Does a strong woman in fantasy have to swing a sword? How much does it cost and how much work does it take to self-publish a book? Why does everyone love a viperon (Pol. ‘żmijun’)? These and many other questions were answered by Karolina Żuk-Wieczorkiewicz during an author’s meeting at the UG Library.
A graduate of psychology at the University of Gdańsk and computer graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, an employee of the UG Centre for Communication and Promotion, a wife, a mother, and also a writer, illustrator, and self-publisher - Karolina Żuk-Wieczorkiewicz has many talents! She writes fantasy stories set in her original universe of Avaroth, illustrates them with her own hands, typesets them, designs the covers, and then self-publishes them. So far, her debut trilogy ‘Patrycjuszka’ and - in December this year - the Christmas short story ‘Skrzat jej książęcej mości’ have appeared in print. The premiere of her latest book was an opportunity to meet readers from the University of Gdańsk at the UG Library.
‘Author's meetings at the UG Library are to be a series of monthly meetings, conducted mainly in cooperation with the słowo/obraz terytoria publishing house. We organise meetings with people who write, not necessarily publish their works,’ say Marietta Tiszbein and Monika Budzińska from the UG Library Promotion Section. ‘We also invite those who are still keeping their writing in the drawer or are just planning to publish something. We have such a space in the library that we are prepared to make available. The library is open to everyone!’
Karolina Żuk-Wieczorkiewicz is already experienced in the publishing market, so she shared some behind-the-scenes information with our guests: how long the publishing process takes and how many stages it consists of, what you can do yourself (e.g. to cut costs) and what you should absolutely outsource to professionals, how to find the right people to work with, and how much it costs to publish a novel (it costs several thousand or even tens of thousands of zlotys, which may be surprising to many people). She also talked about why she decided to make her work available to readers in the self-publishing model:
Reprints of author's illustrations to the „Patrycjuszka” trillogy
‘I wanted it to be as much an auteur project as possible. I wanted to write the story, illustrate it, and, once I had completed the graphic design, design the book: what it should ultimately look like. Having gathered information from various people and sources, I came to the conclusion that for a debut author, no publisher would agree to something like that. In addition, my studies gave me the skills to use graphic design and typesetting software - I had already learned to draw under Agnieszka Gewartowska's tutelage - and I felt that I was competent enough to handle the bulk of the publishing process, the part that did not strictly involve work with the text, on my own. This gave me full control over what I was putting into the hands of my readers.’
The author also talked about the world she had created, her heroes and heroines, what she believes female power to be, as well as a favourite of all readers, the viperon - a dragon-like reptile the size of a cat, capable of establishing a telepathic bond with humans. Answering questions from the audience, she also shared her thoughts on whether the gender of the author/author influences the reception of a book: ‘I think it does. In my experience, books written by women get the patch of “romance” much more easily, even if the romantic theme is not dominant in them. On the other hand, a certain way of portraying toxic relationships is accepted by female writers, while male authors would rather not be forgiven for it. This is a very interesting issue from a social science point of view - I will even reveal tentatively that we are thinking with two researchers from the Institute of Psychology at UG to conduct a study on this topic.’
Asked for advice for budding artists, Karolina Żuk-Wieczorkiewicz replied: ‘My advice is a bit provocative: don't listen to advice! Be persistent, be determined, and look for your own way - because what works for some will not necessarily work for others.’
You can read more about Karolina Żuk-Wieczorkiewicz's work on Avaroth.pl.
We also encourage you to follow the author on Facebook and Instagram.
You can read about further author meetings organised at the University of Gdańsk Library on the UG Library website.
