Betsy Lerner

For Some Reason I Can’t Explain

Posted on November 4, 2009 by betsylerner

Blurb? Will do!

I’m working late. Contracts, paying bills, rejecting, er considering, query letters. I’ve got to send out a manuscript for blurbs and I’m stumbling on the letter. Asking for blurbs is the worst part of the job. It’s usually in the editor’s purview to get the blurbs, but I usually help out when I know a writer. Did I ever tell you how I found a galley for a book I edited in a used bookstore and within the galley was my letter asking an author for a blurb. Agh.

Sorry, I don't give blurbs. It's a policy.

Once, I gave a blurb to a book I didn’t like that much because I’m a good egg, I guess. When the book came out, it had five other blurbs on the jacket from writers far more significant than I will ever be. I was flattered to be in such blurb company. Blurb company? Was the book better than I realized, or was the writer super connected. You can’t blow that many writers, or can you?

Filed under: Publishing, The End of the World as We Know It | 12 Comments »

Make a Wish

Posted on November 3, 2009 by betsylerner

Today, I’m having breakfast with one of my best friends in publishing. I had just started at a new publishing house and from the moment I walked in, I felt I had made a mistake. I had come from a very literary house and this place was all about the foil embossed jackets. As I walked up and down the halls, editors were busy on the phones, etc. I felt like the girl with the tray at the fifth grade cafeteria. Then, tucked around a corner beyond editorial row, I saw a door covered in jacket proofs — each one more alluring than the next, for their wit, for their elegance, for their snap, crackle and pop. I was determined to befriend the editor within. He was determined to keep away. I have that effect on people. Eventually, I wore him down, and for a time I believed we were evil twins.

Then I left my career as an editor and as all partings go, it was unclear who I would remain friends with, who would drift away. Was the bond dependent on working for the same oppressors? Was it geographically determined? Would there be a perfunctory post-departure lunch and then…nothing? Today is my friend’s birthday. We’ve known each other for fifteen years. He still kills me. Happy Birthday, dude.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Everything About You Is Bringing Me Misery

Posted on November 1, 2009 by betsylerner

Weekend reading report:

Dysfunctional family memoir – pass

Abused farm animals – pass

Hooker mother-in-law – pass

Multi-generational saga – pass

Client’s second novel – Ten huge steps forward from first book which was great. Thrilling when that happens. Some writers seem to write the same book over and over, so watching a writer spread her wings is hugely exciting and encouraging for a long-term career.

Two revised chapters from new client – Better than I had hoped for. Again, swoon. So many writers say that they are taking your edits, but many return with a slightly altered manuscript. When someone figures out a way to take your notes and go beyond your expectations, then the whole process gets energized.

Weekend Movie Report:

A Serious Man: Kafka meets Woody Allen by way of the Coen Brothers. I have always wanted to be a Coen brother. Please see this movie, esp if you’re from a shtetl, as I am.

Weekend Shopping Report:

Went to buy a computer with the huge pay day I got for my revision. (I’m a firm believer in only buying new computer equipment with money you make from writing.) Couldn’t decide. The kid who helped me had the most profound case of chapped lips.

Two packages of Printworks Multipurpose 750 sheets of printer paper from Target. I still can’t read on screen (so if you were thinking of getting me a Nook for Xmas, I’m afraid it’s back to the drawing board).

Ugg moccasins. (A treat I gave myself for a ginormous sale this week. I know, quite the come down from my Prada’s but so comfy.) I call them my Fuck Me Mocs.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Treat

Posted on October 30, 2009 by betsylerner

Just in time for the holiday I most hate, here are some bites from this week’s round up in PublishersMarketPlace.com that give me a scare:

Witchy Woman! From the Grammy Award-winning producer of Fleetwood, the “cleverly” titled STARTING RUMOURS, an oral biography revealing the tempestuous story of the making of Fleetwood Mac’s album “Rumours.” Oral indeed!

ADVENT CONSPIRACY: Can Christmas Still Change the World?, a “call to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful and transformative way by worshipping fully, spending less, giving more and loving all.” Is it me, or is the title a little misleading? And what’s this about spending less and giving more? I hate that.

SEXY CHRISTIANS, a guide for couples to understand and embrace the hope, healing and healthy sexuality God intended for their marriages. I can’t wait for the sequel, Sexy Jews. Sorry, everything that just flashed through my mind is too depraved for even me to write.

It wouldn’t be Halloween without HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE: An Anthology of Zombie Romance, with new stories by zombie masters. Zombie masters? Sounds like an undead golf championship.

