Betsy Lerner

Here’s Johnny

Posted on January 20, 2010 by betsylerner

Just Kids - Patti Smith - Ecco 1/19/10

NY Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/books/18book.html

LA Times feature: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-patti-smith17-2010jan17,0,2564080.story

NY Post feature: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/relics_of_punk_poet_a61CPcQkfCcp6IshzkCA8J

Chicago Tribune feature: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ae-0117-patti-smith-20100115,0,2094777.story

San Francisco Chronicle lead review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/15/RVQC1BH4ST.DTL

Boston Globe review: http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/01/17/patti_smith_recalls_life_with_mapplethorpe_and_atop_new_york_art_scene/

Newsday: http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/books/just-kids-by-patti-smith-1.1701826

Cleveland Plain Dealer review: http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2010/01/in_her_memoir_just_kids_rocker.html

Bookforum.com: http://www.bookforum.com/review/4981

Filed under: Authors, Client | 10 Comments »

Once Upon a Time You Dressed So Fine

Posted on January 18, 2010 by betsylerner

Sales figures. When I was a young editor, a highly regarded literary agent sent me the second novel by a writer whose first I had loved. I was desperate to acquire it, but before my boss had even read a page, he quickly surmised the situation. The novelist’s first work hadn’t sold much and his publisher had passed on the book. He asked me to ask the agent for sales figures. She sneered at my request. I wasn’t allowed to bid on the book. And I never saw another project from the agent.

Fast forward. Today, all sales figures are available to publishers on Bookscan, which tracks approximately 70% of sales. Now, you can no longer fib about how many books you’ve sold the way you might fib about penis size, body weight, or SAT’s

Duh, a good track record is hugely helpful in providing leverage when you’re selling your next book or the one after that. But it’s not everything. I think of bad sales figures as a sand trap. If you can chip your way out you can stay in the game. The novelist I couldn’t acquire went on to win five literary prizes and was twice a finalist for the National Book Award.

How do you stay in the game, overcome sales figures, demons, financial insecurity, creative ebbs, night terrors?

Filed under: Authors, Publishing | 11 Comments »

Deep Inside My Heart I Know I Can’t Escape

Posted on January 17, 2010 by betsylerner

Be afraid, be very afraid.

When I was an editor, everyone at the publishing houses feared a few agents, most notably Andrew Wylie who has gone on the record with his disdain for publishers. He was a bully, he didn’t play by the rules (or rather he played by his own rules), and he exacted huge advances for his clients.

In a Vanity Fair article he was quoted as saying, “When I got into the business, I saw that agents had…friends. Their close friends were publishers, and their second closest friends were their clients. Their friendships with certain editors, certain houses were important to protect the longevity of their profit margin…It’s a source of satisfaction…that editors do not recommend us to writers. They say, ‘No, no!” Whatever you do, don’t go with Andrew.’ Well, thank you very much, we’re doing our job.”

I realized then it was better to be feared than loved. Fewer people will attend your funeral, but so what. You’re taking a permanent dirt nap anyway. Unfortunately, I think the only I person I scare is myself.

When I left editorial for the dark side, a fellow editor took me aside and said he thought I was making the right decision, becoming an agent. He had observed that I fought too hard on behalf of the authors, that I didn’t realize who “buttered my bread.” I couldn’t let anything drop. He said I wasn’t a good company girl. I took all these as great compliments, that I was a true champion of writers. Though I also felt vaguely accused of being…immature.

My parents had always accused me of never knowing when to stop, but why should I have stopped begging to go to that Peter Frampton concert? So what if I had a 102 degree fever. Why wouldn’t I want to go to my 34th Grateful Dead Concert? What is enough? I keep pushing because I believe in the these little fuckers known as books. And if they’re worth publishing, it’s worth trying to get it right. In the ten years I’ve been on Andrew Wylie’s side of the fence, however, I still find my stance is more collaborative than confrontational.

That said, I’d like to be feared. I want editors to tremble and publishers to faint. And please, don’t think of me with a referral. For god’s sakes, man, whatever you do, don’t go with Betsy Lerner.

Filed under: Agent, Editor, Publishing | 19 Comments »

Let’s Not Do Lunch

Posted on January 15, 2010 by betsylerner

May I please have the dressing on the side?

