Mark Lanegan/ Brian Wilson/ ”Trouble Boys” editor Ben Schafer of Hachette Books

I met Ben Schafer in the process of working on Mark Lanegan's book with him. I have a lot of resistance to meeting publishing/ music industry/ entertainment industry folks because it always feels so ingenuine, like "I will pretend to be your friend until it no longer serves my business interests, at which point I'll pretend you never existed." From our first meeting, I recognized that Ben was, like me, just an earnest fan of Lanegan's work. We talked about how great Lanegan's voice and writing was, how excited we were for the book, sobriety, then finally just life in general. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, despite my best efforts to the contrary, Ben and I became friends very quickly and have stayed in close touch for the last couple of years. Yes, of course, we talked about the loss of Lanegan, but I tried to ask him some hard questions about publishing and his role as editor. 

 

Ben specializes in music, popular culture, biography, memoir, and popular science, with a
particular soft spot for American counterculture. He has acquired several New York Times
bestsellers, including Unrequited Infatuations by Stevie Van Zandt, The Portable Atheist edited
by Christopher Hitchens, Trouble Boys by Bob Mehr, and I Am Brian Wilson by Brian Wilson.
Based in Los Angeles, Ben published the definitive two-volume history of L.A. punk Under the
Big Black Sun and More Fun in the New World by John Doe (of X) and music publishing veteran
Tom DeSavia. He is also the editor of the international bestseller Why Does E=mc2 by Brian
Cox and Jeff Forshaw, and an all-time classic memoir, The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave
Van Ronk with Elijah Wald, the inspiration for the Coen Brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis.
Prior to joining Hachette Books, Ben was Executive Editor at Da Capo Press for 17 years and
held editorial positions at William Morrow and HarperCollins.