![]() |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Amazon.com Textbooks Store
Shop the Amazon.com Textbooks Store and save up to 70% on textbook rentals, 90% on used textbooks and 60% on eTextbooks. |
|
There is a newer edition of this item:
|
To writers, particularly unpublished ones, editors can seem imposing figures determined to thwart their success. They won't take calls, they don't offer feedback--sometimes they don't respond to queries at all. Guess what: Editors don't lug home hundreds of pounds of manuscripts to read each year because they aren't looking for good writing. "An editor gets off," says Lerner, "on the thrill of discovering a new writer." Editors crave "succinct, well-written cover letters," inspiration that comes from within (as opposed to from the bestseller list), and "catchy, clearly targeted title[s]." They detest unsolicited phone calls, "query letters that sound as if they were penned by Crazy Eddie," and writers who offer to "write it however I want it" (it's "like saying I'll be straight or gay; you tell me, I have no preference"). Lerner is aware of how excruciating it is for a writer to wait for feedback on his or her work. But she also lets writers in on a little secret of her own. "I'm always anxious about the author's response," she confides. "Will he or she take to my editing?" --Jane Steinberg --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Few books on writing are full of the kind of insider perspective that reveals any real publishing industry secrets (there aren't too many actually). Too few seem to written in the voice of a friend and confidante. Too few seem to tell of the author's personal experiences with honesty and truth.
Betsy Lerner is a well-known agent who began life as a poet and then worked for many years at several publishing houses until she became an editor. She understands writers as well as anyone and her book is conversational in tone. She tells stories, she offers some gentle advice and she educates in how things really work -not by preaching about it, but by relating stories. These aren't stories told with rose colored glasses, but warts and all stories. It isn't the publishing industry as you wish it was, or how it could be, or how it should be, but how it really is. Lerner's honest-- sometimes brutally so.
Lerner is also a writer in her heart and she understands the struggle, hopes and fears. There are several passages where she nails perfectly the feelings writers have gone through. How they struggle and fret over words, consider selling out to become published, question their sanity, resent the lonliness... You might find yourself shouting out-YES... that's it exactly. You might be tempted to read out-loud to non-writer friends, spouses and friends some passages from the books that state some of the emotions you have felt but have never successfully put down into words or verbalized.
Along with the stories (which usually avoid naming names for a variety of reasons) you will get a honest and truthful perspective of what editors, agents and published writers do.
You'll discover (probably) you're not quite as crazy as you though you were.
This is a great book if your serious about writing and getting published, or even if you already published and discovered some of the truths Lerner reveals the hard way.
Lerner won't make getting published any easier for you, but you'll gain valuable knowledge and probably come away from the book understanding the crazy world
Of book publishing much more than you ever have before.
Lerner passionately has devoted her life to writing and publishing-not to become wealthy or see her name in lights-but because she had no choice. Once she got bit by the bug, there was nothing else for her. She writes a little about this, so that we understand where she comes from and a little bit about who she is. Her passion and love for writing comes through on nearly ever page of this book. It's warm, funny, frustrating,
Eye-opening, discouraging, encouraging and ultimately a writer's best friend...