I want to write about a strange publishing phenomenon which I call phantom lunch or faux lunch. This is where a lunch invitation is extended that will never materialize. Or when you actually have a date but then start canceling and rescheduling, knowing that you will never actually sit across a table from this person and stuff a California roll down your gullet.

The faux invitation: we’ve all been there when you are the recipient of a vague invitation, an email, say, that ends with a p.s. let’s do lunch. If it isn’t followed with some possible dates to actually have lunch, then it’s a faux. An empty gesture. Don’t be fooled. It doesn’t mean let’s have lunch; it means let’s not have lunch and say we did. Or, in a perfect world, we might be cooking raw beef over a Korean b-b-q, but we’re not. Or, I’m vaguely interested in you and haven’t totally written you off, but that doesn’t mean I’m prepared to sit for an hour and a half and watch you scarf the chicken paillard at Molyvos.

Then there’s the cancel/reschedule dance. Big show of being sorry about rescheduling. No, no, no, I totally understand. Your next free date is months from now. Then that gets bumped. Then the next. It’s one thing and another: author in town, editing a crash book, sales conference, yeast infection, family brutally murdered by random attacker. Oh god, I hate when that happens. Well, don’t worry, we’ll reschedule when you’re back in the office. No worries. Well, my friend, highly fucking likely that you’ll be enjoying the roasted cod with fingerling potatoes at Balthazar. Your lunch date ain’t happening. Trust me on that.

Filed under: Protocol, Publishing | 17 Comments »

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Writers

Posted on January 14, 2010 by betsylerner

I forgot all about my “ask a question” gmail account, so without further delay (and questions always welcome):

Hi there

I have just started following your blog.

I am in the process of writing a synopsis for a novel which I need to get finished by 28th February. I would love some hints and tips.

Many thanks

Dear Reader: I know agents differ on the matter of the synopsis and its importance, but I’ve always hated their skinny asses. With fiction, it’s all in the execution, so what can a synopsis tell you? A brilliant one line description is worth gold, as far as I’m concerned. If a writer sends me a synopsis and a few chapters, I just read a few pages of the novel itself and see if the writing interests me. The synopsis is of no use to me. Unless I forgot my sleeping pills.

But why are you writing a synopsis on a deadline? Is this a self-imposed deadline (which I am in favor of)? Has an agent asked for one? If you’re determined to write this god damn synopsis, I would keep the following in mind: speak to the themes more than the plot details. Describe just the two or three most important characters. Pepper the motherfucker with rhetorical questions, i.e. What happens when a brilliant literary agent and blogger falls desperately in love with one of her readers? Most helpful, go to publishers’ websites and read the copy they squirrel together for their authors. You’ll learn a lot.

Now, for some real tips for writers:

Wash your specs with warm soapy water and dry with a cloth
Floss twice a day.
It is NEVER too late to thank your agent/editor with fruit or flowers
Look up words you don’t know.
Go to at least one reading a month (and buy the book)
Read a poem a day.
Write

Filed under: Publishing, Writing | 10 Comments »

In My Own Little Corner, In My Own Little Chair

Posted on January 13, 2010 by betsylerner

Dear Diary,

I remember when I was a little girl dreaming of what it might be like someday to be a literary agent. And I thought it would be just like tonight: hobnobbing at a gallery opening, being whisked off to dinner to a private room in a five star restaurant, the table filled with rock stars, clothing designers, photographers, producers, heirs to fortunes, and hedge fund managers. The conversation ranging from real estate to bestiality, Avatar to frequent flier mileage.

And I always imagined that when the night was over and my yellow pumpkin had delivered me to my office, I would be back amid the piles of manuscripts, letters, and contracts. And that into the late, quiet night, I would write my long editorial letters. And that I would grow old among books and writers. And that I would be happy.

Love, Betsy

Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

If You Wanted the Sky I Would Write Across the Sky

Posted on January 11, 2010 by betsylerner

When I was in the fifth grade, I was crazy about my English teacher Miss Presnell. She has horse hair clogs and played Jethro Tull’s Aqua Lung during class, handing out the lyrics for us to analyze.

Then, in the 12th grade, Myra Fassler. She was probably sixty, had a wardrobe of beige slacks and cardigans. She marched around the room in her crepe sole shoes with a poetry book in her hand. She nearly spit out “Daddy” as she circled the room. You do no do. You do not do.

