TESTIMONIALS | Betsy Gleick Editorial

Betsy is an exceptional editor. Visionary, knowledgeable, fun to work with, and open-minded, she was instrumental to the success of both my novels, The Mountains Sing and Dust Child. Betsy is the first editor who acquired my fiction in English before it was ever published. She helped me bring my novels to the next level, enabled them to win numerous literary prizes, become international bestsellers, and they are now translated into more than 25 languages. Being able to work with Betsy has been the best luck of my writing life. She has edited a wide range of books and her experiences in publishing are phenomenal. Any writer is lucky to have Betsy's guidance and support. She never imposed her ideas on me and her suggestions often enabled me to come up with my own solutions, allowing me to exceed even my own expectations. Working with Betsy has been transformative, and the literary world is lucky to have her.

—NGUYỄN PHAN QUỂ MAI, bestselling and award-winning author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child

It's very simple, really. (Only, if it were, everyone would do it.) Betsy Gleick takes your book—the book you’re writing as opposed to the book you think you’re writing—and, line by line, she makes it better. And she does it all with unfailing kindness, tact, good humor, perspicacity, and tenacity. By the time she’s done, it will sound just like you—only better—and you’ll be asking yourself where she's been all your life.

—LOUIS BAYARD, bestselling and award-winning author of 11 novels, including The Pale Blue Eye, Courting Mr. Lincoln, Jackie & Me, and The Wildes

Over the course of the months that I worked with Betsy on Distant Sons, my most recent novel for Algonquin, after countless emails, drafts, re-drafts, more emails, phone calls, Zooms—we arrived at a novel that was immensely strengthened, deepened, and unified by the innate readerly sensibility that is at the heart of Betsy's editing skills. To put it more neatly: Betsy first saw, then helped me to see, and to sharpen, all that was working in the book, and to let go of the things that were not—and this she did with incredible patience, grace, and decency, even when I was slow to see the light.

I'm so glad to know Betsy. She is a fine human being who happens to be a superb editor. I'm thrilled to know that she will continue working with writers, making their stories stronger, the writers better—the world better.

—TIM JOHNSTON, bestselling author of Descent, The Current, and Distant Sons

Betsy is the rare editor who identifies what the writer knows deep in her gut but cannot see on the page. She does this work on the macro level, solving issues of pacing and causality, and on the micro level, fine tuning sentences, metaphors, and words. The joy of working with Betsy is the deeply satisfying experience of taking writing as far as it can go, so it is ready for the ultra competitive market, but more importantly, so it fulfills its true artistic purpose. I wish every writer the opportunity to work with an editor like Betsy.

—ANNA BRUNO, author of Ordinary Hazards and Fine Young People

Betsy approaches editing with a rare combination of precision and big-picture insight. Her detailed attention refined my book at every level, sharpening and strengthening the writing to ensure my ideas landed with force. Beyond her incredible skills, Betsy’s patient and positive approach made the whole publishing process seamless and inspiring, leaving me grateful for such a rewarding collaboration. Your success is deeply important to her, and she goes the extra mile to help you achieve it.

—JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN Security Correspondent and author of Crossfire Hurricane: Inside Donald Trump's War on the FBI