Ep. 118: Editing Literary Fiction with Caroline Zancan (Senior Editor at Henry Holt) + Book Recommendations
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2022
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 118, Caroline Zancan, Senior Editor at Henry Holt, joins me for another episode in the Genre 101 series — this time with a twist. Caroline answers behind-the-scenes questions about editing literary fiction, as well as a deep dive into the genre itself.
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Announcements
- I'd love your feedback on the podcast! Please take a moment to complete my 2022 Podcast Survey!
Highlights
- How Caroline got into editing: right place, right time, and Craigslist.
- The varying college degrees, the wide range of colleagues' previous careers, and whether there's a typical career path to becoming an editor.
- The je ne sais quoi factor and determining if a book is for Henry Holt.
- The entire process of book acquisition at Henry Holt — from determining what books to pursue and bidding on manuscripts to the approval process.
- Caroline's preference for dealing with an author's agent.
- The execution of a compatible vision for the editor-author relationship.
- The "right" length for a book and editing big-name authors.
- What the heck is 'literary fiction' and why there seems to be a lack of consensus about this question.
- Current trends in the literary fiction world.
Caroline's Book Recommendations [39:19]
Two OLD Books She Loves
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders | Amazon | Bookshop.org
[39:33]
- Trust Exercise by Susan Choi | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:25]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason | Amazon
| Bookshop.org [42:33]
- Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley | Amazon | Bookshop.org [44:14]
The Series of Books She DIDN'T Love
One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About
- All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews (August 2, 2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Last 5-Star Book Caroline Read
- Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason | Amazon
Other Books Mentioned
- We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan [2:00]
- Happiness by Heather Harpham [2:17]
- The Parking Lot Attendant by Nafkote Tamirat [2:21]
- Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon [2:29]
- Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach [2:34]
- On Writing by Stephen King [29:08]
- Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett [40:48]
- I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley [44:58]
- Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley [45:00]
About Caroline Zancan
Caroline Zancan is a Senior Editor at Holt, acquiring literary and upmarket fiction and memoir, and the author of We Wish You Luck and Local Girls. She is a graduate of Kenyon College and holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. Caroline lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their children.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of Sarah's bookshelves. Each week, I talk with a bookish guest |
| 0:17.2 | about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they do not love, |
| 0:22.1 | and one new release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky |
| 0:27.2 | about all things books. If you like the show, I'd love it if you follow the show in your |
| 0:31.8 | podcast player, spread the word to your reader friends, post about it on your social media, |
| 0:37.4 | or support the show on |
| 0:39.0 | Patreon at patreon.com slash Sarah's bookshelves. Supporting the show on Patreon gets you access to bonus |
| 0:46.7 | podcast episodes and lots of other goodies. There's also a link in the show notes and in my |
| 0:52.0 | Instagram bio. Let's get rolling. Before we get to today's |
| 0:55.8 | guest, I've got just a bit of housekeeping to cover. It's been a couple years since I did a podcast |
| 1:00.3 | survey and a lot has happened since I did the last one. So I think it is time. These surveys help |
| 1:06.8 | give me an understanding of what y'all love about the show, what you wish we could improve, |
| 1:15.4 | and give me a general understanding of what you're looking for from the show. |
| 1:18.9 | It won't take too much of your time and is completely anonymous. |
| 1:22.4 | So I would love if y'all could take a couple minutes to fill it out. |
| 1:27.3 | There is a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio, and I will also put up a link in my Instagram stories. |
| 1:29.0 | Thank you all so much, and let's get to today's guest. |
| 1:32.4 | We debuted a new episode series in fall 2021 called the Genre 101 Deepdive, and today |
| 1:38.9 | we're tackling literary fiction with a little twist. To take advantage of our guest's background and expertise as an editor, |
| 1:46.5 | we're combining our literary fiction deep dive with a behind-the-scenes look at the editing process as well. |
| 1:52.2 | If you've listened to the show for a long time, you will remember Caroline Zancan from February |
| 1:57.1 | of 2020 when she joined me to talk about her debut novel, We Wish You Luck, which was one of my |
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