One night a week, we were invited to her home. Only three of us ever showed. We’d sit around a coffee table that looked like an inverted drum, filled with poetry magazines and thin paperback poetry books. I loved sifting through them, listening to Myra read. When I won $100 for a writing prize at the end of the year, I spent the whole thing on poetry books. I didn’t even save some for a nickel bag.

Who were your teachers? Mentors?

Filed under: Poetry, Writers, Writing | 19 Comments »

That’s Me In the Corner

Posted on January 10, 2010 by betsylerner

I went to a Man Ray exhibit today at the Jewish Museum in New York. Am I the last person to know that his birth name was Emmanuel Radnitzky? And sure enough, early in the exhibit there was Radnitzky at 13, portrait of the artist as a bar mitzvah boy. I would have enjoyed the exhibit more, but two women in front of me kept talking about their co-op boards and favorite brand of veggie burger. I know I could have walked away, but I was so disgusted by them that I was also attracted. There was also a father, son, grandson trio moving through the show. The grandfather was in a wheelchair. When the art was really outrageous, the old man would punch the air with his cane and exclaim, “He was meshuggenah! Meshuggenah, I tell you.”

Fast forward to the documentary at the end of the show. Here we see the aging Ray in beret and thick glasses; could possibly win a Groucho Marx look-a-like contest. One thing he says stays with me. He doesn’t care about being understood, he says. He wants to be accepted. What does this mean exactly? Has he grown tired of trying to explain his work? He wanted to be accepted by whom? Is it personal or institutional? Doesn’t acceptance follow understanding? In publishing we think in terms of critical success (reviews, prizes) and sales (money). Would you feel accepted if you received a Pulitzer? What about being on the New York Times Bestseller list? What about self-acceptance; does such a thing exist? What it would take to feel accepted? Understood? What’s more important to you?

Filed under: Uncategorized | 29 Comments »

Ask The Angels

Posted on January 7, 2010 by betsylerner

Publication Date: January 19, 2010

Dear Friends of my blog: It has been my great pleasure and privilege to work with Patti Smith on her memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. I was fifteen years old when I wandered into Cutler’s record store and was captivated by a record cover like none I had ever seen: a woman in a white shirt, suspenders, a jacket tossed over her shoulder, slim hips, and her stare defiant and cool. Horses. I had to have it. From the first line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” I was blown away and I was smitten. As many say of that record, it changed my life.

Just Kids is about two poor kids, outcasts, who met by chance and became lovers, then friends, and remained soul mates throughout their lives. Their story is the embodiment of a dream of how two artists provided each other with encouragement, ballast, inspiration, and love. Just Kids is a love story, an elegy, and a prelude to fame. The background is NYC in the Seventies: Max’s Kansas City, Coney Island, Horn & Hardart, Warhol’s Factory, CBGB, Scribners, 42nd Street, and of course the infamous Hotel Chelsea.

I hope you’ll get to read it. And tell me any Patti stories if you have them. Or about your own creative soul mates. Your sustenance.

Filed under: Books | 23 Comments »

The Way I Feel When I’m In Your Hands

Posted on January 6, 2010 by betsylerner

Does honesty have to be brutal? How many writers say: be brutally honest. Isn’t honest enough? And what are they really saying? In many cases, I think it’s code for: be gentle. Learning how to be brutally honest and gentle at the same time is the agent’s/editor’s duty. Obviously, some are better at it than others. Of course, I’d like to think I’m good at it, but who knows? You’re better at it with some writers than others. It’s often a matter of clicking, and in the best cases you inspire each other.

For me, there are just 2-3 people from whom I can take criticism and use it constructively. They are highly critical, but they converse in a way doesn’t make me feel defensive. We’ve developed a language over time; it feels collaborative and exciting. I think of them as my cut men, giving me just what I need to get back in the ring.

When I was younger anything anyone said affected me so deeply it was ridiculous. I still don’t know how I survived the MFA workshops. (Oh, yeah, that little six month “sabbatical.” LOL) Well, my dearest darling readers, how do you like your honesty: straight up, brutal, gentle, between the eyes, poached, baked, with a side of fries? Tell me the truth.

Filed under: Writers, Writing | 31 Comments »

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