Posted on February 21, 2011 by betsylerner
There was an article in today’s NYT (god forgive me for starting a post with as lame an opening as that. I once had a boss whose entire social skill consisted of asking if you had read a particular article from either the WSJ or NYT. I always felt I had to read both papers when I worked for him and cram before I went in every morning, but I digress) about marginalia, where will it go in the digital age, who will care? I am big believer in the margins. The scrawls and doodles that make up a conversation between reader and writer. I once saw a project about Plath’s marginalia. I didn’t ultimately work on it, but it was pretty amazing stuff. A young woman went through Plath’s personal library and copied out her marginalia. It was as if Plath thought Dostoyevsky was personally writing for her. And the ways in which his ideas informed her poetry were also astounding to see. My marginalia is a touch more pedestrian. I once found an exclamation in my college copy of The Interpretation of Dreams in a passage about family destroying the self in which I remarked: that’s me! I also write words I don’t know in the backs of books and page numbers for passages I like when I don’t want to cock up the book.
Do you write in books?
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Posted on February 20, 2011 by betsylerner
I spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on a writing project. I’m talking everything from catching typos, to seeing that a scene was missing, to sharpening up some dialogue, to making a final decision about the last scene in which I have taken a chance. Crazy or canny? I feel like a nervous bride on her wedding night. A clown in a dunking booth. Polly want a cracker. This is the moment no one has been waiting for.
How do you know you’re finished? How do know if it says what you want it to say? If it says what it needs so say? How do you know you’re ready to let it loose. What happens if the world’s indifference greets you with open arms? Does it matter to your future work? How do catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you pour a new foundation, pull a weed, remember those beautiful little packets of garden seed?
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Posted on February 17, 2011 by betsylerner
The other day, a writer asked me what I get out of blogging. Friends, for starters. Deep, abiding friendships with thousands of people I’ll never have to meet or go to their kids’ bar mitzvahs. Nothing puts me in a worse mood than a bar mitzvah. Next, I got my publisher to let me revise my book by showing them how hip, viable, and down I really am. Next, I was approached by a publisher to write a young adult novel. I’ve adapted The Good Earth, set in Beverly Hills, and it’s coming out in 2012. What else? I’ve learned a lot about blogging, social networking, e-book marketing. This is useful in my role as an agent. The biggest plus is it’s taken ten years off my life. Maybe you’ve heard: blogging is the new forty. I haven’t made any money, but I’m doing what I love so I know the money will follow. Right?
What does blogging do you for you? Can you believe blog is even a word? Remember how it sounded the first time you heard it?
Filed under: You Go Girl | 104 Comments »
Posted on February 17, 2011 by betsylerner
Spoke tonight at the Center for Fiction at the Mercantile Library. I cleverly structured my talk in three parts: beginning, middle, and end. Only halfway through beginning I started to feel kind of nauseas of the Sartre variety. My own voice was sickening to me and I kept banging the little light on the podium. Everyone in the room appeared tired and one guy right in the middle was stone cold asleep.
A ton of people stormed the podium when I was finished wanting autographs and hugs. Some women in a writing group came up and said they expected someone much tougher. They all read the blog and they were shocked to see how sweet and gentle I am. Fuck off. They were surprised at how soft-spoken I am. Fuck off. They didn’t expect someone so nice. Hardy-fuckin-har. People, don’t fall for this nice facade, these dulcet tones. I hate myself and the horse I came in on. Other than that, it was a great night. Love, Betsy
P.S. The Fiction Center is pretty amazing. I’m going to try to go on 2/24.
Filed under: self-loathing, Self-promotion | 45 Comments »
Posted on February 15, 2011 by betsylerner
Though I am a fully functioning human being to all outward appearances, I’m in that half-mummy, half-zombie state. In other words, I am in search of the perfect sub-title for a book I’m about to submit. The title, in this rare case, is a no-brainer. And I’d tell you what it is, but I can’t. The title is straightforward so the subtitle doesn’t need to explain it so much as offer some promise. There are all the usual sub-title variants:
How to Go Fuck Yourself
Seven Steps to Fucking Yourself
The Rise and Fall of Your Fucking Self
A Journey of
The Road to
The Path of
The Way of
A Meditation on
A Ballad of
A Song of
Notes On
The Philosophy of
The Psychology
A Short History Of
I will show off and say that my sub-title for Food and Loathing was brilliant: Food and Loathing: A Lament. It was so brilliant in fact that the publisher made me change it on the paperback to the vomitrocious: A Life Counted Out In Calories. I cut this deal so they wouldn’t put mini shakes, burgers and fries on the jacket. You’re actually glad to see a book go out of print with that shit on it.
