The business is full of brainy experienced people, but the publishing business pyramid is tall, steep and skinny. Brains and experience are just not enough to keep you clinging to it.

You must make lots of money. Period. I’ve forged ahead by following the old saying “You must do good to do well”. I recommend it.

Be relentlessly active in your professional and social circles. Donate your time and talent to your favorite charitable causes.

Be a good friend and family member. Drop any old hurts that don’t involve outright abuse or criminality.

Don’t forget to write your former English teachers/professors often. They are great talent scouts.

Act like a success while you are becoming one. This means, among other things, don’t be trashy. Oh, and please, please, please don’t be some kind of literary hipster.

Don’t spend a lot of time with people who complain all the time or make fun of others who have done them no harm. Avoid heavy drinkers and dopers no matter what. If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

A high school dropout who can make a profit will climb right past any Ivy Leaguer who does not do so.

Ask yourself this question every day: “What can I do TODAY that will help make a big profit?”. It sounds corny, but post that question on your refrigerator door.

I tend to admire people who set up systems and practices that empower others – they constantly work themselves out of a job so that they can tackle new things. Being indispensable is tricky after awhile…it’s not all about you, it’s about the work that you perform and how you perform it, and often that means giving other people more power, more permission, more teaching.

Executives who think that they are indispensable tend to be poor leaders and micro managers. They take credit for actions performed by a team.

A good friend of mine in the corporate shark world followed the creed “If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.”

So, certainly make yourself needed and appreciated, but show you can teach the new kids too, so they don’t decide that you’re so amazing at your job that you can’t go anywhere (including up).

So part of this is maybe the emailer’s field, too? In any case, she or he oughtta get to a publisher of fiction, if that’s what she really wants to edit. Though clearly Betsy’s advice is even golden-er than usual.