DEAD CITY is about a…zombie plague!! In Texas!!! The living dead’s numbers are growing and the ranks of the infected are breaking out of the quarantined zones and into neighboring states. I hate when that happens.

Filed under: Books | 3 Comments »

Take a Meeting

Posted on October 29, 2009 by betsylerner

One of my beloved clients allowed as to how he was hurt that I hadn’t written about him. Let’s correct that now. On Tuesday, he and I went to his publisher’s office for a meeting with the publicity and marketing people. Publishers will not always grant these meetings unless you are McKenzie Phillips. And sometimes, bringing a writer in can do more damage than good. Not in this case, my client is handsome, articulate, charming, in other words, eye-candy for the literary set.

The office began to look like the inside of a clown car: one person after another kept coming in. The Publisher, the editorial director, the associate publisher, the publicity director, the publicist, a web person and later their Amazon sales person. Most everyone had read the book! Brainstorming about the jacket ensued! Ideas were exchanged about how to reach the market! It went on and on. This is not your average meeting. And my client is not Mckenzie Philips. (Can’t have everything.)

I was really grateful that the publishing team came together for my client. It’s a shit-all climate out there for selling books and everyone is pulling back. This publisher has been very successful. What’s key, I think, is having a publishing team, like a ball club, that believes in itself where the various players respect one another. At some of the publishing houses where I worked, certain employees weren’t above crucifying a colleague in a full conference room or behind her back in a bathroom stall. I’m telling you, it was very Gossip Girl. Fun, but the books suffered.

Afterward, I had lunch with my client. The waiter reminded me of a guy at my alternative camp who I had a crush on.

Filed under: Agent, Authors, Publishing | 7 Comments »

Priceless

Posted on October 28, 2009 by betsylerner

The holidays are upon us and one reader wants to know:

Could you spill all, please, on gifting standards for agents at Christmas/holidays? Like maybe a continuum, from just started working
together, haven’t sent the mss out yet, to sold book one, etc. Dos, don’ts? Ask the assistant?

This was too much for little old me, so I consulted her holiness, Amy Vanderbilt. She has a section on business gift giving, but it’s pretty tedious, “There are no hard and fast rules governing the giving of gifts in an office but you must use good judgment.” Oh, okay. Later she counsels, “If you receive a present that smacks of sexual innuendo or bribery, return it immediately. Don’t even keep it for the day.” Not even a few hours? Send back the Hitachi Magic Wand! Now!

Sidebar: On page 386, in the section on weddings, Vanderbilt has a sketch of a “Jewish grouping at a chuppah” showing where everyone stands in relation to the rabbi. In case you didn’t know, the maid of honor does NOT stand next to the groomsman who she will later ball in the coatcheck room. Just saying.

Where does this leave us? I say a card is always nice. A bottle of wine. A St. Dunkin’s gift card. Every year my favorite client sends a box of fruit from Harry and David and the whole office loves it. Lots of chocolate arrives in fancy boxes which I can’t eat because I’m allergic to nuts and half that crap has marzipan in it. But everybody else loves it. If your agent got you a seven figure deal, I’d spring for the Teucher Deluxe Gift Box. If you just started working together, maybe an A-Rod Bobble Head. One client gave me a Waterman pen, but that wasn’t for Christmas. I would never ask an assistant what to get, at least not our assistant who is at a Pearl Jam concert tonight and sometimes eats an entire box of cereal in one sitting at his desk. Other ideas: book ends, paper weights, letter openers, stationery, you see where I’m going with this. I would stay away from that catalogue company Levenger just because all their stuff looks like the last person who used it was dead. I think the coolest gift I ever got was a Ouiji board by a client whose novel featured a scene with a Ouiji. I use it as my desk blotter and often consult the spirits when selling a book.

Bottom line: if you give with your heart you won’t spend as much money.

Filed under: Protocol | 9 Comments »

I’m Walking On Sunshine

Posted on October 27, 2009 by betsylerner

My editor called today to say that she liked the work I did on the revision for The Forest for the Trees. Especially the ending. I no longer thought it worked, too overblown, but I kept moving paragraphs and sentences around like the wheel of a combination lock, hoping they would click into place if I got each sentence lined up just so. Finally, I scrapped it and started fresh. I think doing that is almost always the best solution to pages that have been over-worked.

So, dearest darling beloved readers of this blog. FFTT will come out next fall. I owe you a lot for helping me find my mojo again as the ever positive and cheerful promoter of writers and all things bookish. We will have to have a party. I may even get a fresh quantity of customized pencils made. I know you want them. You do.

