Sandra Wendel

Every self proclaimed expert writes books on how to do something, or how they did it from Mom's basement. Not Sandra Wendel. She has decades of experience in the industry, having contributed to many popular books. She's the real deal. Wendel not only shows you the process of writing, editing, and publishing your book, but also gives relevant examples from her experiences in the field in a humorous and engaging manner. She gives encouraging advice to first time authors who may be scared, and challenges us all to just start that book we have all been thinking of starting and never did. Having read through half the book in one setting, I was faced with the harsh reality of bedtime so I could go to work the next day. If it wasn't for that, I would have devoured this book in one setting.… (más)

Cover to cover: What first time authors need to know about editing is a non-fiction book that addresses multiple topics related to the process of writing, publishing, and marketing self-published books. The focus is on preparing an author to sell and promote their own books on Amazon’s platform. It also describes the processes that an independent editor follows when editing books for authors who decide to self-publish. These descriptions include real-life examples as well as multiple tips for authors in terms of what to avoid when writing or hiring an editor.

The author, Sandra Wendel, has authored and co-authored multiple books but describes herself more as an editor than an author. She is not certain about the number of books she has edited over the decades but feels that it likely is in the thousands. She also describes herself as an expert in the area of editing non-fiction books such as memoirs, business books, and health-related books. Evidence of expertise in editing can be seen in the helpful checklist at the back of the book.

As a librarian who has worked in libraries since the early 1980s, I’ve been around books and authors for a long time and have an on-going interest in learning about new things in the field. As someone who has written one book under contract and currently has another writing contract, I feel that I know a bit about writing and editing but still have a lot to learn. I was eager to read this book so that I could expand my skills and knowledge. I found many helpful hints and thought-provoking new perspectives on the publishing industry in this book. What I was surprised to find was that it was extremely difficult to read. In the first sixty pages or so I was tempted many times to abandon it. I pushed forward both because I promised to read and review the book and because I want to understand and learn from its contents.

In preparing to write this review, I reflected on why the book was so difficult to read. The conclusion is that the writing style is the culprit. The author employs certain writing techniques that are undoubtedly highly effective for writing advertising copy, captions in journal articles, or web writing. They are techniques that don’t transfer well to a book of over 300 pages.

One of the difficult techniques is the insertion of thoughts and details into parentheses in the middle of a sentence. The following is an example of this technique: “Do not tinker with your manuscript while your working draft (shall we call it the football?) is out to the editor.” I can see how the occasional use of this technique can help to draw attention to the idea and essentially wake up the reader. The problem is that a single page or paragraph in this book often contains many of these disruptions in the flow of reading and thinking. The result that the text does not read smoothly and logically. The thoughts of the readers are forced to jump around. I often felt I was not allowed to finish thinking about the meaning of a statement before a tangential thought or statement was introduced. Overall, it is not a pleasant experience. Another technique is to write in a very short-hand form which comes across as if someone has taken notes or perhaps is thinking aloud. This is an example: “Boxes and colors and caps and small caps. Something really sophisticated for lists, and— Stop. Don’t.” Once again, writing this way occasionally can be effective in achieving certain effects such as causing the reader to pause to slow down and reflect on what the author is saying. However, it is very difficult to read and understand thoughts that are expressed in this way. It gets annoying after a while. It puts a strain on the reader to have to keep thinking about what is intended. I suspect this is why I felt the strong urge to stop reading the book. The use of a non-standard writing style appears to be purposeful based on this statement made by Wendel regarding the difference between what the author was taught by her high school English teacher and her current preferred style:
“Miss Barker may have cringed about the one-word sentences with no subject or verb, but too bad. Language changes. Conventions change. This is why I won’t go into that ridiculous discussion of whether to split an infinitive or whether to not split is okay. It’s okay. Or start a sentence with a conjunction, like this sentence. I love the sentences that start with and. Or end a sentence with a preposition. Fine. Whatever.” In another part of the book, she suggests that regardless of whether or not a sentence is grammatically correct, what matters is that the reader understands the meaning. However, there were many places where I simply could not understand what was being said and had to guess or assume the meaning. This statement from a bulleted list is a prime example: “Appearance (fat shaming is real, people living with obesity is a move in the right direction)”. I can deduce the intent of the sentence but I have to slow down and really think about what the author intended to say. If I didn’t slow down my reading, I could have easily come to a wrong conclusion.

