Coaching KidLit Episode 34: The Value of Community for KidLit Writers with Guest Sara Gentry

In this episode, host Christy Yaros and guest Sara Gentry dive into the vital role of community for KidLit writers. They explore various types of writing communities, from large organizations like SCBWI to intimate critique groups, and discuss how to choose the right community for your needs.

Christy and Sara share valuable tips on balancing free and paid resources, the benefits of connecting with fellow writers, and how community support can enhance your writing journey.

Whether you’re a seasoned author or just starting out, this episode offers practical advice on finding your people in the world of children’s literature and reminds listeners that in the sometimes solitary world of writing, you’re never truly alone.

Where to Find Sara Online:

You can find Sara Gentry at solutionsforwriters.com or connect with her on Instagram, Threads, and X @writewithsara.

Key Topics Covered:

01:34 Understanding the KidLit Community
03:35 The Role of SCBWI in KidLit
06:30 Finding Your Writing Community
10:48 Tips for Joining Writing Communities
15:00 Paid vs. Free Communities
16:44 Christy’s Writing Community
23:05 Sarah’s Writing Community

Listen:

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Sharon Skinner: Welcome to Coaching KidLit, a podcast about writing and publishing good KidLit.

[00:00:07] Christy Yaros: We dig into various aspects of writing craft through a KidLit lens and provide inspiration and clear actionable items to help writers like you move forward on their KidLit writing journeys.

[00:00:19] Sharon Skinner: I’m Sharon Skinner. Author accelerator, certified book coach, and author of speculative fiction and KidLit, including picture books, middle grade, and young adult.

[00:00:31] Christy Yaros: And I’m Christy Yaros, author accelerator, certified book coach, and story editor, focusing on KidLit, including middle grade and young adult. Hey, listeners! This month, Sharon and I wanted to share with you an interview that I did earlier this year as part of KidLit Summer Camp with our friend and fellow coach, Sara Gentry, about the benefits of being part of a community.

Sara is a math PhD turned author accelerator certified book coach. She is the host of KidLit Summer Camp and Novel Kickoff. You can connect with her on her website, solutionsforwriters. com, and on Instagram, threads and x, at writewithsara.

[00:01:11] Sara Gentry: Hey, writers! I am so happy today to have Christy Yaros with me.

Welcome, Christy. Hi, Sara.

[00:01:19] Christy Yaros: Thanks for having me back.

[00:01:20] Sara Gentry: Absolutely. And writers, you may have already seen an interview with Christy that we have done in the past about talking about various categories of KidLit, and that is because Christy knows a lot of things about all the categories of KidLit. But today we are going to talk about communities.

Because Christy is involved in a lot of communities, and we know that can be an important part of the writing journey. Maybe we should do a quick overview here of what and who might be considered all part of KidLit. Who are we talking about when we say the KidLit community?

[00:01:55] Christy Yaros: In the broad sense, it’s all of us who are involved in that.

Writers, editors, agents, publishers, illustrators, people that pretend to write and just admire the other writers, coaches, librarians, teachers, right? Anybody who might interact with a KidLit book. In the creation of it and the publication of it, and then getting it out into the world. Generally, we don’t include the children in our KidLit community, but certainly they’re on our minds.

[00:02:28] Sara Gentry: Yeah. It’s such a weird dynamic to be like, we are working on things for this population, but we’re not really interacting with this population in the same way that we are interacting, uh, with each other for sure. And just in general, KidLit community people tend to be. Friendly and generous and just all around nice to be around.

KidLit people I find are generally eager to support one another and promote each other’s books and do all the lovely things.

[00:02:57] Christy Yaros: I think so too. I think it’s because we all have a shared goal and shared values in that we want to bring books to children that are going to enrich their worlds and make their lives better.

And so, it’s not. I don’t know, not that adult writers don’t have a purpose, but I feel like we all have maybe a common purpose. And isn’t that what community is based on? Shared values and shared goals and things like that. Yeah. KidLit people. It’s just, it’s just the way it is.

[00:03:27] Sara Gentry: It is the way it is. Yeah. So even within the KidLit community though, we do get some different types of communities.

We’ve got the SCPWI, which we mentioned, maybe since you are Involved with that, could you maybe give people a bigger perspective of what the SCBWI is?

