The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

And she’ll know when you should stop, spare you from hitting your reader over the head as if your point were a two-by-four. Start here, she’ll mark in the margin, this is where your book begins. A good editor knows when the three pages at the beginning of a chapter are throat-clearing. An editor is someone who probes the writer with insightful questions, who smooths transitions or suggests them where none exist. The best editor is a sensitive reader who is thinking with a pencil in her hand, questioning word choice, syntax, and tense. She’s not correcting grammar or sentences she’s seeing if the book in its entirety works. She’s taking notes about first impressions–what’s working and what isn’t, what’s clear and what isn’t, when the pacing seems slow or a character seems out of place. The scary red pen may be wielded–perhaps on the manuscript itself but certainly on a nearby notepad. The editor will close the office door (or bring the manuscript home where she won’t be interrupted, she hopes) and sit back to read through the entire manuscript–either electronically or on hard copy. The manuscript arrives on the editor’s desk. I teach my students that, as editors, they are working in tandem with authors–Betsy describes it as an intricate dance. At the very least, I hope that in contemplating your life as a writer you may get some perspective on your work and in gaining that perspective, see the forest for the trees” (9). I wrote it to help writers achieve or get closer to their goals. She says, “This book is about what I’ve seen and what I know. Lerner knows wherof she speaks having been an editor for fifteen years before becoming an agent. Titled The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers (Putnam, 2000, updated 2010), the first section of this book describes some general types of writers, and the second section peeks behind the editor’s desk and into the publishing world.

Betsy Lerner created a product that helps writers understand editors and vice versa.

I go to it often and read excerpts to my editing class.

I love this book and was so excited when I found it a few years ago.

The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner