nice.
00:10:01
Speaker
And I think it could be quite interesting for everyone to listen to, no matter where you are with your writing.
00:10:06
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:10:07
Speaker
That sounds really good.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah, it was really fun.
00:10:09
Speaker
And have you, do you feel like you're a pro at chairing panels now?
00:10:14
Speaker
I think I thought I would be okay before and now I'm like less confident about the show panels but no it was fun everyone was very nice which was great and I had my questions written down I'd learned some lessons from doing podcasts like this it wasn't too bad but yes I did completely overrun with the little help for my friends panel because we were having such a good time so that gives you a hint yeah we were just chatting and chatting away and I just we I suddenly realized we were way over time so that was good
00:10:41
Speaker
So people will be able to hear that if they buy a ticket to that one.
00:10:45
Speaker
Do they get all the extra time as well?
00:10:46
Speaker
Is that included?
00:10:48
Speaker
It was Paul Stewart that had to edit it down.
00:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, to be honest, I haven't taken much out.
00:10:54
Speaker
No, perfect.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:55
Speaker
Because it was perfect.
00:10:56
Speaker
First time.
00:10:57
Speaker
Oh, it was so good.
Stuart's Self-Publishing Journey
00:10:59
Speaker
Perfectly cheered.
00:11:00
Speaker
Perfect.
00:11:01
Speaker
Amazing.
00:11:02
Speaker
Amazing.
00:11:03
Speaker
So, wow, sounds very exciting.
00:11:04
Speaker
And also, in the midst of all this, some other very exciting news.
00:11:10
Speaker
The Stuart's 1,000 out of 100 project.
00:11:14
Speaker
For anyone listening who hasn't heard about this, Stuart has challenged himself to self-publish a book, sell 1,000 copies, get 100 reviews in a single year, which I think is awesome.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:27
Speaker
What inspired that?
00:11:29
Speaker
Actually, I didn't know we were going to talk about this, so I'm not prepared.
00:11:32
Speaker
Got it.
00:11:33
Speaker
Perfect.
00:11:34
Speaker
I thought I was just chatting about WoWCon, but yes.
00:11:38
Speaker
So I've been thinking about doing this for a while, to be honest, and I've been reluctant for a number of reasons.
00:11:46
Speaker
You know, there's...
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to give, you know, give the most recent book I wrote a go with agents and, you know, before I finally went down this road because the book I'm going to self-publish is one that I wrote.
00:12:00
Speaker
I started writing in 2019 and finished in 2021.
00:12:06
Speaker
So, yeah, it's probably my favorite book that I've written.
00:12:09
Speaker
So it's got a type one diabetic main character like me.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I'm really pro trying to get a book out there that's got someone who's like me as the main character.
00:12:22
Speaker
I know that, you know, I'm a school teacher, so I know that, you know, I've taught a few kids over the years who really struggle in school with the condition.
00:12:30
Speaker
It's a really difficult one to manage, especially when you're a kid and you're a teenager with hormones going everywhere and so on.
00:12:37
Speaker
So yeah, anyway, I wanted to publish this one and yeah, it didn't work out with agents, but I've been working hard on it and...
00:12:48
Speaker
Yeah, I'm hoping when I bring it out in January, we'll be able to... I mean, I talked a little bit.
00:12:54
Speaker
I'm doing a podcast that goes along with the project just to sort of chart the progress.
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:00
Speaker
And, yeah, I'm hoping to get to 1,000 with 100 reviews.
00:13:05
Speaker
To be honest, in some ways the figures are a bit arbitrary because...
00:13:10
Speaker
you never know how it's going to go.
00:13:11
Speaker
And I'm very prepared to fail with it for the sake of, you know, a learning experience and having a go at something.
00:13:20
Speaker
Because I do think that sometimes we can hold out for things for too long, you know, to go perfectly and exactly how we want them to.
00:13:29
Speaker
And then other times I think you just need to sort of chase after what it is you want and, you know, come what may.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's great.
00:13:39
Speaker
And I know a lot of people that have done similar things, not quite to the same scale, where a lot of authors have said to themselves, right, I'm going to enter that competition because it will force me to do something, hit a deadline, reach a certain amount.
00:13:55
Speaker
So I think this is just sort of, in many ways, this is like that, but on a more sort of grand scale.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:14:01
Speaker
And it really has focused me.
00:14:03
Speaker
I've worked probably harder on this particular thing than I've done with anything else in my writing over the last few years because, well, as you guys probably guessed, the write-mentor stuff takes up loads of my time when I'm not with my family or at work or whatever.
