Come Together

If you didn’t mentally read that with The Beatles singing it, I’m judging you.

by Carolyn Clare Givens

A few years ago, I got on a Zoom call with K. B. Hoyle, author and founder of Owl’s Nest Publishers, “meeting” her for the first time. I went into the conversation with one statement I wanted to be sure to say: “We’d rather be collaborators than competitors.”

Many things were said in that conversation—as often happens when kindred spirits meet—but I did get to say the thing about being collaborators, and Karin was on exactly the same page. We’re both small press publishing houses that started within a couple years of each other. We both publish books for younger readers (Owl’s Nest focuses on middle grade and adolescents; Bandersnatch is a little broader in our scope). We have connections and contacts in overlapping communities. But we sat together over a meal last spring—meeting in person for the first time—and laughed and talked for hours, sharing what we’ve learned in the publishing industry over the years we’ve been doing this, commiserating over our similar headaches, and encouraging each other in the work we do.

There are plenty of writers and plenty of readers for more than one small press publisher to exist.

Since the beginning of the summer, a group of about five or six women have been getting together at my house about one Saturday morning each month and sharing our writing with one another. We’re all working on different projects—some in the same genres, some in different. We give feedback, we encourage, we explore options for one another.

In her book Bandersnatch, Diana Glyer calls women like these resonators. She says, “Fundamentally, a resonator is someone who says, “I hear you. I understand what you are trying to do. I’ll help you get there.” No one arrives afraid to share because someone might steal their work.

There are plenty of ideas for six writers to create new stories.

As the new Deadpool movie released this summer, the internet fed me lots of clips from interviews of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman during their press tour. I’ve got no particular interest in their movie, but I love watching them interact in the clips. They appear to truly enjoy each other’s company, respect, and care for each other. These are both Hollywood leading men. They might be up for similar roles or have competing movies release at the same time.

But there are plenty of parts and plenty of stories to tell—and they might even tell better ones if they work together.

I’m a big proponent of the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. Collaboration only serves to make things better for all those involved—whether that’s the experience of creating or the product being created. A story I write would be fine if no one else ever looked at it and gave me feedback, but it will be better if I hold it loosely and ask for insights from friends.

To do this, though, I have to have an abundance mindset­—to realize that most of the best things in this world are not limited resources. Particularly in the realm of creative or generative work, cut-throat methods only serve to limit what can be created or generated.

Makoto Fujimura has written on the topic of culture care for many years, beginning with an essay called “On Becoming Generative” (which later became part of his book Culture Care). A small, printed booklet of that essay sits in my living room, reminding me of when I first heard him speak on the topic. He writes, “We must all choose to give away beauty gratuitously.”

The best collaboration is just that: giving away beauty gratuitously, not because we think that we’ll get something out of it, but because we recognize that when we come together in our creativity, the world is a better place.

October 10: Bandersnatch authors and illustrators at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, Tennessee (11:00 am to noon). Learn more!
November: Above, Not Up release. Preorders are OPEN!

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We are LOVING the cover design for our next title, Mark Forrester’s Above, Not Up. Graphic designer

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fame, created something that captures the wonder of this story, in which a visitor from the fourth dimension begins to open a teen boy’s eyes to the beauty of the world around him. Preorders open!

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“Do not all the achievements of a poet’s predecessors and contemporaries rightfully belong to him? Why should he shrink from picking flowers where he finds them? Only by making the riches of the others our own do we bring anything great into being.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe