Yes, I am aware that the Book Expo is on. Do I care? Yes and no. When I was a little girl, my dad took me to lumber trade shows and I loved them. Especially the displays of knobs and pulls, hundreds of them. Racing down the aisles in search of candy and any free crap we could get our hands on like levelers and mini tool boxes (which I still have).
I hear things are heating up at the Javitz Center with dog fights breaking out over e-book royalties, the undead everywhere, and Barbra Streisand as the big draw with her book about her “passion” for design, which is a euphemism for control which is about how no matter what she achieves her mother will never be impressed. (Anyone else belong to that club?)
I understand that there will be fewer giveaways, fewer galleys, and t-shirts, and tote bags. Fare thee well swag! Fare thee well bowls of candy for grubby hands! When I was younger, the best part of the fair was scoring free galleys of favorite writers, sometimes getting them signed. Going to parties at night and sleeping with Knopf writers. (You know who you are.) Ha ha. The best part for me was scouring the small presses and university presses, such cool shit. Just soaking it all in, each publisher’s booth with its glossy blown up jackets. Watching people in meetings talk like squirels with their mouths full of nuts.
Do I care about BEA? Yes and no. It seems like more dancing on the Titanic. Earlier today when I looked up above the convention center I saw something quite extraordinary: our beloved books getting in formation and flying away high above the Javitz Center, above the sad fray.
I’m glad I got to do this with my life. Lucky.
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As you could have probably guessed, my “Ask Betsy” feature of the blog is getting a lot of traffic. However, most of the emails are not questions. Most readers are using it to pitch their projects. So, it’s sort of a slush pile/question box. At first, I was really pissed about it. It’s not at all difficult to find my agency email for chrissakes. Then I thought maybe I was being too uptight. I mean for fuck’s sake, who cares where a great project comes from, my agency email, my blog email, my ass. So I dutifully read through the queries hoping to discover the next Ordinary People (according to publishing lore, it was found in the slush).
When I was in the 11th grade, I read the Hite Report among a number of other books in a campaign to learn what I feared I might not experience. In my quest for “knowledge,” I learned a few things I had not known. At that time, I wrote a poem for my creative writing class and in it I used the word “masturbate.” Fair enough, except I spelled it “masterbate.”
1. The term “game changer” especially when referring to Avatar.
9. In advance, the movie of Eat Pray Love.
What was your first literary orgasm? Roger W. Straus, venerable co-founder of FSG, claimed it was The 
Are all writers narcy? Is it an occupational hazard or prerequisite for the job? I once dated a writer whose bedroom was lined with framed jackets of all his books. After I slept with him, he loaded me up with copies of all of his books as I was leaving. Thanks! How narcissistic are you and does it help or hurt? What does it really feel like to sit down with that notebook or computer? Just you, beautiful, terrible you? And what of those pages staring back?
I finished reading the fourth draft of a novel this weekend. It was amazing to see, even at this stage, where the writer held fast to her vision and where she was willing to make some radical changes. As well as many small changes. And how those small changes changed everything. I’ve always nursed a pet theory that writers exaggerate about how much they revise, how much they throw out, and how much editing they actually take. Put another way, there’s revising your work and playing with your food. Reader, this writer revised.
If you want excellent advice on how to write a pitch letter, go to 
I’ve known authors over the years who balk at boiling down their book to a few sentences. “I”m not good at it,” they cry. I’m sympathetic; it’s extremely difficult to do, and may be impossible when you are in the middle of it. It takes time to figure out what a book is really about, as they are often about so many things. But it’s critical if you want to hook someone. Just imagine yourself at a party. You discover someone writes. You ask, what is your book about? They reply with a five minute plot description. I would guess that by the end of thirty seconds you find yourself wishing you were never born. Now imagine the writer responding, “It’s about a woman who kills her therapist.”
Betsy Lerner 