[00:03:45] Christy Yaros: So that’s the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and it is an international organization at the top and then there are individual chapters in different states like where New England, because New England is its own community identity, six states that are part of your chapter.

Is it your whole state? Iowa, yeah. Yeah, so yours is just Iowa and other parts of the world. It could be a whole country. It could be part of the country, but it’s all people who have the same goals, again, publishing children’s books. So, it is writers. It is illustrators. It is people in the publishing world, and it’s a great place for you to find Local people who do what you do.

I lived in my town for probably eight years before I realized that there were people that lived like four streets away from me who also did KidLit, right? And I’m thinking I’m the only one. So, it offers things for different levels. And I know I’ve heard some people say that they weren’t ready to join that yet because they didn’t think they were at.

a certain point, but I don’t believe that it’s like that. I think it’s great for beginners. There’s tons of resources and information. And it’s the kind of place where you, I’ve been a member since 2007. I have seen careers, but people who thought that maybe they weren’t ready to join that yet are now Newbery award winning authors, right?

So, it’s a great way to. Of continuity of community.

[00:05:13] Sara Gentry: Just because you join doesn’t mean you will be teaching a webinar yourself, right? You can just join and hang around people and absorb information, but also just make really great connections. People are very generous, and they can maybe help you take the next step of what you’ll need to do.

It’s just so much better than trying to do it all on your own. At least I think so.

[00:05:38] Christy Yaros: None of this business can be done on our own. All of it involves other people. Even when you get a publishing contract, right, you have an agent, you have an editor, you have a marketing team, you have all of these people, you’re never going to be by yourself, so I guess you might as well get used to having a community around you, and also growing up with a group of people who are at the same level.

places you are and growing together over the years. I mean, that’s like a built-in support system for even if you become, when you become famous, you still have these same people that you have known since the beginning who have gone through. Community in general, let’s face it, like we have our spouses, our partners, our kids, fine.

They don’t want to hear about this stuff all the time, right? Like they smile, they nod,

[00:06:25] Sara Gentry: the eyes glaze over.

[00:06:27] Christy Yaros: They just don’t, they don’t really get it. So finding people, and this goes for anything that you’re interested in, but especially I think with KidLit, you know, I know a lot of libraries will offer critique groups, and it could be anybody from your community, and yes, you have that shared aspect that you’re from the same living community, but picture book writer, middle grade writer, fantasy, fantasy, Mystery, adult, erotica, people can end up all in the same group and what do you do with that, right?

Yes. Get some things out of that but I think the more you niche down in your community the better off you’ll be.

[00:07:04] Sara Gentry: I think that’s true, and I think sometimes people perceive KidLit creators or enthusiasts as being like, oh isn’t that so cute, like they just have a patch on top of the head and be like, but I, I hang out with the real writers over here.

They don’t realize, uh, the challenges and the difficulty of writing for kids. And so being around other people who respect that work, I think will help you also feel good about the work that you are doing.

[00:07:34] Christy Yaros: Anytime you walk into a room, and you know that you have a certain level of shared, you know, interest, values, whatever, it takes a weight off of not, you know, Am I finding the KidLit person in the room?

I mean, you know, you’re in a room of KidLit people, it’s like, oh, the picture book people, the novel people. You can find the illustrators because they’re always the ones having fun, like, in the corner. But still, you’re all KidLit people. And so it just, you know, And it’s just like, I think, any other community, you know, if you have a church community, or your PTO, or, you know, clubs, when you were younger, or now, whatever, you all know coming in, you have a certain thing that you share together, and so like, that’s off, that’s out of the way, and you can get right into the good stuff, right?

Yeah, yeah. Like, let’s have deep conversations about the things that we care about.

[00:08:28] Sara Gentry: Totally agree. You mentioned since the pandemic, but I think even before, with the rise of COVID, there’s more available to us now than there was 20 years ago. You can take classes, you can take webinars, workshops, all the things, whether they’re in person or online.

We certainly have places like Highlights or the Writing Barn or 12×12, places where you can learn things, perhaps, where you’re going in with more of a learning mindset, and whether that’s a long range, thing, or maybe it might just be like a single session, but that is another way perhaps to meet people who are interested in the same things that you’re interested in.

If you both take a, I don’t know, a class on writing middle grade mystery, for instance, you know, you’ve found maybe some new writing buddies.

