The Forest for the Trees

Quickly established as an essential and enduring companion for aspiring writers when it was first published, Lerner's sharp, funny, and insightful guide has been meticulously updated and revised to address the dramatic changes that have reshaped the publishing industry in the decade since.

From blank page to first glowing (or gutting) review, Lerner is a knowing and sympathetic coach who helps writers discover how they can be more productive in the creative process and how they can better their odds of not only getting published, but getting published well. This is an indispensable user's manual to both the inner life of writers and the increasingly anxious place where art and commerce meet:

the boardrooms and cubicles of the publishing house.

"Betsy Lerner has three great qualities for an editor: intelligence, sensitivity and passion. She writes with wit and astounding perceptivity. Writers, take heed!" - Nan A. Talese, Publisher and Editorial Director of Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.

"...delightful and very helpful read, a distillation of both editorial and writerly wisdom...should be a permanent part of any...personal library.'' - The Seattle Times, May 21, 2000

"Lerner is good because she can see what the writer sees, and moves from there to what the author needs to see. She understands delusion. Her book encourages clear-sightedness when writers deal with publishers." - Bookpage, March 2000