Author: Betsy Lerner

Publisher: Riverhead Books

ISBN: 978-1-59448-483-4

Click Here To Purchase The Forest for the Trees (Revised and Updated): An Editor's Advice to Writers

Since her college days, Betsy Lerner has always been connected to the world of publishing in one way or another. When she was pursuing her MFA at Columbia University, she was co-editor of Columbia's literary magazine and co-founder of the now defunct underground magazine Big Wednesday. Lerner is a seasoned poet having won a Thomas Wolfe Poetry Prize and an Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize. In 1987 she was named by American PEN as one of three emerging writers. In addition to her talents as a poet, Lerner received a Simon & Schuster Fellowship and the Tony Godwin Fellowship for Editors. Her working career included stints in the editorial departments at four New York trade publishers and finally as executive editor at Doubleday. Lerner is now a literary agent and partner in the Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner Literary Agency in New York City.

With her revised and updated The Forest For The Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers, Lerner looks back on her many experiences as an editor wherein she was both privy to and subjected to every aspect of her authors' lives. It should be pointed out at the onset that, as Lerner states in her introduction, the book is not about how to write. Rather, her objective is to help writers start or finish a project and to figure out what they should be writing.

In the first part of the book, Lerner's wisdom comes to the fore when she offers advice to writers “whose neuroses seem to get in their way, those who sabotage their efforts, those who have met with some success but are stalled between projects.” It is here where Lerner explores the psyches of different kinds of writers which she classifies as: the ambivalent- one who really does not take their work seriously, the natural one, the wicked child who is not afraid to offend such as Philip Roth, who was accused of being anti-Semitic as well as Jewish self-hatred by his own Jewish community, the self-promoter, who will use very means to tout his or her horn, the Neurotic, who very often becomes paralysed and winds up scared, defensive, and riddled with rationales and justifications, and finally the alcoholic or drug addict, whom we seem to enjoy romanticizing about.

The second part of the book deals with the “nitty gritty” of the publishing process from the editor's point of view. How does an editor feel when sitting behind a desk and reading hundreds of manuscripts, when she may be thwarted or supported in her efforts to acquire a project, or when a favorite author's book is not well-received. It is here where we also read about making contact or seeking agents and publication, rejection, what editors want, what authors want, the book, and the eventual publication. Also included is an extensive bibliography for those who wish to further their knowledge.

It is always instructive to listen to those in the know and whose sharp analysis is right on the mark. Drawing from a variety of sources, as well as her many lessons and experiences as an editor, Lerner does a fine job in sharing a good deal of insight enabling her readers to enjoy a voyeuristic peek behind the scenes and a clearer perspective of the “crazy” world of publishing.