Another area that may have contributed to my difficulty in reading the book is what I suspect was intended to be snippets of sarcastic humour. In particular, references to high school English teachers, former clients of the author who she calls Karens, and Canadians. These references seemed jarring and out of place. While some may find humour in what was said, I don’t think that Canadians and high school English teachers who are well regarded as authors and editors in their own right would feel the same. In fact, some may detect a mocking tone. Concerning those problematic clients the author has identified as Karens, I’m not sure how safe or comfortable I would feel hiring someone who I know might call me a Karen if I happen to have a bad day. Assertions that Canadians just don’t know how to write proper English and there is no way that any high school English teacher could know about or use the Chicago Manual of Style are problematic on many levels. I’m not sure that humour was intended but I’m not sure that it wasn’t either. The author seems to have an obsession with what she calls American English and seems to have the impression that American English is some sort of monolithic entity that is lacking regional and cultural variations. Having travelled to all of the U.S. states except for Rhode Island and all of the Canadian provinces except for Newfoundland, I am quite certain that while Canadian and American spellings are relatively consistent in these nations, word usage, writing style, and the overall application of the English language varies from region to region within each country. In fact, there is much more regional variation in the English language in the U.S. than there is in Canada. English, as it is spoken and understood in areas such as Louisiana and Arkansas, is different than that spoken on the coast of Maine and different, yet again, than what is spoken on the Pacific Coast. It’s problematic that all Canadians should be dismissed as potential editors because some Canadian speakers refer to a vacation property on a lake as a cottage while the author feels that all Americans would call the same sort of building a cabin. Certainly, it is primarily Canadians in one part of Canada who use the term cottage to refer to the property in question. Ironically, most western Canadians call these properties cabins. More importantly, many Americans might call these buildings lake houses and think of a cabin as some sort of a shack located somewhere in the mountains. It seems that readers’ ability to interpret regional variations in English language usage is much more sophisticated than what is suggested in this book and can be handled in better ways than suggesting that Canadians aren’t acceptable as editors and that the version of the English language spoken by Canadians is inferior. I found some of the statements made by the author to be off-putting. They distracted from other valid points.

One other area to note is that of advice given to readers regarding libraries and having their self-published books included in library collections. While the advice given to readers on this topic may apply to some public libraries in some smaller communities, it is important to understand that there is a lot of variation in library policy and practice. Any potential self-published author truly does need to learn about their local libraries and whether or not their attempts to get their books on the shelves are likely to be fruitful. Persistent attempts to talk to an acquisitions librarian and offer a box of donuts in exchange for an opportunity to pitch a book may get a person escorted from the premises in some of the larger city libraries. Many acquisitions librarians don’t like cold calls from established publishing houses either. Many are just too busy for this. Unfortunately, many of the self-published books that are donated to libraries never make it to the shelves and end up for sale in the Friends of the Library shop. The reasons for this are complicated and beyond the scope of a book review. It’s just a sad reality. Some libraries won't take any sort of book donation. It truly does vary from library to library. Also, even though a self-published book is on the shelf in a library, it does not mean that it can be found in the library’s catalogue. Because of the cost of cataloguing self-published and other donated books that don’t come with official cataloguing information such as the Cataloging in Publication data provided by the Library of Congress, many libraries just slap a generic barcode onto these books and put them on a generic book display. They never get placed in the main part of the collection and are never listed in the library catalogue. So, if someone buys the book in the Friends of the Library store or picks up a copy of the book from a generic book display, the book is still being read by someone but it may not be the sort of scenario that the person who donated the book desires. While this isn’t always the case, it’s been my experience that it happens more often than it doesn’t.

Despite being challenging to read, this book offers insight into the world of self-publishing on the Amazon platform as well as some editing tips. While it may not be for everyone, those who are interested in the self-publishing angle will find it useful.… (más)