[00:09:21] Christy Yaros: Yeah, even doing the peer critique group for the SPWI conference, I mean, one of the things I say to them is when you go into this breakout room, and it is just a breakout room on Zoom with random people, so I mean, super brave people to log on and read their stuff in front of strangers in the first place, we all have that in common, you’re a little bit bold, right?

But, if you find someone who resonates with you, who you’re like, yes, like they get me, I get them, I’m grab on, like not in a mockery, creepy kind of way, but you need people who get you because there are plenty of opportunities for community, but it doesn’t mean that everybody is a match. For you and for what you need.

You don’t want somebody who’s going to make you feel bad about yourself. Who’s going to criticize your work. Who’s going to tell you, I would do it this way. But someone who says, what is it that you’re trying to do? And how can I help you get there? And hey, I’m great at dialogue and you’re great at description.

You help me, like I’ll help you. It’s really putting yourself out there and knowing what it is that you need. If you just need people. To emotionally support you, people you can vent with, fine. To choose when you get down to that granular level of the people you really want to spend your time within a smaller community or in a critique group or a critique partnership, you really have to make sure it’s what you need.

[00:10:46] Sara Gentry: Yes. Yeah. So maybe let’s give some direction or some tips maybe here for writers who Are like, okay, I’m very enthusiastic about joining a community, but I’m not totally sure which one to join, because there’s tons of good ones. There are a lot of good ones. There are also maybe some not so good ones that we don’t want to be a part of.

How can we figure out, maybe first of all, how can I figure out if I want to join a large group, whether it’s a national organization or a state organization or whatever. How can I figure out? What’s good for me at a big level versus like finding a group of four writers that I can call my, my own little group, how, how do I distinguish?

Or is it maybe I do both?

[00:11:35] Christy Yaros: I think there probably is room for both. I’m part of multiple communities and they each give me something different. Like I said, understanding what it is that you want from people. I mean, at this point, my own critique group, we met 10 years ago at an SCBWI conference. Realized we all live within the same town, around each other.

We’ve morphed over the years, like we’re friends, we’re good friends, and maybe we don’t do as much writing together anymore, but we have our group chat, we send each other memes. Beyond how we feel about writing, we respect and enjoy each other as people first, so I think that’s important. So much about writing is Knowing yourself, right?

Most of us are grown-ups, we’re of an age where it’s just, this is who I am, I’m not going to change, so what do I need and who can meet me there? I think part of it is money. How much money do you have to invest? Because there are free communities, but there are also paid communities, and the expectations of what you’ll get out of those are, are different based on who you are.

How much you pay. That’s just the way business works, right? There’s how much time do you have to invest? There are communities where stuff is happening daily or things that happen once a week or once a month. Like what kind of time investment do you have? And then what level of Support are you looking for?

You know, if you’re in S-C-B-W-I, A New England region has probably 1800 people in it, right? I mean, you’re not gonna get to know everybody and you can’t come in with the expectation of, I’m brand new, teach me everything. You know, you have to do a certain amount of effort yourself in. Taking advantage of the resources and saying, okay, here’s what I think I need right now.

And I know with coaching, this is one of the things that we emphasize is there is, there’s so much out there. There’s so many free things and free doesn’t mean good necessarily. Paid doesn’t mean good necessarily. How do you filter down what You need and what is good for you. And it’s hard sometimes with all of the things to focus on, like, just the next step.

So, I would say like, where are you? And if you have never finished a draft, don’t worry about communities for querying and agent, right? Because you need to finish a book, finish a book. So, what do you need to do that and find. Those things are going to help you get there. Are you looking for accountability?

Are you just looking for people to kvetch with on a weekly basis? Are you looking to learn your skills? Are you looking to share your work and have other people share their work with you? There’s all of these. I know it just sounds even more, even more complicated. It’s an easier way to kind of whittle down what is the best for you because we all have limited time and limited resources.

You don’t want to join something. That’s going to be too difficult for you to pay just because you think you need to pay for it, because you don’t. You definitely don’t need to pay for things to get the stuff that you need. You may have to work a little harder to find those resources. And you also don’t want to join something where the expectation is that you’re going to participate every day and then you know you can’t and then you just make yourself feel bad because you’re not participating.

That’s not going to help you either.

