Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do (23 page)

Instead we began with the story of Andy Thomson, a workaholic whose girlfriend had just called it quits because of his preoccupation with his fledgling computer business. The alcoholic, Martin Woodruff, was not introduced until the second chapter, when Andy saw him at an Adult Child of Alcoholics meeting.

Secondly, the first chapter should define the subject matter and tell the reader the reason the book is being written (the extent of the problem). I rarely use introductions in my books because I believe that many readers skip prefaces or introductions and therefore never read this important information. The first chapter, therefore, should also give the author’s credentials for writing the book and the promise to the reader: “If you read this book, we will help you with this problem just as we helped the person in the beginning anecdote.”

Finally, the first chapter (or possibly the second) should end with a “road map” for the book. Writers need to give the reader an overall view of the book before they walk the reader through the process. Then it is easier for the reader to understand the principles, some of which may be entirely new to the layman and difficult to comprehend without a professional degree.

And writers need to be sure that readers continue to understand the relationships between consecutive chapters in the book and between sections of the book. Often writers forget to make these relationships obvious to the reader. As an editor, I make sure that these road signs are either near the end of a chapter or at the beginning of the next chapter, since the subject matter of a self-help book is so technical that readers often need these transitions or they become lost in the details of so much new information.

I find that writers also need to be reminded to give the reader some “takeaway” as part of every chapter in a nonfiction book. For instance, we published a book called
The Lies We Believe
by Dr. Chris Thurman. Chris had organized the manuscript to present the five types of lies—self-lies, worldly lies, marital lies, distortion lies, and religious lies—in the first seven chapters. As a typical reader (which is really what the editor is) I became very distressed (and bored) as I read lie after lie. Finally, one chapter at the end of the book gave me eight ways to change my fallacious thinking.

My comment to Chris was this: “I cannot believe that you spend the first fifty hours of the counseling process helping people to identify the lies they believe. You must give them some ways to overcome their thinking during some of these sessions—or they’d never come back.” And that’s what we did in the book. At the end of
chapter 2
, which presented self-lies like “I must have everyone’s love and approval” and “It’s somebody else’s fault,” we began a section, “How to Defeat Your Lies,” that gave readers some ways to combat the lies they believed. And that section was repeated throughout the next five chapters. The final two chapters wrapped the book up by talking about truth and about changing our lives (and these chapters led to the publishing of another book,
The Truths We Must Believe)
.

The formula I have adopted for most self-help books written by counselors is very simple: “Put the reader in the chair (or on the mythical couch) in your office and walk him or her through the same process—in the same
order—that you do your patient.” A more commercial way to say this is: “Give the reader the same information in a book, which costs $16.95, that you give your patients for $50.00 to $100.00 an hour.”

The future for Christian publishing seems to be even brighter than the past. The success of the Twelve Step programs and support groups in helping people to overcome addictive behavior have made it much more obvious to most people that a personal relationship with God is necessary for health and happiness. Yes, we can all laugh at the foibles of the Church Lady and her superior dance—and then reject her judgmental philosophy. But many of us cannot ignore the yearning within us for God and spiritual transcendence. Inspirational books will be companions to the many people who will make a journey toward God in the coming years.

A Commitment to Community

Bonny V. Fetterman

B
ONNY
V. F
ETTERMAN
is senior editor and director of Judaica at Schocken Books, a position she has held since 1982. She previously held editorial positions at Harper & Row and Basic Books. She earned an M.A. in Judaic studies from Brandeis University and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was a fellow of the Jerusalem Book Fair in 1987 and a fellow of the American Jewish Committee’s Moses Mission in Israel in 1990
.

“Sharing the secrets of Jewish publishing is a bit like telling someone the secret of how we really make matzah. Actually, there is no secret,” says Ms. Fetterman in her wise, humorous, and often moving essay on publishing books for “the people of the book.”

In many ways editing for the Jewish market is like editing for any specialized list—psychology, science, or education. But there
is
something that makes publishing for the Jewish market “different from all others—and that is
community …
as opposed to
market,
because there’s no way to do this kind of publishing without a sense of commitment and connection to the community you’re publishing for
.

“The Judaica editor’s reaction to a proposal is often the acid test of a viable book for this community. Unless you can say, ‘Yes, we need this!’ using the Jewish ‘we’ as opposed to the editorial ‘we,’ you’ll always be relying on the instincts of others.”

Ms. Fetterman believes that her books should be “accessible to anyone who cares enough to open one: books that are true to the tradition they represent…. And if they inspire one of those readers to feel, in a personal, heartfelt way, that the Jewish legacy is indeed his or her own, that in itself would validate my commitment to Jewish publishing.”

A Commitment to Community

Sharing the secrets of Jewish publishing is a bit like telling someone the secret of how we really make matzah. Actually, there is no secret. What I do as an editor of Jewish books is very much like the work of any other editor of a specialized list, such as psychology, science, or education: one needs some formal background of study in the field, networks of friends and colleagues to advise you and send promising authors your way, and the top-notch editorial skills that go with editing serious scholarly works. Like other editors, I spend a lot of time working with my authors, coaxing them into dealing with their readers’ questions first, translating academic jargon into readable concepts, getting them to fully digest and spell out the import of their findings.

But there’s a fourth element in publishing Jewish books—and one that makes this kind of publishing different from all others—and that is community. Every specialist editor must know his market, in all its diversity, in order to correctly position his books. But I am deliberately saying
community
here, as opposed to
market
, because there’s no way to do this kind of publishing without a sense of commitment and connection to the community you’re publishing for.

