For all the people who've been published at least once

I can only relate my own agentless experience. I sent a Christmas card or two (or three) to the editor. We saw each other at an event or two, but no one was in a position to be buying at the time. (Ah, the wonders of the open bar...) If you issue the invitation then you should buy. If the editor calls you and issues the invitation, then he/she should buy, IMO.

But I don't think that holiday cards are out of the question, especially if you've had a good relationship with the editor.

My book won't be out until Oct., but I've completed the editorial process. So...

Depending on the publishing house, you could have as many as three or more editors touch your book before the process concludes. Ask your agent if you owe the principle editor a card, etc... With my publisher, editors also have the role of "champions" and can do much (or little) to generate in-house excitment over a project. As I live half a continent away from the publishing office, I depended upon my agent for knowledge of customary etiquette practices. His first bit of advice was that I send a thankyou card at the end of the edit process.

badducky said:

As my agent winds down negotiations with my publisher, I am left wondering this question...

What is expected of me as a professional?

Yes, I will edit and copyedit and edit until the editor likes the results. I will be cool and calm and work hard to earn my advance.

However, what about thank-you notes? Is a thank-you note enough? flowers? Cookies? First-born child?

If I ever sit down to lunch with these nice people, who pays?

In general, I'm asking this: What's the business etiquette expected of me that I might not know off-hand?

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I sent a thank-you email. Yes, I am cheap.

maestrowork said:

I sent a thank-you email. Yes, I am cheap.

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So am I. But in all three books I have named both agent and editor and praised them to the skies. I believe that this is what they love most of all; after all, it's public, whereas a card isn't. And free.

(and it's also a help to budding novelists of my ilk, looking for agents/editors!)

They have always paid at restaurahts etc. If it's just me and agent, agent pays, If it's the three of us, editor pays.

writer

Under most circumstances, I've found thank you cards are unnecessary for two reasons. One, this is a business, and as such, it's always about money.

But an even bigger reason is that you should be on the phone with your agent, and with your editors, several times. If you want to say thanks, this is the time to do so. When it's over, if the experience has been a good one, say thank you, tell them you appreciate the hard work, directly. It's much warmer and more sincere than a thank you card that may never even reach the person you send it to.

To echo other posters a bit - acknowledge your editor/agent/productions staff, what have you in the book.

Say thanks, let them pay, remember them at Christmas with a card or more if you have developed a relationship, if you get something really great (a great cover or piece of promo) find out who did it and get a thanks to them.

The biggest gift you can give any of them is to do your best and be a person that they enjoy working with.

annie
Luanne Jones (Heathen Girls - MIRA)

no cards, no email....I just put some glowing praise for my editor and my agent in the ackowledgement section of the book.

As for paying for meals/drinks....I've never paid yet, but hell...it's the same deal with my friends.

No....I'm kidding already.

Jamesaritchie said:

Under most circumstances, I've found thank you cards are unnecessary for two reasons. One, this is a business, and as such, it's always about money.

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Perhaps, but personally, I'd want to be sure the person in question has warm fuzzy memories of how pleasant I was to work with, right down to that nice thank-you note I sent.*

But an even bigger reason is that you should be on the phone with your agent, and with your editors, several times. If you want to say thanks, this is the time to do so. When it's over, if the experience has been a good one, say thank you, tell them you appreciate the hard work, directly. It's much warmer and more sincere than a thank you card that may never even reach the person you send it to.

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I don't agree that a verbal thank-you is warmer than a handwritten note. We're writers, after all. And the note will last longer, too. Whyever should a note not reach its intended recipient, if your galley proofs et al. have been reaching them?

*Teresa Nielsen Hayden once recounted an experience she had, way back when she wasn't as elevated in the hierarchy as she is now. A Big Name Author came through the offices, meeting and greeting, and cast an eye at her and demanded, "And who are you?"

She replied, "I'm the last person who looks over your manuscript before it goes to print."

ETA: Please see Uncle Jim's link below to Teresa's own telling of the story.

I've become friends with most of my editors over the years, and treat them as I treat other friends.

And at lunch ... they (or, actually, the corporate American Express Card) pays.

Aconite said:

Perhaps, but personally, I'd want to be sure the person in question has warm fuzzy memories of how pleasant I was to work with, right down to that nice thank-you note I sent.*

I don't agree that a verbal thank-you is warmer than a handwritten note. We're writers, after all. And the note will last longer, too. Whyever should a note not reach its intended recipient, if your galley proofs et al. have been reaching them?