[00:15:00] Sara Gentry: I’m glad that you brought up the idea of. Paying versus not paying for things because I totally agree with you. We don’t want to pay for things that we don’t use because the mental load of just carrying that just like adds on more guilt. And if that goes on for a long time, maybe even shame at that point, keeping on piles of things that I’m not doing and you can feel less than on the flip side of that, if you’re stagnating and not going anywhere.

Sometimes paying for a class, paying for a membership might be the kick in the pants you need because you’ve, like, I’ve invested in this and now I’m going to see it through. So that goes back to knowing yourself. And if you’re someone that’s going to benefit by putting your dollars down where your, you know, where your effort needs to be, then maybe that’s what you but knowing whether you want personal interaction with people is really helpful or whether you just want to be anonymous and absorb information.

[00:15:59] Christy Yaros: There’s Facebook groups for people who still do Facebook. I’m really trying to avoid it because that’s just a huge time suck. But you know, if there you want that, but then you also have to take like, The information that I’m getting, is it accurate? Is it right for me? It can become so overwhelming with all the resources out there and the conflicting things and how do I decide what I need right now?

And I think that’s where sometimes the paid communities that are Usually more niched down, like we talked about earlier, right, that are providing a certain thing at a certain time. Like a lot of our coaches offer larger groups, smaller groups, communities based around certain things. I mean, you have an accountability.

Well, I was just going to bring up yours as

[00:16:43] Sara Gentry: well. So that’s, that’s an excellent segue because I did want to tell people about Christy’s because Christy has this This is a group for middle grade and young adult writers. So, here’s an example of a group that’s very focused on kidlit novels. Granted, they’re using both categories of middle grade and YA, but that’s because a lot of writers do tend to cross over from one category to the other.

And I love that your program has a mix of learning. You have this learning component of webinars and guest experts and a teaching component, but then it’s also a small enough group where you aren’t just going to be a name on a screen. I feel like your group is a lovely blend of the best of both worlds between the large and the small options.

[00:17:33] Christy Yaros: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Teacher at heart, but it, it started because I had one on one clients who I was coming to an end with, and I didn’t want to let them go. Right? I didn’t want them to just go off and be gone because I had clients who are all over the world and they don’t have any writing communities. And so, I said, oh, what can I do?

And so, I tried to form this. And, and honestly, I’m really lucky. And I’m not just saying this because some of them might be watching this. I brought together this group of people, and they have really. I mean, it’s a paid community, but it’s beyond that because everybody is so invested personally that they have shaped the way that our group has grown and what people get out of it.

Right? So, it’s genuinely a group of people who care about what they do and care about helping each other succeed. And we were joking, you know, the other night about like the competition that happens in the group is, I post a daily prompt and the competition is like, who answers the prompt first? You know, it’s not who’s further along in their manuscript.

And so, it’s really about support for me. And the bonus of being in a community is the learning that you do get from each other because somebody has an insight that you never thought of, right? Somebody approaches something and asks you a question that you, that, you know, maybe blows up your whole story, but it’s just so fascinating the way.

Just the way that, like, a true community grows and shapes based on the people who are in it, and that’s when I think, when you’re searching for where you want to be, like, look at the people who are there. Talk to the people. Ask them what they get out of it. And see if that’s something that you want, because there are plenty of options.

And, you know, if you’re like me, I never felt like I fit in anywhere. So, like, I’ve always been a community builder because I just kind of make my own community so that I have people to hang out with. I’ve been doing it since I was a teenager.

[00:19:28] Sara Gentry: Yep. Yep. Yeah. I think that’s really well said because I think we just want to avoid communities where the people in the community have their personal agenda, front and center, and trying to push whatever that agenda is, because that’s when we get the situations of belittling other people, or maybe disrespecting other people’s work, or you don’t want to find yourself in that kind of situation. So definitely no matter where you find your community, you want other people to be speaking well of it.

[00:20:04] Christy Yaros: And if you can’t find and you know, like, you know, get all like, if you build it, they will come on you. But it’s true. During COVID with SCBWI, I was running a weekly Zoom for our members. And we’d go into breakout rooms and people would talk. And from that, right? People started to form critique groups on their own because you’re talking to each other every week and you’re realizing, hey, you know, Sara and I really have a lot in common and it seems like we’re in the same place in our careers and we both have the same goals right now.

And so, they formed critique groups and some of those people are now published and now they’re marketing groups. Like it grows. And it was because one person said, hey, I kind of like you and maybe we should, I don’t know, like share each other’s work one day. I mean, it’s hard to put yourself out there like that, but the benefits are there.

