Three Answers: Will Schwalbe

by Dick Donahue, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 4/2/2007

Three Answers today are from Hyperion editor-in-chief Will Schwalbe, co-author of Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, which will be published by Knopf on April 10.

PW: How did this project come about?

WS: It came out of a compelling desire that [co-author] David Shipley and I had, to sort of save the world one e-mail at a time! Bob Miller at Hyperion has a phrase here: you write the book you need; we needed this book. We also really feel that it's not a trivial thing—that e-mail is as important as whatever it is you are trying to do on e-mail. The person who fails to secure funding for a hospital because they gummed up their e-mail didn't just gum up an e-mail, they failed to secure funding for a hospital. We wrote the book in fun and we tried to make it lively to read, but the stakes can be very high.

PW: What surprised you the most about switching hats on this project—moving from your editor-in-chief role to that of an author?

WS: I think the most surprising thing is, I had kind of taken my job a little for granted, but as an author, now (or co-author), I just think editing is such a gift. I was so thrilled to be edited. Marty Asher was our editor, and just to have someone think that deeply about what you're doing and saying and offer suggestions as to how to do it better was really exciting. So it gave me more energy about my job because I was able to see from the other side how great it was to have someone really respond and dig into your work. It's sort of like one experience enriches the other.

PW: What are the best and worst things about e-mail?

WS: The best thing about e-mail is the ability to exchange information and have a record of it. It's also great for the equivalent of the electronic postcard—to strengthen social bonds, just to let someone know you are thinking about them, no reply necessary. What it's bad for: is emotion. Anytime anything gets emotional you've got to pick up the phone or go see somebody. It's also bad for coming to a decision with multiple people. We quote something in the book which is if 10 people are trying to choose among four restaurants you could have a million paths to a decision. And the social rupture you can cause by sending an e-mail that you haven't thought about sufficiently—it can be huge. We're not talking just about disastrous e-mails, we're talking about the types of things that happen every day because people don't give it quite enough thought.