Guide to Being a Storymentor

Welcome to the Storymentors Program! We are so grateful that you’re interested in being a mentor. It can be deeply rewarding to work with a writer at the beginning of their career and guide them to greater heights than they would have been able to achieve on their own. We hope that you’ll find this year a fulfilling one. 

The following are guidelines and expectations that we lay out for our mentors at the beginning of the mentoring year to help things go smoothly. If you ever have any questions or concerns about any aspect of the program that aren’t answered here, please contact the program directors at storymentors.program@gmail.com. We are here to help you and your mentee have a great experience!

Please read through this guide and then sign up by clicking the button at the bottom of the page. Thanks for being awesome!

General Expectations for Communication

In August, you’ll receive a list of potential mentees along with their applications and a writing sample. You’ll have until August to consider the mentees and make your choice.

Once you are paired with your mentee, please reach out to them and set up an initial introduction meeting. We recommend Zoom or other video call format, but you can meet over the phone or even on a chat program. Use whatever method you and your mentee are most comfortable with! It is much easier to get to know each other using a live communication format for the initial meeting, even if you’ll be communicating by email thereafter.

After your initial meeting, your mentee will share their full manuscript with you. You’ll read it and provide an edit letter and developmental notes by November 1st.

Each month, you’ll check in with your mentee as they work through revisions and preparation for querying or for launching their book. See below for our guidelines as to what to cover in each call. These guidelines have been developed by past mentors and reflect what has worked well for them, however, you may adapt this schedule to you and your mentee’s needs.

Two Mentorship Tracks

When you fill out your mentor survey, you’ll indicate which of the tracks you feel qualified to mentor, Traditional Publishing or Indie Publishing. Mentees will choose only one track for their application. Here’s a quick overview of the tracks so you can decide which ones you’d be willing to select a mentee from. Feel free to pick more than one–you’ll still only select one mentee, it just gives you a wider variety of applications to consider.

• Traditional Publishing Track: these are mentees who have decided they want to either sign with a literary agent or small press, and have a completed manuscript they are getting ready to query. They are looking for mentors who can guide them through revisions, help them craft a query letter, synopsis, and other submission materials, and give them advice on the submission process. 
• Indie Publishing Track: these mentees have a completed manuscript and have decided they want to publish independently. They’re looking for guidance at a variety of steps along the way.

Reading & Feedback

As a mentor, you’ll receive mentorship applications from a selected pool of candidates. These will include a first chapter, along with a query and synopsis for the Traditional Publishing track. You are not required to read the entire application for each potential candidate, but please read enough to get a good feel for each writer’s level of preparation.

Once your mentee is selected, please thoughtfully read their first chapter and other materials and use this to recommend comp titles and also craft of writing books that you think they would find helpful.

In September and October you’ll have the opportunity to read your mentee’s full manuscript and prepare an edit letter plus any developmental notes you may wish to share by making comments in the manuscript itself.

In March you will re-read the manuscript and let your mentee know if there are any major issues that still need to be addressed.

For Traditional Publishing, you’ll also do a detailed edit of your mentee’s query, synopsis, and first five pages.

For Self-publishing, you’ll help out with back cover copy and book descriptions.

General Mentorship Advice

• Encouragement is key. For some mentees, their mentor may be the only person besides themselves who takes them seriously as a writer. A good mentor treats their mentee and their writing with respect.
• Remember that by design, your mentee is not as experienced as you. They may misjudge how long writing and revising will take them. Try to be encouraging and understanding as you work together.

Complications

Life happens! We know there may be a situation where someone has to drop out of the program.

• If your mentee drops out of the program: If it’s early enough in the program and you’d still like to mentor someone, we’ll compile a list of people who weren’t chosen that you are welcome to reach out to. This is not a requirement, just an option if you’d like to take it.
• If you need to drop out: Please contact us as early as possible (storymentors.program@gmail.com) so that we can arrange for your mentee to either work with one of the program directors or possibly another Storymakers Guild Member.

We had a lot of success with the program in past years, with many mentors reporting that they found it incredibly fulfilling to help a new writer who then became their friend. We are excited to offer the program again to help another crop of writers, and hope that you’ll have a great year of working with your mentee! Thanks for making it possible–we couldn’t do it without you!

BECOME A STORYMENTOR