00:14:18
Speaker
So, yeah, to do something that's
00:14:21
Speaker
just about my writing and to put a lot of time and effort into it's been it's been nice and quite rewarding so far even you know regardless of outcomes just because I've enjoyed the process so much.
00:14:33
Speaker
Well that's great and I look forward to monitoring your process through the through the podcast and your your updates that's going to be great to to watch.
00:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, you're probably going to hear about it a lot because I like posting, as you know, lots on Twitter.
00:14:47
Speaker
So it's going to be hard to avoid following my progress, I think.
00:14:51
Speaker
That's
Growth & Community at Right Mentor
00:14:52
Speaker
great.
00:14:52
Speaker
That's great.
00:14:52
Speaker
Less effort for me.
00:14:55
Speaker
Unless it does well, of course.
00:14:56
Speaker
And then Stuart won't talk about it at all because he never tells us, he never likes to show off when he's doing well.
00:15:02
Speaker
So if it starts going well and if it goes quiet, you know, he's actually selling pretty well and it's successful.
00:15:07
Speaker
And he won't know what to do with himself because he's like, oh my gosh.
00:15:11
Speaker
kind of self-flagellation no news is good news yeah absolutely okay uh that's enough uh trick questions from me we'll go back to right mental now so right mental um it's you've been growing fairly substantially each year how many people are in the team now it's not just you two
00:15:33
Speaker
No, there's also Emily and Florian.
00:15:37
Speaker
Florian's been with me for two and a half years.
00:15:40
Speaker
Melissa joined me a year and a half ago and Emily joined at the start of this year.
00:15:45
Speaker
So Emily does events, Melissa does the hub and our mentoring side as well as being the first port of call for anyone coming to write mentor.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yay!
00:15:55
Speaker
That's me.
00:15:56
Speaker
We need someone, yeah, we need someone that's a bit, I don't know, I don't know the right word for it.
00:16:01
Speaker
Diplomatic, beautifully spoken.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
00:16:05
Speaker
Good at communication.
00:16:08
Speaker
I'm more of a straight to the point person, whereas Melissa is a bit nicer about things.
00:16:13
Speaker
And of course, Florianne, she's been with us as well.
00:16:15
Speaker
She does all the social media and the website and all that kind of stuff.
00:16:20
Speaker
And you're all writers, which is great.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yes, which is terrifying sometimes when we're having conversations about things.
00:16:25
Speaker
But yeah, all at different stages as well.
00:16:27
Speaker
Florian's just signed with an agent and Emily won the Times Chicken House Award, which of course means that she has a book coming out at some point in the future, which of course is kind of uncertain at the minute.
00:16:40
Speaker
Because obviously what happens is they announce things, don't they, in publishing and then suddenly it's like, okay, now you can't talk about this for a bit actually.
00:16:47
Speaker
Actually, it's going to be a bit of a secret for a bit.
00:16:48
Speaker
And then suddenly it's not a secret again.
00:16:49
Speaker
And you have to talk about it all the time.
00:16:51
Speaker
So I'm not actually 100% certain when it's out, but sometime next year, I believe.
00:16:55
Speaker
And obviously Stuart's doing his self-publishing project.
00:16:57
Speaker
And I have the Undang Tower.
00:16:59
Speaker
So yeah, it's all kicking off, to be honest.
00:17:02
Speaker
Very cool.
00:17:02
Speaker
I just think it's very cool that you guys are sort of at the heart of the organization are all yourselves, writers on different journeys through the kind of same area.
00:17:14
Speaker
That's great.
00:17:15
Speaker
So you can really connect with everyone you're working with.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's really important.
00:17:19
Speaker
Honestly, I think that's the heart of everything we do.
00:17:24
Speaker
And when we're making decisions about things, we are thinking about it from a writer's perspective.
00:17:30
Speaker
And I think that's why people are attracted to followers and to come and join in the things we do.
00:17:36
Speaker
Because, yeah, we are looking at it through the same lens as all the writers who are part of the community.
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:43
Speaker
And you've been there.
00:17:44
Speaker
You've kind of been in those shoes no matter what stage people are at.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, that really helps with emails and stuff as well.
00:17:50
Speaker
So sometimes we just did some feedback for the lot.
00:17:55
Speaker
I think we did.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, everyone gets feedback.
00:17:57
Speaker
So you can pay for a level on our Novel and Development Award where you get feedback.
00:18:00
Speaker
And a few people did write back and say they were a little bit confused about their feedback or they weren't quite sure.
00:18:07
Speaker
Oh, you know, I seem to get really positive feedback and I wasn't sure about.
