Publishing | Betsy Lerner

That’s Not My Name

Posted on September 9, 2009 by betsylerner

Titles. They can be a bitch. I always felt I had a bit of a knack for them because of my poetry days. You have to think up a lot of titles when you write poems. My finest (in my humble): “My Life as a Rash”; “Two Poets Assemble a VCR”, and my signature sestina, “Calories and Other Counts.”

First Place

I push my clients very hard to come up with good (selling) titles before we send out their books. And I toil beside them. It just makes it that much easier to sell if you can get the concept/tone/hook in the title. When the editor on the other end of the line says great title, you’re through the door.

Second Place

I’m always astonished by some of the titles for deals reported in Publisher’s Marketplace. Today, for instance, Pacific Rims. Is it just me or does this sound like a gay book set in Hawaii? Mahu Blood: this one is set in Hawaii and it’s a detective story. Mahu? Is this a fish?I love the sound of this one: Tarnsman of Gor, a 27-volume fantasy series (oh, to sell a franchise!). I really like Think of a Number. It’s a thriller and I love titles that take a figure of speech and creepify it. I felt that way about my client Eli Gottlieb’s Now You See Him. Then we have the generic titles: Small Miracles, Escape and, god help us, Window to the Soul.

Third Place

Filed under: Books, Publishing | 8 Comments »

FAQ- How Important is My Platform?

Posted on August 27, 2009 by betsylerner

Here’s a recent letter that touches on the “P” word:

Dear Betsy, My wife has a terrific idea for a book, a kind of sourcebook or compendium. She doesn’t work in the field, and has no qualifications that particularly scream Expert. Having said that, she has a prestigious MFA and excellent publications from small literary magazines in multiple genres. Assuming she had a knockout proposal, could she sell this book? Or would she get the No Platform cold shoulder? Sincerely, “R”

Dear “R”, First, I have to admit that I am always a little grossed out when people write on behalf of their spouses. What’s up with that?

Look, it’s impossible to answer without knowing the field– one field may be more forgiving than another. For instance, if she wanted to write about skin cancer then by all rights she should head up Sloan Kettering’s skin cancer department. Her other credentials aren’t nothing and may attest to her writing skills. We’ve all sold proposals whose authors had less than perfect platforms. It’s just so much easier when they do.

I used to work for an editor in chief who was obsessed with platform. In fact, he barely wanted to consider a writer who wasn’t from the Ivy leagues for starters. Ditto, journalists had to work at the top tier papers he deemed worthy. It felt like he had a scorecard for every project and if you could tic nine out of the ten attributes, you might get to acquire the book. While I was ripshit about this at the time, the unfairness of it all, as I grew up in publishing I saw how helpful it was to have the right platform. I came to see that not only my uptight boss but the rest of world wanted authors with mega-watt credentials. That’s how you got booked on TV! If you were from a top tier organization, the media would pay attention. Look how much coverage Frank Bruni is getting for his book about overeating, for example. If he had been a food critic for the Fuckme Herald, I doubt his book would have gotten any attention. Well, that’s not fair, I haven’t actually read it yet. The good news is that books and authors break through all the time, people without formal education or advanced degrees, people with sketchy resumes, people who couldn’t find their way out of a paperbag. It still happens, maybe with less frequency. The world is still blessedly unpredictable.

Did I answer the question? Your wife has a chance in hell unless that proposal really does come at the earth like a meteor. Now, can I ask you a question? Is this really about your “wife”?

Filed under: FAQ, Protocol, Publishing | 8 Comments »

You Were Always Waiting For This Moment To Arrive

Posted on August 12, 2009 by betsylerner

Spent the last two days going over page proofs with a writer. One of my favorite moments in the publishing process is when you see the manuscript transformed into typeset pages. I’ve always had great respect for book designers and all the decisions that go into making a page.

Today our work centered on space breaks. Her book employs three kinds. The small break that changes the subject within the same time frame. The medium break that generally indicates a jump in time. And the large space within the chapter that signals a new time and place, perhaps a new authorial tone as well.

