What’s it like to join the SCBWI-WWA mentorship program? Here’s one writer’s experience. Dolores Andral interviews Melissa Koosman to share her ups and downs (mostly ups!) in last year’s mentorship program.
Dolores Andral: What made you decide to join SCBWI?
Melissa Koosmann: When I first started getting interested in children’s writing nine or ten years ago, everyone I met said to join SCBWI. I hesitated for about a year but eventually decided all those recommendations must mean something. I signed up for a membership, and I’ve never looked back.
Dolores Andral: What genre do you write?
Melissa Koosmann: Right now I’m focused on picture books. I have two young kids, so I’m always reading picture books and finding picture book ideas in day-to-day life. But before my kids were born, I did a lot of middle grade and young adult writing. I’m sure I’ll bounce around between genres in the future.
Dolores Andral: Tell us a bit about your personal mentorship. Who did you work with? What was some of the most rewarding things about it?
Melissa Koosmann: I worked with Peggy King Anderson on picture books. Peggy is warm, friendly, welcoming, and full of enthusiasm. She called me “amazing” more times than I can count. But she also pushed me to rethink two of my picture book manuscripts from the ground up. I ended up reimagining two of my stories completely; by the end of the mentorship, both stories were unrecognizable (in a good way).
Dolores Andral: What were some of the challenges?
Melissa Koosmann: I’m a picture book writer, so I have a lot of stories. Early in the mentorship, Peggy and I weren’t sure which project to focus on. At one point, Peggy recommended that I work on a manuscript she loved, but she wanted me to take it in a direction that didn’t interest me.
This felt like a bit of a conundrum to me. I wanted a good relationship with Peggy, but I didn’t want to spend the whole mentorship doing work I didn’t love. Eventually I sent a polite note explaining this to Peggy, and I suggested focusing on a different story. This was hard to do; it felt rude to go against my mentor’s recommendation, especially when we’d just started working together. But Peggy was glad to accept my decision, and she even complimented me on being professional enough to know what I wanted for my work. In the end, I felt like this moment helped me clarify some of my thoughts about how I want my career to proceed, and it made the mentorship more productive, too.
Dolores Andral: From mentorship to agent —how was that journey?
Melissa Koosmann: By the middle of my mentorship, I felt ready to query agents with one of the stories I’d polished with Peggy. I sent that story out widely, but none of the agents I approached showed any interest.
After the mentorship was over, I wrote several new stories, one of which I knew immediately was special. I revised it over a three-month period and then sent it out. I only sent it to a few agents, but I got several positive responses, including a couple of personalized rejections and one request for more work. Then I got an email from Sara Crowe at Pippin Properties saying she loved my story and wanted to talk. I was flabbergasted. I’d approached Sara through the slush pile on the theory that it never hurts to aim high. I loved the authors on her list, but I never seriously thought she’d take me.
After years of playing the publishing waiting game, the process of getting my agent felt amazingly fast. The day after I got Sara’s email, we talked on the phone, and she felt like a great fit. A week later, I signed with her. The first story I sent to Sara is currently out on submission, as is another picture manuscript I’ve written more recently.
I’ve shelved both of the stories I revised during my mentorship; I feel that several of my more recent stories are better. But I don’t think it’s an accident that I started doing better work right after revising two stories intensively with Peggy. I think the mentorship helped me push my craft to the next level.
Dolores Andral: What would you say to someone on the fence about joining SCBWI or another writing community?
Melissa Koosmann: I honestly couldn’t recommend the SCBWI more highly. It has been an invaluable source of information for me. It has helped me improve my craft, learn the ins and outs of the publishing business, and make many wonderful writing friends.