*Teresa Nielsen Hayden once recounted an experience she had, way back when she wasn't as elevated in the hierarchy as she is now. A Big Name Author came through the offices, meeting and greeting, and cast an eye at her and demanded, "And who are you?"

She replied, "I'm the last person who looks over your manuscript before it goes to print."

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I send my copy-edited manuscript and galley proofs registered mail or special delivery. And they're always forwarded to the right person because it's business, and their's money at stake. Letters, even ones address to a particular editor, often get opend by someone else, and sometimes they get forwarded properly, and sometimes not.

I don't think there's anything wrong with a thank you card, but I do know any giver editor or copy editor is probably working with 312,000 other writers, and I doubt thank you cards last one minute longer than a vrbal "thank you." Maybe not even as long. I don't think I've ever known an editor who saves thank you cards, anymore than I save them. You read one, you think, "That's nice," and maybe you keep it a day or two, and then you toss it. And if you receive hundreds, who has room to keep them a minute?

Maybe it comes from working as a freelancer and an editor, but if I spent my time sending a thank you card to every editor I've worked with, I'd never have time to write anything else. And as an editor, I appreciate when someone says, "Thanks, I appreciate the hard work you've put in," but I do not expect a thank you card from every writer I work with. I'm just doing my job, and I really don't have time to deal with thank you cards, anyway.

I don't send a thank you card to the guy who comes and fixes my hot water heater, the guy who helps set up and print brochures at the local print shop, or the guy who special ordered a hard to find item at the local auto store. I do say thank you to them, and I mean it, but I don't send them cards.

I tend to treat editors like I treat everyone else. I say thanks, and I mean it, and if we become friends, I send them a Christmas card and a birthday card, just as they do me.

Now, I would have told Teresa Nielsen Hayden she was doing a great job, and I appreciated it( If both were true.), but at the same time, how was the writer supposed to know who she was until after she gave her name? He could have sent her fifteen thank you cards, and still not had a clue who she was.

And somehow I doubt a thank you card, or lack thereof, had anything at all to do with her reaction. It sounds as if the writer was a grouch demanding her name and job. If he had smiled, and asked nicely, I suspect she would have smiled and simply told him who she was.

And, really, who is the most important person in the process? The editor, the copyeditor, the typesetter, all the people on the acquisition board, the marketing department, etc.?

Now, as I said, send a thank you card if you want. It can't hurt. But it isn't necessary, expected, or always desired. And even if you do send one, you still need to tell do your best to say "Thank you, I appreciate teh hard work" person to person, if at all possible.

And it seems to me that if anyone is going to receive a thank you card, it ought to be the writer. He's the one who might have spent years writing something with teh real possibility that it would never sell, and it's his book that is paying the editor's salary.

I am appalled that anybody whether Big Name Author, President of oil conglomerate or King of wherever should speak to any individual in that manner. I hope Teresa Nielson Hayden made that author sweat it.

Here's Teresa telling the story herself:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004307.html#35050

Jamesaritchie said:

Now, I would have told Teresa Nielsen Hayden she was doing a great job, and I appreciated it( If both were true.), but at the same time, how was the writer supposed to know who she was until after she gave her name? He could have sent her fifteen thank you cards, and still not had a clue who she was.

And somehow I doubt a thank you card, or lack thereof, had anything at all to do with her reaction. It sounds as if the writer was a grouch demanding her name and job. If he had smiled, and asked nicely, I suspect she would have smiled and simply told him who she was.

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That wasn't the point I meant to make by recounting the story. The presence or lack of a card didn't matter. Teresa covered the point much better than I in the link Uncle Jim supplied, so I'll let her own words stand instead of mine.

I guess it depends on the person. I'm a very "gifty" person in real life, so that extends over to my relationships with my editor and agent. I send thank you cards, roses for no reason, Hanukkah gifts to them both, and even -- just last week! -- paid for a muffin breakfast to be delivered to the Ad/Promo department because they were nice enough to drop their busy schedule to pump out a display ad for me so I could take advantage of a super deal. Their normal schedule is a six-week turnaround and they got it to me in 24 hours! (And yeah, I DO send thank you cards to exceptionally nice clerks, and letters to restaurants where their staff went above-and-beyond to make my dining pleasant.) As for lunch, I usually offer and then let them take the check away.


Use your best judgment. If it comes natural to you, feel free to send gifts. If you don't remember, nobody will think less of you.