Toward the end of our session, my client apologized for taking up so much time on space breaks. How dare you, I said, demean the space break. What did a a space break ever do to you? If this were a musical, I would now sing out about the value of space breaks.

Suffice to say, and perhaps I say this coming from a poetry background, space breaks are sacrosanct. They offer a rest, a breather, a game changer, a scene change, a time change, a change in pov, tone, or tense. A space break gives the writer an opportunity to take a left where he might have taken a right, add paprika, turn up the heat, or lower the lights. A poet knows that what comes between stanzas is an essential tool in making a poem kill it. Your space breaks as a prose writer are second only to chapter breaks.

This post sings of the so called blank spaces. This post also had too much sauvignon blanc at dinner.

Filed under: Authors, Books, Publishing | 6 Comments »

MAD LIB

Posted on August 4, 2009 by betsylerner

(Proper Name) ought to be an easy person to (Verb). He is (adjective), (adjective), (adjective), and ridiculously well connected. His father is (Proper Name), the editor of (National Magazine), and he grew up in the kind of gilded New York (noun) where Joan Didion, Jay McInerney and George Plimpton were drop-in guests. His godfather is Morgan Entrekin, the publisher of Grove/Atlantic, who bought (Proper Name’s) first novel, “(Book Title)” when (Proper Name) was just (Age). Hunter S. Thompson, another family friend, came through with a timely blurb, saying, “I’m afraid he will do for his (Noun) what I did for mine.”

Photo: Michael Nagle

If that weren’t insufferable enough, (Proper Name), now 25, has a third novel, “An Expensive Education,” being published on Wednesday by Atlantic Monthly, and “,” meanwhile, is being made into a (Noun) starring Kiefer Sutherland, Chace Crawford and (Your Favorite Rap Artist).

*Copy supplied by Charles McGrath/NYT/8/3/09

Filed under: Authors, Books, Film, Media, Publishing | 4 Comments »

Everybody Hurts (reprise)

Posted on July 31, 2009 by betsylerner

A reader asks, “Is it worth it — working so hard and long on a book to see it barely sell and get ignored by the media?”

A writer friend compared publishing a book to bringing a bucket of water down to the sea. I feel this way on many days when a client’s books doesn’t “perform in the marketplace.” And sometimes I think I’ve dried enough tears to fill an ocean.

Is it worth it? I wish I could yes, but all fruits bruise in their own way.

Spike Lee once said, after getting trashed by the critics, that that was the price for getting in the game. And then to quote a literary light and personal hero, Derek Jeter, who once said when the team was on a losing streak, “It makes you sick. How else can it make you feel. If doesn’t make you sick, you shouldn’t be competing.”

These words I took to heart when I started selling books, and eventually when I wrote my own. And to this day, I’m glad to be in the game and it makes me sick.

And since you put it that way, is anything worth it?

Filed under: Authors, Books, Publishing | 3 Comments »

The Magic is In the Hole

Posted on July 30, 2009 by betsylerner

You know how lots of paperbacks now have those “Questions for Reading Groups” at the back, which could also be called, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” These really idiotic questions that would actually insult a fairly bright fifth grader. Well, check this out.

I recently read Elizabeth Strout’s stories, Olive Kitteridge. I was deeply moved by a few stories and admired the book greatly. In fact, I keep thinking about one intimate exchange between a long married couple. The book is a huge commercial and critical success, wins the Pulitzer, all good. But then, something goes terribly wrong, and I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it.

When you come to the end of the paperback edition, there is: “A Conversation with Elizabeth Strout and Olive Kitteridge.” Seriously.

Here’s how it begins: “Random House Reader’s Circle sat down with Olive Kitteridge and Elizabeth Strout in a doughnut shop in Olive’s hometown of Crosby, Maine.” Was someone having a cute attack that day at the marketing meeting?

Random House, the author, and her character all chat about lots of literary matters, but then Random House goes for the jugular and asks why doughnuts figure so prominently in the stories. “Olive” answers that they sure do seem to show up in a lot of the stories. Then the author allows how the doughnuts, for Olive, represent “a certain heedlessness in her desire to appease her appetites.” And then (this gets better, folks) “Olive” herself asks her creator if she has a doughnut predilection. And Elizabeth Strout chides her character, “Oh, don’t be defensive, Olive. I know exactly how pleasing a good doughnut can be.”

