Betsy Lerner

FAQ: Hard Copy or Email?

Posted on May 8, 2009 by betsylerner

L.K. asks: is it better to send your query to an agent in hard copy or in an email.

Up until a year or two ago, I would have said hard copy. But something has tipped and the letter with the sadly folded SASE seems a little antiquated. I think most agents will agree: send email queries.

The real question is who reads the letters and/or the emails. The agent herself or an assistant or an intern? Unless you were referred by an established writer or client of the agent, the chances are an assistant or intern will screen your letter. I actually read all my mail for two reasons:

1) At sleepaway camp we had a job wheel and every day you were assigned a task such as clothesline or toilet or sweep. But the best job was being the camper designated, after lunch, to get the mail and snacks. I can not tell you how much I loved getting the mail, handing the letters out to my bunkmates, and savoring the letters I received. Somehow, every day when I open my mail at work, I always remember that feeling. Totally queer, I know.

2) I don’t trust anyone to know what I like.

How do you get your material read or an invitation to send more? BTW, attach the first chapter or fifty pages. Just do it. If the agent is interested in your letter, it will save a step to have the pages attached. Next, do everything you can to make your query appealing before you send it. How? Well, depending on what it is:

get some of the work published before you submit it to an agent. This is extremely helpful, especially if it’s in a well known or highly regarded outlet such as Slate or a national magazine.
develop a popular blog like Julie & Julia or Dooce
give lectures, speaking engagements, workshops, build a following
any media attention will be a huge help
win a prize (enter writing contents)

It used to be that the book kicked off all these things, but in today’s very tough climate, publishers want authors who already come with a platform. If you build your platform and present yourself credibly and professionally in your query letter along with having a great idea (and a great title that in and of itself is a hook), you will probably get responses.

People sometimes like to speculate about whether there are masterpieces out there not getting published because of the system. I’m not one of them.

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Obit

Posted on May 7, 2009 by betsylerner

Woody Allen, Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Jackie Gleason, Mike Nichols, Nora Ephron, Arthur Penn, and Lily Tomlin were among Sam Cohn’s clients.

He was an original founder of ICM, his previous company launched All in the Family and The Sting. He brokered a ten movie deal for Woody Allen without studio interference. At one point, 10 movies and 9 Broadway or off-Broadway shows opened with Sam Cohn clients as writers, directors, or stars. “It wasn’t just a money thing for him,” said E.L. Doctorow, “it was about the quality of the project and its potential.”

According to the NTY obit, “He conformed to none of the agent stereotypes: not the oily, luv-ya-baby baloney meister; not the meek and solicitous Danny Rose-like sycophant; not the sleekly groomed, power-hungry packager.” And I wonder why, after ten years of agenting, I still cringe when people ask me what I do.

Sam Cohn went against type: he hated LA, he was a shabby dresser, he was known to chew paper. “Exceedingly selective about whose phone calls he would take and even more so about whose he would return.” No doubt there’s a certain amount of power in not returning calls. Of course, it’s also rude.

I once had a meeting set up with Sam Cohn when I was a baby editor at Ballantine when I was pursuing a hot young comic he represented. My publisher pulled the plug on the project, never telling me why, and I was left not only hanging out to dry, but missing my chance to meet the uber agent. It was devastating for me at the time, though I admit I was scared shitless to meet him. Agh.

And of course, the quote that kills me in the final line of the obit is Nora Ephron’s: “When he got behind you, it was like an army of thousands.”

I think when I get behind my clients it’s more often like a handful of Jewish mothers (not to be underestimated).

My respects.

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Karen Blixen Coffee Garden Restaurant & Cottages

Posted on May 6, 2009 by betsylerner

gods-and-soldiers-cover

Tuesday, May 12, 6 pm reading with Patrice Nganang and others
HUE-MAN
2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd
Between 124th and 125th Streets
New York, NY 10027
http://www.hueman-bookstore.com

Tuesday, July 7, 7:30 pm reading
POWELL’S
1005 W. Burnside
Portland, OR
http://www.powells.com

If you have a chance, treat yourself to a night of superb African writing and celebrate the publication of Rob Spillman’s just published anthology, Gods and Soldiers. And check this out, too.

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Here’s Johnny

Posted on May 5, 2009 by betsylerner

We’re moving in July and need to reduce our 2,500 volume library by about half. This requires nightly interrogations: will I read this book again, will I read this book in the first place, is this a first edition, sentimental value, signed by the author, completes a set, etc. etc. It is painstaking and sometimes painful work, especially when you find an underlined book from college and are immediately transported to the worst days of your life. Well, mine.

Of course, if these were CD’s we’d just be gleefully downloading. And of course, if I had a Thimble, I could buy any one of these books and download it.

Sidebar: I actually found a Sony Reader in the bathroom at work this morning. I still remember the days when a senior editor at S&S would take like twenty periodicals into the bathroom. I guess today’s businessman fires up his Reader when he takes a shit.

Back to the books. I am happy to report that ALL the poetry, poets’ biographies, letters and diaries made the cut. I am happy to report that 2/3 of the fiction stays and what goes should have left long ago. It’s the non-fiction that’s really taking the hit. Though my special shelf of books on depression and suicide will remain intact.

Every time my husband takes a book from the shelf for scrutiny and discussion, he blows the dust from the top of the book much the way Johnny Carson used to blow open the envelope when he played Carnac The Magnificent. I used to love that.