One last piece of business. Check this out from today’s PublishersMarketPlace new deals column:

FICTION: DEBUT

Laurie London’s BONDED BY BLOOD, the first in her Sweetblood series, about a vampire warrior who must protect a human woman with a particularly delicious blood type from the vampire predators who hunt her, to Margo Lipschultz at HQN, in a two-book deal, by Emmanuelle Alspaugh at Judith Ehrlich Literary Management (World).

That coulda been us. ‘Nuff said.

Filed under: Books, Publishing, Writing | 18 Comments »

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

Posted on October 27, 2009 by betsylerner

When I pitched my first project, I developed a rash that did not abate until I sold it. The rash went from my hand up to my upper arm. The same thing happened with the next, and the next, and the one after that. My husband feared that all my commission was going to the dermatologist. (All but for that one little pair of Prada Maryjanes, that is.) Fast forward ten years. Here I am pitching two books today and my skin is positively glowing.

Still, there is the first pitch call, working out the kinks, finding the sweet spot. Plus, some books pitch themselves, especially if the hook is in the title, if in a second or two the editor can grasp the whole project. (In other words, kill yourself getting the right title and subtitle.) Bottom line: it’s the read, but just like the browser in the bookstore, the editor has to want to read your project first because there is something so compelling about it, hooked perhaps by the title or the first line, page, paragraph, chapter. Like we used to say in the operating room when I was Atul Gawande’s surgical supervisor, and no I did not approve of his listening to They Might Be Giants while doing heart transplants, we used to say: we’re in.

Filed under: Agent | 6 Comments »

How Will I Know If He Really Loves Me

Posted on October 26, 2009 by betsylerner

Nation, check out this letter:

I’ve had a Big Agent at one of the Best Agencies in NYC. She wasn’t able to sell my novel, but I got to see the editor rejections and they all had nice things to say. More than one asked to see something new from me. My agent fired me after it didn’t sell. I threw that novel away and wrote Novel 2. I sent out queries on a Tuesday and had four offers by Thursday. I picked a youngish, hungry agent at one of the Other Best Agencies. He sent my ms out early this week. My question is: how do I know if I have writing talent? I added all this other stuff because it would appear to be in the “pro” column. But how do you KNOW? I read my stuff and I know it’s competent and maybe even good, but how do you know if you’ve written something that really jumps off the page? Is such a thing even possible to know?

Okay, little lady, let’s break this down, as Miss Beverly used to say in step class.

“Big Agent…one of the best agencies in NYC.” First, if you weren’t with Betsy Lerner, you weren’t with a Big Agent at one of the best agencies in New York. You were at a puppy mill.

“The agent fired me.” This just blows my mind. There are plenty of reasons to “fire” a client, but a book not selling sure ain’t one of them. The only real reason to fire a client is if they are unreasonably abusive and fail to gift you at Christmas.

“I threw that novel away and wrote number 2.” That is the fighting spirit this blog endorses unequivocally.

“I picked a youngish, hungry agent.” That, too, is how I like them. Good job by you.

“How do I know if I have talent?” How do you know if you have halitosis, a bad credit rating, a gift for small talk. How does one know anything in life? Personally, I know my self worth because I step on the scale every morning.

“Competent, maybe even good.” Hmmm. Sounds like WFM. (That’s Writer’s False Modesty.) After all, we’ve had shark agent, good editor letters, sent out your manuscript on Tuesday and got offers of representation on Thursday. Maybe what you’re asking is, can this all fall apart again? Yes, sadly it can. But my guess is that you’re going to the world series with this one. The part of your letter that makes me say this is that you started book 2 on the heels of that devastating experience. That, to me, says it all. Talent will only get you so far. Drive, tenacity, and the ability to harness new material will keep you in the race. We wish you luck and please write again and let us know how you make out.

Filed under: Agent, Client | 12 Comments »

You Can’t Handle the Truth

Posted on October 23, 2009 by betsylerner

You know how Tom Cruise swings a bat to help him think in A Few Good Men? Well, here’s my secret: putty. Namely Silly Putty. I have a little red egg on my desk and I squeeze it in my hand when I talk on the phone. Sometimes, I roll the putty into a snake, coil it, mash it down. Sometimes, I press in into the surface of the egg so it imprints the writing. Sometimes I stretch it out as far as it can go, roll it up. It looks, then, like a rose or a part of the female anatomy. On that note, have a great weekend.