00:18:10
Speaker
why exactly maybe I was a no for the long list.
00:18:13
Speaker
And it's so much easier because we don't want to enter in obviously individual conversations for each person because that gets quite complicated.
00:18:20
Speaker
Then people will say, oh, this person got an extra little email.
00:18:23
Speaker
So instead, it's easier to be able to say, look, I'm an author.
00:18:25
Speaker
I totally understand.
00:18:26
Speaker
I've had loads of rejections where pretty much everyone's had that one from an agent or possibly an editor where it's like, I actually really love this, but I don't love it enough.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:34
Speaker
And it's infuriating, but you kind of understand when you get a bit further down the line.
00:18:39
Speaker
So I think it was such a high standard this year for the contest that we did have quite a few where pretty much it was really good.
00:18:45
Speaker
It was just not quite good enough to get onto the already quite long, long list.
00:18:49
Speaker
So yeah, it's a bit easier when you know what people are going through and you feel like you can at least relate to them a little bit and tell them a bit about you.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:18:58
Speaker
How many entrants were there this year for the competition?
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:02
Speaker
I don't know actually.
00:19:03
Speaker
I think it was 4.85 I think.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's a lot of feedback.
00:19:08
Speaker
Almost 500.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, just under 500.
00:19:12
Speaker
Which was good.
00:19:13
Speaker
It was in the high 300s last year.
00:19:16
Speaker
It's good when you see things growing like that because it means that you're at least on the right track with it because more people want to do it the next time and obviously word of mouth people are passing on that it's worthwhile entering for it.
00:19:31
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:19:32
Speaker
And you guys are connected with a lot of agents, not just through your sort of events and things, through people who have gone through the program and picked up agents and been published and things like that.
00:19:41
Speaker
So I think in terms of recognition, the right mentor award is seen as a very good thing, I think, by the industry.
00:19:49
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
00:19:52
Speaker
You're both so modest.
00:19:53
Speaker
Come on.
00:19:54
Speaker
I know.
00:19:55
Speaker
Well, it's funny, though, because you see other events and organizations and so on out there that, you know, they scream from the rooftops about their industry links and how they'll open the door for you and so on.
00:20:08
Speaker
And we obviously have a lot, too.
00:20:11
Speaker
And in fact, you know, potentially even more than most of them.
00:20:16
Speaker
But we're also, we're not salespeople.
00:20:18
Speaker
We're not here to...
00:20:19
Speaker
you know, try and convince people to do something because of a, you know, and the thing is, if you promise something along the lines of, you know, getting your work in front of an agent or editor, we have no control over any of that.
00:20:35
Speaker
So,
00:20:36
Speaker
it's kind of a false promise if we do that.
00:20:38
Speaker
So we do like to sort of play things down.
00:20:42
Speaker
Someone actually emailed me last year to say that I am the king.
00:20:45
Speaker
Was it the king of, is it under-promising and over-delivering?
00:20:51
Speaker
That's a good one.
00:20:52
Speaker
Put that on your self-published book, that's close.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah, because he said that's what we're... And we're all like that, I think.
00:21:00
Speaker
I don't... We're quite a grounded bunch, you know, the backgrounds that we all come from and so on.
00:21:07
Speaker
There's nobody that gets too ahead of their station, even when things are going well.
00:21:13
Speaker
And, you know, we're just coming up actually on... We're just under 100 writers who have been agented or published...
00:21:22
Speaker
you know going through our programs or our competitions or whatever so yeah so it's quite a big landmark coming up um and we probably will say something about that in fact i know that i know that probably florianne's listening to this i know i was thinking this if florianne listens she's gonna kill us yeah florianne's like she's she is the one that always pushes us to say more things into which she should she's like she's right yeah yeah that's pretty usual so yeah so hopefully she'll do something when we get that landmark
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah, because I think sometimes we can end up, we talk a lot about community, which I think is just what ends up being more important.
00:21:58
Speaker
So then it seems like we're downplaying other things.
00:22:00
Speaker
But instead of making promises about publication, we're trying to make more promises about find your writing community and enjoy the writing you're doing that day.
00:22:09
Speaker
So we have lots of things like in the hub about celebration threads for the week and stuff.
00:22:13
Speaker
talking to people about even when you get rejection, come and talk to us about it, say from an agent or something.
00:22:17
Speaker
And people are always saying how much better they feel, even when it's awful getting rejection, they feel so much better, like talking to everyone else about it.
00:22:24
Speaker
So I think sometimes, yeah, we edge into not talking about our success stories as much because we're saying, yeah, it's great to be successful.