Filed under: Poetry | 2 Comments »

Blue State

Posted on May 4, 2009 by betsylerner

I’m at the Blue State, the liberally named cafe in the heart of Yale Country. Every kid in here is behind a computer. I wonder if they’re doing school work, or on-line shopping, or having e-sex with an assistant professor, which I suspect is the case with the girl on my right who is wearing the equivalent of pajamas (comfy!), Uggs (why?), and knows how to use a tube of cherry lip gloss. I am working on a proposal that hopes someday to grow up and become a book. The yellow stick in my hand is a pencil.

Just a side note, I am usually a superb parallel parker, but for some reason today I got all tense parking in front of Blue State where three guys were standing. And I fucked it all up. One guy even said, “Do you want me to park that for you?” Was that necessary? Then I stayed in the car and did email on my Blackberry until they left. I know, one minute a power agent, the next a major pussy.

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That Perfect Feeling When Time Just Slips

Posted on May 2, 2009 by betsylerner

I read a quote today from Mary Cheever, John Cheever’s 90 year old widow, rejecting the notion that her husband’s inner loneliness was due to his life in the suburbs:

“His was the loneliness of a writer, when he would sit by himself working alone. They all complain about it. It’s not a social craft.”

Sometimes I like to be contrary for the sake of it, but my first thought when I read that quote was that she got it backwards. Writers are lonely pretty much all the time except when they’re writing. The focus, the intensity, the mind engaged — this is not a lonely state.

In my experience, it’s the dinner parties, the award ceremonies, the neglectful agent and editor, the jealous and/or smug friends that are lonely making. It’s the bad reviews or no reviews, the not knowing what to write, the rejection. These are the things that will kill you, along with the gin as in Cheever’s case.

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Love Is a Ring

Posted on May 1, 2009 by betsylerner

I have ants in my pants today. I keep jumping from my reading chair to my desk chair. Then back. Sometimes I find myself checking my Blackberry while staring at my computer.

This is known as agentitis and it’s the result of sending out a project and waiting to hear back. I always tell myself it’s worse for the writers and that makes me feel better.

Fortunately, a few things happened that took the edge off: a call from a BDP (big deal producer) about a client’s book, signed up a new client (yes!) , made some calls I’ve been avoiding (satisfying!), and had a cheese bagel.

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Mungo

Posted on April 30, 2009 by betsylerner

This just in from J:

” How do you obtain the contact information for producers? I want to target producers, and I have some in mind who have worked on similar projects, but I have no idea how to get in touch with them. Any suggestions??”

The quick answer is IMDB. This is the motherlode of contact and other Hollywood information. In some cases, information is only available if you subscribe to IMDBpro, but it’s well worth it. How else would I know that Hugh Grant and I are born exactly one month apart? I also know, thanks to IMDB, that Hugh John Mungo Grant:

Has long wanted to make a film about his grandfather’s real life escape from a prisoner of war camp during WWII.
Graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English (1982)
His favorite artist is Patrick Rondat.
Had a skate accident when he was a teenager. Part of the bone in his elbow is still detached from the other bones and “swims” freely between the skin and his elbow.
Fluent in French.
Piano teacher, when he was a child, was Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s mother.
In 2001, he purchased an Andy Warhol painting of Elizabeth Taylor for just under $4 million. He later sold it in 2007 for $23.5 million.

Funny, my Warhol didn’t go for nearly as much.

Filed under: Film | Leave a comment »

A Beautiful Mind

Posted on April 29, 2009 by betsylerner

5:40 Metronorth to New York. The sky still darkened by clouds, pale blue off in the distance. I sit in the last seat of the last car every day. I nurse a medium decaf with skim milk from St. Dunkin’s. And I think about the exciting day I have ahead of me in publishing.

Every day, in the aisle in front of me sits a man with a gray-haired crew cut, his knees pressed up against the seat in front of him. In his lap, a pile of newspapers. With hawk-like concentration, he circles and underlines with a blue Bic. Then he tears, folds, and inserts the articles into a deep pocket in his trenchcoat. On the platform at Grand Central, he will hover over the recycling bin snatching newspapers from commuters as they leave the station.

Now, I have to read Les’ memoir.

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Hugh Grant and I Are Born Exactly One Month Apart

Posted on April 27, 2009 by betsylerner

Got the cover letter done (after the laundry, dishwasher, and sorting of old files).

I put my list together, culled from a year of reading Variety. I targeted NYC based indie producers who have made films that I love or admire. (This is the same advice I give to writers when they need agent names — research PW, Publishersmarketplace.com, etc.)

I also sent it to three actors. This is magical thinking of the highest order, of which I am supremely capable. (“Hello, this is Hugh Grant, is this Betsy Lerner? Yes, well, I’ve just read your brilliant script and feel as if you’ve written it for me.” ) Do you think he’s just being polite?

Brought script to copy shop. They didn’t have the brass clips used to hold film scripts together. Neither did the crappy store across the street. Went to another copy shop where they sold the brass clips for 25 cents apiece. I know I’m going to be very rich and famous, but this offended me. Next stop, Staples.

I know this is a cliff hanger the likes of which you have probably never endured, but I’ve got like a dozen manuscripts I’ve got to read for work tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

Filed under: Film | 3 Comments »

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