Meet Cathryn Carter

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cathryn Carter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cathryn below.

Cathryn, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

It’s bold of you to think I have overcome imposter syndrome even after publishing six novels! The truth is, when it comes to imposter syndrome for creatives of any kind, particularly in publishing when so much of our marketing involves being connected deeply with our readers, it comes with the territory.

For me in particular, I consider it a part of my writing, editing, and publishing process, as it loves to visit me during each stage (usually at my most vulnerable moments). Sometimes I cope with it through sharing self-deprecating memes with my author friends, and sometimes I don’t cope with it well at all. But I do consider its presence to be a positive thing, even though it doesn’t always feel that way.

Self doubt proves to me I care about the stories I tell. I put in the proverbial blood, sweat, and non-proverbial tears. If I feel so protective of my work, even to the extent that I want to pull it the night before publication, that means its worth sharing with the world. It means I’ve opened my heart and have something to say that I think is worth reading. That’s why I’m always brave enough to overcome it.

It does help that I am an avid reader, and I understand how subjective the publication world can be. If new authors ever come to me for advice on imposter syndrome, I tell them to go look up their absolute favorite book on Goodreads to see that it has negative reviews. It’s important to remember that someone’s yuck is another person’s yum. Your work can be both and that’s okay.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Even though one of my earliest memories is writing a story in a black and white composition notebook, I didn’t ever consider entering the literary world as a professional. I steered away from creative writing classes apart from an expository one in high school, and my focus in university was entirely on international relations. My early career was at a think tank in NYC where I worked in media relations, and while it did involve writing, it wasn’t the kind I was absolutely in love with.

Marriage, a move across the world to the Middle East, and becoming a mother made me re-think a lot of things, and writing fiction was very therapeutic. With a new baby and a husband who traveled quite often, spending time in a made-up world filled up my cup. Suddenly, I couldn’t not write, even when I knew I should be sleeping while the baby was.

Years later, I found the courage to share my stories with the world. I probably picked the worst possible time to do that as it was during COVID and I had a young toddler and was doing distance learning Preschool with my oldest. I wrote the entirety of my debut novel, Fourth Down Blitz, during the hours of 8pm and 2am! Now that being an author is my job (and everyone is in school), I’ve quit being a night owl.

When people ask me why I only write sports romance, I always joke that as a millennial, my childhood was heavily influenced by movies like The Sandlot, The Little Giants, and Remember The Titans. Anytime I watched a sports-themed movie as a kid, I was so uplifted and inspired by the underdog. I wanted to tell stories that inspired the same kind of feelings in my readers, and as a heavy-consumer of the romance genre, sports romance felt fitting.

My veteran readers know I try to incorporate a heavier issue or plot line in each of my books. I’ve tackled addiction, grief, secondary PTSD, and coping with different versions of abuse while framing them in the sports world, and more specifically, in a romantic relationship. It’s something I take seriously. Research and sensitivity readers are a must for me. For my most recently published book, The Americana Playbook, which will be released in audiobook version by Podium Entertainment in a few months, I interviewed six survivors of The Troubled Teen Industry, as well has had beta readers include semi-professional football readers. Authenticity is very important to me.

My next book will deal with the challenges of an athlete recently diagnosed with a chronic illness that affects his body and identity as a professional football player.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think if every person wishes to be an author, they need three things: dedication, persistence, and a love of writing.

None of these are in particular order, but at the bottom of it all, if you don’t love what you do, the other things will be a struggle. Since writing and storytelling have always been important to me, everything fell into place. But I had to practice showing up for my stories and committing to them. I had to keep telling stories and finding new readers. There are a lot of “no’s” in this industry. They come from industry professionals (particularly if you’re pursuing the traditional route), but they also come from readers in the sense that sometimes first impressions are everything. Some might pick up your book, read a few pages and not get into it, and you lose them. The only thing you can do is persist and keep trying to reach them through a different and new story.

I see so many authors stress about the the success of their debut novels only in terms of financials. Becoming a bestselling author right off the bat is the exception, not the norm. In fact, many authors struggle to break even on one book before they publish their next. Usually what keeps them going isn’t just blind faith that their new book will be on top of the charts. It’s their love of writing. So if you’re new to this world, the best thing I can tell you is keep writing and keep reading. Keep telling people you wrote a book (and that you’re proud of it!).

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

A trade off in publishing is that with success comes pressure! With the romance genre’s market so saturated, it’s easy to feel the need to keep producing new books at a very fast rate. I find that the more pressure I feel, the more unfocused and overwhelmed I become. It’s like my mind doesn’t want to focus on my work-in-progress, but instead feed me a dozen new story ideas that threaten to steal all my time and attention.

I’ve learned that list making (for neverending admin work) and brain-dumping the creative bits are the best things for me when I’m overwhelmed. I carve time out of my work day to write out daily tasks and I prioritize three. That’s it. If I get more done, great. If not, that’s okay too. I leave it for tomorrow and make sure I have enough time to hit my word count or edit depending on the project at hand.

In terms of the creative stuff, I will fill up a few pages of my notebook with whatever new story has entered my brain. If it’s legible (sadly, I have terrible handwriting), I type it up in the body of an email and send it to myself. If any other ideas for that story generate, I just reply to the chain. I’ve got a dozen of them going, and the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality helps let me focus on my work-in-progress while still knowing those new ideas are somewhere waiting for their time.

I wish I was the kind of author who could outline a novel from start to finish, but this is the most organized I’ll ever be.

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