00:22:30
Speaker
But when I do the celebration thread, for instance, I always want to say to people that I want to hear if you've written 100 words this week, I want to hear if you've just won the Costa prize, which sadly is gone now.
00:22:40
Speaker
I want to hear both though.
00:22:40
Speaker
Like I want to hear about everything because that's the sort of community that we're running.
00:22:44
Speaker
So I think sometimes, yeah, we forget about the success bits because we're just having too much fun.
00:22:48
Speaker
This is the problem with all my panels.
00:22:49
Speaker
I'm just like, oh, I'm having such a good time.
00:22:51
Speaker
Oh yeah, this is work.
00:22:52
Speaker
I have to do some work now.
00:22:55
Speaker
That's great though.
00:22:56
Speaker
And I think that's all part of the sort of grassroots, genuine atmosphere that there is around the Write Mentor community because it's very much by writers for writers.
00:23:06
Speaker
It's writers coming together.
00:23:08
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:23:09
Speaker
More than anything else.
00:23:10
Speaker
And we were talking about the growth and how you've had more entrants, you know, the teams growing.
00:23:15
Speaker
How many mentors have you got this year?
00:23:19
Speaker
For the summer program?
00:23:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:22
Speaker
I think there's 60.
00:23:24
Speaker
60.
00:23:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
This is the fifth class of mentees.
00:23:27
Speaker
So, you know, we're coming up to nearly 300 mentees now that we've helped out over the last five summers.
00:23:33
Speaker
And, you know, it really is a lovely thing to do.
00:23:36
Speaker
Like everyone who's involved in it, it's such a sort of joyous experience.
00:23:41
Speaker
atmosphere.
00:23:43
Speaker
People are just very grateful for everything because if you create an environment of altruism, I think that you create a good environment where people appreciate what they're given, but then are also very happy to then also give back
00:23:58
Speaker
yeah and then and i've got i've got a shout out to melissa actually here she's one of the the few that have done all five summers now um of mentoring we call her the veteran better than the battle axe which was my first choice how many how many people have done all five then
00:24:17
Speaker
Oh, there must be only maybe five or six of you, I think.
00:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, there can't be too many.
00:24:23
Speaker
Maybe not even that many.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:25
Speaker
It's so nice to do them all, though, because I just had literally just today I heard Sue Cunningham, who won one of our novel awards, actually.
00:24:34
Speaker
I mentored her in 2020, I believe it was.
00:24:37
Speaker
And she just popped on that she has signed a book deal with Scholastic today.
00:24:41
Speaker
So obviously I'm taking my 10% cut immediately.
00:24:43
Speaker
I'm taking all the credit.
00:24:45
Speaker
No, Sue's an amazing writer.
00:24:47
Speaker
What's great is I usually, on purpose, pick people who are so good at writing.
00:24:50
Speaker
I barely have to do anything.
00:24:51
Speaker
It's great.
00:24:52
Speaker
And then I get all the credit later.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker
I've got Daisy this year.
00:24:55
Speaker
She's amazing.
00:24:57
Speaker
I've got another Sue.
00:24:59
Speaker
I've had a couple of Sues actually.
00:25:00
Speaker
And another one that's publishing with a small press in Canada.
00:25:03
Speaker
So yeah, I've had some really nice success actually.
00:25:05
Speaker
And
New Projects & Innovations
00:25:06
Speaker
it's
00:25:06
Speaker
really nice when people follow up with you a couple of years later because it takes so long to do anything yeah yeah yeah so outside of mentoring programs outside of wow con uh you've got you guys have a newsletter a magazine uh the podcast which has a bunch of different shows on it which is great what else is sort of exciting and new uh that you guys are uh coming out with soon or is is i assume at the moment it's all hands on deck for wow con but what else is on the horizon
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:25:37
Speaker
We're very focused on WoWCon just now.
00:25:39
Speaker
But this is something that happens behind the scenes a lot.
00:25:43
Speaker
So I'm very idealistic and I come up with probably a new idea every week.
00:25:50
Speaker
Nice.
00:25:53
Speaker
And what happens generally is Melissa says, oh, that sounds cool.
00:25:57
Speaker
And Florianne goes, no.
00:25:58
Speaker
No.
00:26:00
Speaker
Stuart, calm down.
00:26:02
Speaker
No, not another new thing.
00:26:04
Speaker
That's a bit right, isn't it, Melissa?
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, no, that is actually very true.
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think currently there's two or three things worth looking at, which are really exciting.
00:26:13
Speaker
But yeah, we're still like testing the waters with Florian.
00:26:17
Speaker
We're making Florian sound like a dragon.
