The Gift of Mentoring

At a recent staff meeting agents got on the topic of the gift of mentoring.When we each shared the part of the job we loved most it all boiled down to relationship– our opportunity to mentor our clients and be gifted with their wisdom in return. That’s why I’ve used the term “gift.” Mentoring is a gift given and often, unexpectedly, we are gifted in return.

A Mentoring Experiment

In the Bible, Paul challenges older women to mentor younger women. I  believe wholeheartedly in the gift of mentoring and decided to experiment with it this summer. I invited two high school freshman to spend every Thursday at a Summer Sewing Club. I mentioned our club to my rheumatologist and she asked if her daughter could join. So I ended up with three bright young girls, anxious to learn sewing. We started with tote bags, went on to sundresses and then to upcycling thrifted jeans with “leaded glass” fabric panels— requiring precision stitching.  They’ve learned all about the iron and the sewing machine, winding bobbins and threading their machines. We’re moving on to reading patterns and making a blouse for the first day of school. So far, Johanna, Lizet and Hafsa have knocked it out of the park.

But I talked about the reciprocity of mentoring and it proved itself in spades with my experiment. Where else could I learn about what it’s like to be a six foot, one inch tall traveling volleyball star? Or a teen who speaks four languages fluently and is learning Mandarin. Did I know that my long collected Kewpies have a modern version call Sonny Angels? No. But now we have them perching on all our machines. I was reminded about the uncertainties of going into high school. And, best of all, I’m enjoying every minute and have three new forever friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Brainstorm

But, back to our Books & Such staff meeting. We bemoaned the fact that it is difficult to offer mentoring outside of our formal client/ agent relationship. Yes, we get to go to writers conferences, but a ten-minute sit-down with a writer we’ve never met nor seen their writing is not conducive to relationship building.  We long to find the most promising writers to bring to our publishers. When Janet asked us to brainstorm ways we could best accomplish this– ways that would in no way impinge on the time we need to invest in our clients— the fun began.

Books & Such Writers Intensive

Our newest agent, Jen Babakhan, was the one to suggest the rough draft of the winning scenario. We all jumped in to help hone the idea. A conference generally takes days of preparation, two days of travel and three-plus days of teaching. We only get ten-minute sit-down appointments with a few writers. What if we did at least one less conference and, instead, set aside three full days to mentor a dozen or two promising writers? Bingo! We all warmed to the idea and set about to make it happen. That’s how our virtual Books & Such Writers Intensive was born. We all blocked out three full days on our calendar and the time it takes to study the attendees’ submissions in advance. We will have some teaching segments, small group brainstorming segments and in-depth one-on-one time— just a few writers per each agent. We can offer hours of one-on-one work together rather than ten minutes. We’re not promising representation after the intensive, but we’re hoping.

We knew we’d have to charge for this opportunity for a lot of reasons. Perhaps the biggest reason is to make sure the writers who apply are committed. For the writer it requires three days off work, or three days of arranging childcare, just as one would for a regular conference. But of course, there are no travel costs, no accommodations costs. (Unless you decide to rent a cabin an Air B&B to focus deeply on your writing those three days.) But here’s the good news— We’re offering an Early Bird Special. Save $200 off the original pricing if you apply by August 31. Don’t miss out on this significant saving

All the details are on website.

I am looking forward to this opportunity.  We’re hoping this experiment is as successful as The Summer Sewing club.