The Forest for the Trees An Editor's Advice to Writers

by Lerner, Betsy

• ISBN13: 9781573221528
• ISBN10: 157322152X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-03-20
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover

Summary

In a recent New York Times article, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., wrote, "there were creative-writing teachers long before there were creative-writing courses, and they were called and continue to be called editors." And who better to teach writing than a passionate editor with years of experience working with successful writers and discovering new voices? Betsy Lerner is such an editor -- sharp, funny, psychologically astute, and deeply intuitive. In The Forest for the Trees she shares her editorial wisdom and imparts an insider's understanding of the publishing process.

Categorizing writers within personality types -- the natural (who appears to do it effortlessly); the wicked child (with an axe to grind); the flasher (who loves to dazzle) -- she helps readers to better understand their relationship to writing. An award-winning poet and a product of writing workshops herself, Lerner understands the anxieties and concerns of writers who are just getting started.

The Forest for the Trees is filled with anecdotes from Lerner's own experiences working with writers, and

Author Biography

Betsy Lerner has worked most recently as executive editor at Doubleday, and is currently an agent at The Gernert Company.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(12)
PART I. WRITING
The Ambivalent Writer	13	(18)
The Natural	31	(18)
The Wicked Child	49	(22)
The Self-Promoter	71	(22)
The Neurotic	93	(20)
Touching Fire	113	(22)
PART II. PUBLISHING
Making Contact: Seeking Agents and Publication	135	(27)
Rejection	162	(20)
What Editors Want	182	(27)
What Authors Want	209	(23)
The Book	232	(25)
Publication	257	(21)
Bibliography	278	(7)
Acknowledgments	285