00:26:18
Speaker
She's actually the best who keeps us on the straight and narrow.
00:26:20
Speaker
She sounds like a much needed person in the office.
00:26:24
Speaker
She is, yeah.
00:26:26
Speaker
She's basically in charge of her.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'll often say this to her, but there's no way I would have made it through a couple of years ago when she first came on without her help.
00:26:38
Speaker
She made such a difference to not just supporting me, but helping us grow as well, because she's got a lot more nous about how to reach more people and to present what we're doing in a more favourable light, I think.
00:26:52
Speaker
So yeah, she's definitely made a big impact there, but yeah, we...
00:26:56
Speaker
We do come up with lots of ideas.
00:26:58
Speaker
And yeah, there's a couple of things that are in the works.
00:27:01
Speaker
I think we're having a wee team meeting on Friday to discuss some of them.
00:27:06
Speaker
So yeah, we'll let people know about those once they're further down the line.
00:27:11
Speaker
Once we've got them past Florian.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:13
Speaker
Once she's turned off on them.
00:27:15
Speaker
Once the boss approves.
00:27:18
Speaker
Well, I mean, at the moment, it's all about WowCon, which sounds brilliant.
00:27:23
Speaker
23rd to the 25th of September.
00:27:25
Speaker
Can't wait for it all to kick off.
00:27:27
Speaker
And if anyone listening wants to get in on the action, then head over to right-mentor.com where you'll be able to find all the details and you can see all the different ticket options and choose the one that is right for you.
00:27:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:42
Speaker
And that's all I've got.
00:27:43
Speaker
You've both already answered the desert island question.
00:27:47
Speaker
So if anyone's curious as to which books or catalogs in Melissa's case are going to the desert island, you can flick back and find Stuart and Melissa's other episodes on the podcast.
00:28:01
Speaker
But thanks so much for coming back on, guys.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's always fun chatting with the both of you and hearing about your latest adventures and what's going on with Right Mentor.
00:28:09
Speaker
And yeah, thanks for bringing us on, Jamie.
00:28:11
Speaker
Just before
Jamie's Writing Update & Conclusion
00:28:12
Speaker
we go, because this is something I notice when I host podcasts as well, is you don't really get to talk too much about yourself.
00:28:18
Speaker
Oh, turning the tables.
00:28:20
Speaker
I'm turning the tables, yeah.
00:28:24
Speaker
So how is your writing going at the moment, Jamie?
00:28:26
Speaker
What have you been up to?
00:28:28
Speaker
Oh, what?
00:28:29
Speaker
I...
00:28:30
Speaker
I tripped you up earlier.
00:28:31
Speaker
You weren't supposed to trip me up as well.
00:28:36
Speaker
My writing's going well.
00:28:37
Speaker
I had a bit of a slump at one point, as I'm sure lots of people listening will be familiar with that.
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
But...
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, I'm about, I'm probably over halfway of writing my current bit, which is a YA fantasy with a bit of romance adventure.
00:28:58
Speaker
Melissa's read a little bit of it.
00:29:00
Speaker
Yeah, I have.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:01
Speaker
With ne'er-do-wells in, I hear.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:29:04
Speaker
I was very happy that I got the word ne'er-do-well into my manuscript earlier today.
00:29:09
Speaker
so very impressive yeah big achievement all around um but it's going well yeah i you're right i don't talk about it much and as you can tell i'm very flustered now that you've been a typical writer yeah it's like you see the worst nightmare for a writer has been asked to talk about their own book yeah yeah yeah unprompted and now uh now i don't know now i'm lost so i'm gonna wrap up the episode uh yeah
00:29:35
Speaker
If anyone wants to keep up with both of these two superstars, they've both been on the podcast before.
00:29:40
Speaker
As I said, you can check out those previous episodes or you can follow them on socials.
00:29:46
Speaker
You can follow Stuart at StuartWhiteWM.
00:29:48
Speaker
You can follow Melissa at Melva.
00:29:52
Speaker
Make sure you keep up with Stuart's 1,000 out of 100 project.
00:29:55
Speaker
Sounds like it's going to be great.
00:29:57
Speaker
It's going to be an experience no matter what happens.
00:30:00
Speaker
So make sure you don't miss an episode of this podcast.
00:30:02
Speaker
Follow on Twitter at BrightonWrongUK or on Instagram at BrightonWrongPodcast.
00:30:07
Speaker
Thanks again, both of you for coming on and thanks to everyone listening.
00:30:10
Speaker
We'll catch you in the next episode.
00:30:14
Speaker
Thanks again for supporting the show and we'll see you in the next episode.