Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:51
#AskAnExpert | What questions can I answer for you about creative writing & publishing?
This week is Ask an Expert Week on Swell, and so I wanted to offer my expertise as a creative writer a little about my history. Some of you already know that I'm a writer, I'm sure, from Swell. I definitely was one of those people that started very young. I've always been a really big reader. I would spend my summers going to the library and just wanting to read outside or on the floor quietly with my grandmother
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 4:14
So that when you do want to start sending query letters out to agents, you then will have kind of a solid draft of the book to send to the agents if they are interested in seeing it. And then if the agent agrees to represent you, they then swell be pitching your book to editors at publishing houses and trying to get one of them to want to buy your book and work with you on editing it for publication. That's more like the traditional route of publishing right now
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:05
So, for example, if you were writing a novel that is Sci-Fi or mystery or something with very particular kinds of themes or audiences, I would recommend finding an editor who either specializes in that or has experience in that and they're definitely out there personally. So I write literary fiction primarily and I know there are a lot of writers who I love and admire and who have published books who also sometimes offer one on one coaching or editing
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:27
Hey, Mark. Yeah, I thought this same thing. Like, I may have seen this before and it was actually really nice to revisit it as I'm working on my second book and thinking about some of these larger questions around editing and writing community and the kind of feedback I need at this particular moment in the process. So super happy to be in conversation with you about all of this and definitely don't be a stranger. Always happy to talk about writing and art and the publishing process
Hey, Bowie. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to ask you some questions about this process. I am writing a memoir about my life and why I have made some of the decisions in my life that I have. And I'm curious about how you what you think about self publishing and the pros and cons of that versus, obviously, what it would take to hire a publisher to support your book gaining some traction. So I'd love some guidance on that
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 4:57
If you're applying to all fully funded programs in which all of your schooling is paid for and you get a stipend to live off of while you're a student and teaching or potentially of a scholarship or something where you're just being paid to be a student. People apply to ten or even more because they're trying to up their chances of being accepted into one of those programs that are so competitive. Out of those ten I applied to, I got accepted into two, which is decent