The Judaica editor’s reaction to a proposal is often the acid test of a viable book for this community. Unless you can say, “Yes, we need this!” using the Jewish “we” as opposed to the editorial “we,” you’ll always be relying on the instincts of others. Books can certainly be done like that; they look like books, they smell like books, but they run the risk of being
golems
, bodies without souls, and the Jewish book-buying public knows the difference.

This obviously doesn’t apply to the trade best-seller of Jewish interest that, falling into the hands of a competent nonfiction editor, will walk out of the bookstores all by itself. I’m talking about those of us who work in Jewish publishing, building an ongoing program of Jewish books. This always entails a direct relationship with and commitment to the community itself. It is this sense of mission that defines the publisher of Jewish books—not in the sense of having a specific religious agenda to promote (although
that’s true for some), but rather having an intense desire to serve the needs of contemporary Jews.

How does one serve the needs of a community as diverse as American Jewry? By offering variety, quality, and accessibility—and realizing that different books will appeal to different sectors of this complex and fascinating marketplace.

Every year there are hundreds of books published on every conceivable topic of Jewish interest by a variety of publishers. They range from the religious publishers serving the needs of their respective constituents—Orthodox (Mesorah, Feldheim), Conservative (Rabbinical Assembly), Reform (Central Conference of American Rabbis), and Reconstructionist (Reconstructionist Press)—to a dozen or so university presses that have begun to publish the scholarly monographs and groundbreaking studies of a new generation of Jewish academics now seated in departments of Jewish studies at secular universities. (Some university presses with active lists in Jewish studies are Yale, Indiana, Oxford, Cornell, Harvard, Wayne State, New York University Press, University of California, and the State University of New York Press.) There are educational publishers that provide curricula for Jewish schools and materials for Jewish teachers (Behrman House, Ktav, Torah Aura).

Jewish publishing is not a perfect counterpart to Christian publishing, in that it does not necessarily mean religious books; it includes religion but encompasses much more: namely, the history and civilization of the Jewish people. Several publishers are known for publishing a full range of Judaica for the interested layperson (Schocken Books, Jason Aronson, the Jewish Publication Society). Their lists include books on Jewish life and culture; history, philosophy, and religion; biblical studies, rabbinical literature, and Hebrew and Yiddish classics in translation. I define a Jewish book broadly as any book that serves to bolster a sense of connection to the Jewish people. Judaica editors in general are committed to promoting Jewish learning among a serious and varied readership. Arthur Kurzweil, vice-president of Jason Aronson and director of the Jewish Book Club, describes his list as “timeless rather than topical”; he aims for books that will become “permanent features in one’s personal Judaica library.”

A few independent houses have developed lists on topics of particular interest to them, such as Holocaust studies (Basil Blackwell, Holmes & Meier) and spirituality (Samuel Weiser, Jewish Lights). Several Christian publishers (Paulist Press, Harper San Francisco, Beacon Press) have also entered the field on subjects of overlapping interest, such as biblical theology, comparative religion, feminism, and mysticism. Commercial trade publishers, both large and small and too numerous to mention here, also
publish books intended for the Jewish market, ranging from current interest issues to celebrity biographies and autobiographies, such as Alan Dershowitz’s
Chutzpah
(Little, Brown), to popular works of history and “how-to” guides for various aspects of Jewish life, like
Jewish Literacy
by Joseph Telushkin (Morrow). Some focus on Jewish fiction (Farrar, Straus, David Godine, Grove Press, Henry Holt), while others concentrate on nonfiction (Basic Books, Free Press, Schocken Books, Scribner’s, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and their respective imprints). A number of publishers also do Jewish children’s books (Viking, Kar-Ben Copies, Holiday House, Knopf, the Jewish Publication Society, UAHC [Union of American Hebrew Congregations]).

The list of publishers above is far from complete and meant only to suggest the various types of Jewish publishing. The would-be Judaica editor and the potential author would do well to survey this roster and find his or her niche. Each publisher of Judaica has a very distinctive character of its own and reaches a different sector of the community. When an editor writes that a particular proposal “does not fit our list,” he is not just using a stock phrase to politely decline a proposal, but actually saying something practical and realistic. For the author, identifying whom you are writing for is a vital first step in choosing the house best able to distribute your book. It will also be a guiding force in the writing of the book itself.

A little research can save an author a lot of steps in placing a project. Publishers of Jewish books are listed in a reference book called
Literary Market Place
(under “Religion”), but you can get a much clearer picture of the kinds of books various publishers are currently doing from bibliographic periodicals such as
Judaica Book News
(Bookazine) or
Jewish Book World
(Jewish Book Council). Write to publishers for their catalogs, read them, and check out the Judaica and religion sections of bookstores. Note the publishers of books that are intended for the same readers as yours.

For the editor, choosing your niche means finding the kind of book you do best, know how to publish, and is ultimately closest to your heart. My own publishing program evolved partly as a result of the company I’ve worked for over the past decade, and partly as a result of personal predilection. My own interest in Judaica was sparked by reading Schocken books as an undergraduate in college, and I knew this was the firm I wanted to work for more than anything else in the world. I began as an editorial assistant shortly after graduation. At one point, Professor Nahum N. Glatzer, then the senior consulting editor of Schocken, took me aside and suggested that if I really wanted to be a Judaica editor, I would first have to “learn something.” This meant returning to school for graduate work in Jewish Studies, followed by a few years of working as an editor in general
trade publishing. I eventually returned to Schocken better equipped for the particular kind of publishing Schocken does.