Ep. 118: Editing Literary Fiction with Caroline Zancan (Senior Editor at Henry Holt) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ 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

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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

Elena Ferrante Titles [45:46]

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews (August 2, 2022) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:32]

Last 5-Star Book Caroline Read

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason | Amazon | Bookshop.org [49:40]

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

On Twitter

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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