Do you have any feelings about sub-titles one way or the other? Did I miss any?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 57 Comments »
Posted on February 15, 2011 by betsylerner
I’m giving a talk tomorrow night. I know that craftwork sounds a little like witchcraft, but it’s going to be good. Come if you can!
Craftwork with Betsy Lerner
Mercantile Library
17 East 47th Street
New York City
Wednesday February 16, 2011
07:00 pm
Tags: Event
Free to Members and Subscribers to One Story
$8 General Admission or Donation of a Book to our Books for NYC Schools Program
CRAFTWORK
Our ongoing series of talks by some of today’s most exciting writers on the nuts and bolts of creating great fiction is presented in partnership with One Story.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Posted on February 15, 2011 by betsylerner
Spent the day in Boston. I’m going to be honest with you: my hair looked great, which sets the tone for the whole day. Am I right? First, I met with a client. I was the editor on her first book 23 years ago and we’re still going strong six books later. We’re like an old married couple except we don’t find ourselves silent at a diner where we have nothing to say. Then I met with a prospective client who you can immediately tell is not only a leader in her field, but a great communicator. Very exciting to spend some time in her lab. Then I had lunch with one of my first authors. She’s a big deal reviewer now and the author of eight or nine books. As gifted as she is gracious. I used to always joke that she should write an author etiquette book.
Then, it was a two publisher afternoon. One an old friend, the other a new colleague who is publishing one of my client’s books. Her office was grand with books of substance everywhere. I forgot how much I love a good field trip. I love seeing the offices where people work. I like stepping into their world. It was unseasonably warm and I had a few minutes to think about things as I walked through Boston common. Is there anything more lovely than a young man with a satchel strapped across his chest and gray slacks hurrying with a paper cone of flowers for his girl? Or a pretty table set with best dishes and candles? Every beginning is beautiful. Every vase filled with flowers on a cold February night. I didn’t feel like myself. In other words, I felt good.
How was your day?
Filed under: Agent | 48 Comments »
Posted on February 13, 2011 by betsylerner
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I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
–Pablo Neruda
Happy Valentine’s Day. Try not to get too depressed. |
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Filed under: Uncategorized | 44 Comments »
Posted on February 10, 2011 by betsylerner
If you think I’m going to respond to that outpouring of love and support, you have another thing coming you beautiful motherfucking writers. Like my friend and colleague Erin “The Hose” says, I hate to be a bitch, but I hate not to be a bitch. Or something like that.
So today, I was the distinguished guest at a Master’s tea at Yale. I was invited to talk about publishing, writing, agenting, the usual. I thought it would be really clever to eat a few “pop’ems” before I left the house. These are Entemann’s idea of munchkins, only a little more dense. Anyway, I like to show up for these gigs with a little white powder on my chest in case my cred is in question. Then I like to remind the kids that life is long, but not that long. That if they do enough drugs they will become great writers. And that getting published is like getting spit on. It’s exhausting being this inspirational. The students, by the way, were gorgeous and hip and one dreamy young man, the last one on line to ask a question, told me he was writing a memoir about his search for love. Sign me up.
What would you tell a college student who wants to be a writer?
Filed under: Agent | 97 Comments »
Posted on February 10, 2011 by betsylerner
After two years and three months of posting every day with the exception of guest bloggers when I’m away, it finally happened (and I know it happens to everyone and it’s not a reflection of my masculinity), but I couldn’t get it up. I started one post after another and I just didn’t feel it, couldn’t muster the desire or passion or just plain bone for life.
My head is swirling with the comments of the last few days and I don’t where to go with that. Much is happening at work, but I’m duty bound not to talk about projects and clients in play. I’m in the middle of three writing projects and suddenly feeling that a train is about to hit me as I dance on the tracks. And someone said my blog isn’t really about publishing and I feel defensive and wounded. Imagine that! My writing book is about publishing from an editor’s perspective, but the part that people seem more interested in is the inner life of writers. The wicked child and all that jazz. Touching fire! All that matters is release. I think that’s why I write. Bring my roots rain.
Have you ever had this problem?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 85 Comments »
