Q&A Thursday: Sandwich Edition

Hi Friends,

I had a WONDERFUL time reading at Rough Draft Bar and Books on Wednesday night. If you're ever in Kingston, NY absolutely stop there. You won't be sorry.

And earlier today I spoke with the Paths in Publishing, a mentorship group for early career publishing people, and I wanted to share an amazing question they asked me as part of their book club meeting. They read my book! It was so lovely. I'm paraphrasing here because I was engaged in the conversation instead of taking notes, but here's what we talked about:

One member described working with an author and giving feedback and having that author completely misinterpret how much work the author needed to do from her edit letter. The author thought they had a few days work ahead of them and then their book would be ready to go. That was not the case. Her question boiled down to how do you balance the compliment sandwich part of editorial letters, and what do you do if the author just doesn't get it?

Don't know what a compliment sandwich is (also known as a shit sandwich)? It a way to frame editorial notes so they're a little more palatable. I mention in my book that my editorial letter was so good it made me reevaluate how I write editorial letters for my clients, and it was mainly because my editor Stephanie

started with a lot of praise, and not just blowing smoke up my ass, and then segued into the actionable editorial changes I needed to make in the book. I do this, too, but I realized I needed way more on the compliment side. I needed to hear those things, and I know authors do, too. I am already thinking all those wonderful things about my clients' work when I write their edit letters. I'm just anxious to get on with the editing so things get closer to being a real book. I should slow down and dispense with the compliments.

But, if you're a freelance editor, or even an in-house one, it can be trouble if you go tooo far on the compliment side. It might underplay the work that needs to be done or make the author ignore that advice all told. This is especially a problem when the book needs a lot of work and you're trying to soften the blow. Needless to say in the letter writer's case, that's what happened. The way to prevent this is to always tell the author what's true. Tell them the ways their manuscript is wonderful–the plot! the characters! the font!–without making too much of a reach. If you thought the dialog was just ok, don't say it was stunning. You can say I really like how natural the dialog sounded, if that's true, which is still great to hear and not too fawning. But don't say you were swept away every time the characters spoke to one another, unless you were.

And then, you have to tell the author truly what work needs to be done. Be kind, but plain. If you think the author's work needs to be largely rewritten, don't say just a few tweaks here and there. Yes, it may be hard for the author to hear this, but it's worse down the line if they never hear it at all. And if you're in it with an author for the long haul, the manuscript won't magically improve if you don't guide them. If they already knew what the book needed, they probably would have done it in the first place.

Of course, the author may read your editorial letter and never really see it. Some authors think everything is just a few tweaks here and there away from being done. (Love you, authors.) Or the author might disagree with your suggestions wholeheartedly and decline to make any changes thankyouverymuch. In the end, it's the author's book, and what happens next depends on what kind of working relationship you have with them. If you're a freelance editor, your involvement with the project is done when your services are complete. You cannot prevent an author from doing something boneheaded with their book, and it's not your job to do so. And it's always possible you're wrong, and the author is right. (Most often though, the editor is right.)

And it's different between an agent and their client and an author and their editor and so on and so on. If you're an author and you're reading this, you might be thinking what's this all got to do with me? Lots, I say. It's important to remember what you want and need when you're on the receiving end of an edit letter. I know you want them to say the book is perfect and doesn't even need to be copyedited and it's going to the printer tomorrow. That, in fact, it's the cleanest, most professional, most beautifully written--and funny, too!--manuscript they've ever seen. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Every book needs work. But it's important to remember the goals of the person giving you feedback (to make your book better, to make it clearer, to make it market-ready) and your goal in asking for that feedback. If you wanted to be patted on the head and given a gold star, there are much cheaper ways to get that than hiring a freelance editor. If you remember you want feedback, then it's easier to receive that feedback. Editors (and agents who edit) are on your side, even when you don't want to hear what they say. And if you really disagree with some advice, talk to that editor/agent about it. They might have missed something. You might have missed something. You could be right and the editor wrong and that's ok. But don't take offense. We're all on the same team.

There were a ton of other questions in the chat today but I've gone on long enough here. If you'd like me to speak to your book club or group, just email me at kate@katemckean.com. I love to talk to readers and writers. And if you have a question for another Q&A Thursday, you can reach me at that address, too. No question is too big or two small!

More events! Next week, on Wednesday, September 24th, I'll be on a panel of fantastic publishing people and authors giving you the Secrets of Publishing at the NYU Bookstore in Manhattan. Free and open to the public!

Then on Thursday, September 25th, I'll be in Greenwich, CT for the LOOK Literary Festival with even more illustrious authors. RSVP at specialevents@fairfieldcountylook.com

Come say hi!

XOXOXOXO,

Kate