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. Only the writer knows if his editor edits. Some excerpts from Lerner’s insights on the editing stage: Her entertaining The Forest for the Trees is about the psyche of writers-their peculiarities, hangups, and self-destructive practices-and about the publishing process: especially how editors see things and how they work. There’s always time and editors for that.-Betsy Lernerīefore she was a high-powered literary agent and a funny, earthy blogger, Betsy Lerner was an MFA student (poetry) who made herself a career as an acquisitions editor for several big New York publishing houses. And whatever you do, don’t censor yourself. If you have been unable to make your work count or stick, you must grab them by the neck and face them down. The more popular culture and the media fail to present the real pathos of our human struggle, the more opportunity there is for writers.
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner.
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