So yeah, I think even this week, people coming to your campfires. Yeah, we’ve got a little community. Temporary communities are communities too, and maybe from that I’m sure we’ll have people who were here last year who were at your novel kickoff who will continue to come. Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know. I just love community because sometimes you really just need people who get you.

Yes,

[00:21:20] Sara Gentry: yes. Right? Yes, yes. So hopefully writers we’ve At least impressed upon you. Do not do this writing thing alone, whether you’re going to find a coach to work with you if you want to keep that one to one. Maybe the idea of being in a group, maybe you’re a very shy person or an introverted person or socially anxious or whatever, totally fine.

You can still have a small community. Or if you want, you know, friends, groups of writing friends like that. Go and find those people, or if you want to be part of a big party, do that too, but, um, just please don’t feel that you have to do this whole thing on your own and be wallowing by yourself somewhere.

[00:22:02] Christy Yaros: The biggest thing I have learned about, especially writing communities, is that so many of us sit here and think, we’re the only ones who don’t get it. You look on social media, you see all these people who are posting, The best of their lives. Just like when you get into that comparison and you’re like, everybody else is doing so well.

And I am sitting here struggling. No, we are all struggling. It’s just how many of us can admit that. And when you can find people that can admit. With you that they’re struggling, and you struggle together, and you get through it. It just makes it just so much easier for everybody and so much more enjoyable because it’s not always fun.

I mean, let’s be real. It’s not always fun, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t always have fun with people.

[00:22:47] Sara Gentry: Yes.

[00:22:48] Christy Yaros: In those kinds of settings. So please just also take away that whatever you think you’re the only one, we’re not. None of us are that. We’re not the only ones. There’s plenty of other people who feel that way.

[00:23:03] Sara Gentry: Tell us about your

[00:23:05] Christy Yaros: community too, because you didn’t get to talk about yours.

[00:23:08] Sara Gentry: Oh, now you’re putting me on the spot. I am. I have a yearlong community that is part learning, part accountability, but it is not specific to KidLit, but it does include several KidLit writers. It goes for middle grade YA and adult YA.

novel writers. And we go the calendar year from January to December. So, it is not open right now. I’m sorry, writers. You will have to wait until January.

[00:23:33] Christy Yaros: But that just shows you how I feel like you and I have a lot in common. Obviously, we can yap all day. And yet the kinds of communities that we form are based on Our own personalities and our strengths and all of that.

So, I think that’s another good way to say, hey, I really like Sara. I’m going to save my spot for January

[00:23:51] Sara Gentry: 1st. And you had started yours because you wanted to keep clients around you and be able to offer support for them as they were continuing and that’s. It’s how yours originated, mine originated because I love New Year’s resolutions.

So that’s why it coincides with the calendar.

[00:24:07] Christy Yaros: And I’m sure that there’s so many other out there that, like, there’s definitely something for you.

[00:24:12] Sara Gentry: All right. Well. Thank you. Oh, and you’re at christyyaros. com. What about socials? Are you on socials?

[00:24:20] Christy Yaros: I mean, technically, yes. I’m Christy Yaros everywhere.

Everywhere I can be Christy Yaros, that is where I am. Am I have been around much these days? That’s so much. I

[00:24:30] Sara Gentry: know, it’s getting harder and harder to be on socials. Christy, I want to thank you for your time and chatting about community. I hope, writers, that you have found this conversation helpful. So, thank you, Christy.

Thank you so much, everybody. All right. We’ll see you next time. Bye.

[00:24:45] Christy Yaros: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Coaching KidLit, a writing and book coaching podcast for writers who want to level up their KidLit writing game.

[00:24:52] Sharon Skinner: For more about us, and to discover what a book coach could do for you, check out coachingkidlit. com and follow us on social media.

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For more information about Sharon Skinner, visit bookcoachingbysharon.com or follow her on Instagram @sharon_skinner_author_bookcoach and Twitter @SharonSkinner56.

For more information about Christy Yaros, visit christyyaros.com or follow her on Instagram and Twitter @ChristyYaros.

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Want to know more about working with a Book Coach on your KidLit book? Check out my KidLit Coaching Page or fill out my inquiry form for a FREE Consult call and let’s get started!