Am I the only one having an aneuryism here?

Full disclosure and in the spirit of true modesty, I do feel I’ve written one of the all time great doughnut scenes in my memoir, so maybe I’m a little touchy when someone takes the Lord’s name in vain. But for St. Dunkin’s sake, since when is it okay ON ANY LEVEL to have an author interview her character? Are we Pirandello?

Also, I keep forgetting to mention that in Portland, they have this place called Voodoo Doughnuts and they sell BACON doughtnuts.

Filed under: Authors, Books, Publishing, The End of the World as We Know It | 10 Comments »

No I Would Not Give You False Hope on This Strange and Mournful Day

Posted on July 25, 2009 by betsylerner

A lot of painful conversations lately about literary fiction and its demise.

Was it ever any different?

When I was an assistant at Simon and Schuster 25 years ago, there was exactly one literary fiction editor. And his position was rumored to be precarious as a result of focusing exclusively on the literary stuff. (In fact, he was let go a year later.) Of course, this was especially true at a house like S&S where monster political and celebrity books ruled. I can still recall an anxious conversation between a senior editor and a publicist because they couldn’t remember if Jackie Collins preferred white roses or red.

I understood at that tender age that to focus entirely on fiction was to jeopardize my hope of becoming an editor. It’s a tough racket: writing, publishing, and selling books. Or as the great sub-rights director of S&S once explained when I couldn’t fathom the math of a profit and loss statement, “Toots,” she said, “It’s a nickel and dime business.”

Are things worse now? Sure. Internet, Kindle, My Face, a million more distractions. The economy, unemployment, the dow jones. Might just be the perfect storm ready to sink the great publishing ship Titanic. What does this mean to any committed writer in a publishing climate that resembles the parlor game musical chairs? Nothing. I would not give you false hope, but we need you more than ever.

Filed under: Agent, Publishing, Writers | 20 Comments »

Say It With Flowers

Posted on July 8, 2009 by betsylerner

This just in from a reader:

Hi Betsy,
My agent just sold my first book. I’m trying to act like a grown-up, but really, I feel like peeing my pants. Question: is there something special I should do to show my appreciation (besides, of course, forking over the commission?)
Thanks, K

Dear K: Congratulations to you and your agent. I know my readers would love to know what the book is, how many publishers were vying for it, how many millions the publisher is giving you as an advance. But we’re too polite to ask.

How do you thank an agent? Say it with flowers. Scotch if your agent is a dude.

One more thing: remember this feeling. You will never love your agent more than in this moment, or feel the earth a more benevolent place than now. This will eventually fade and be replaced with resentment (“forking over the commission”), disappointment, neglect and despair.

Love, Betsy

Filed under: Agent, Publishing | 5 Comments »

If I Thought Dreams Could Be Seen, They’d Surely Put My Head In a Guillotine

Posted on June 24, 2009 by betsylerner

Just came from my thrice yearly dinner with my oldest publishing friends. Did I say dinner? I meant bloodletting. I’m talking about the kind of gossip that soothes the soul. We also talked about a few books: Man Gone Down, Olive Kittredge, Eat Pray Love (her ex-husband just sold his memoir — Starve Sin Hate), Eden’s Outcasts, Words In Air, The Looming Tower.

Lest you think we’re just a bunch of publishing bitches up to no good.

Filed under: Publishing, The End of the World as We Know It | 1 Comment »

You Look Like a Monkey, and You Smell Like One, Too

Posted on June 17, 2009 by betsylerner

Dearest Darling Readers of this Blog:

I have some fantastic news. The Forest for the Trees (that old thing) will be ten next year, and my publisher (oh, with just a smidge of encouragement) has decided to publish a revised edition. A lot has happened in ten years, and yet I’m still the same old fuckwad I ever was so the book will remain essentially the same — full of gimlet eyed observations about writers and keen discouragement. My first editor actually tried me to get me to tone that down. Hello?!

Filed under: Publishing | 3 Comments »

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