‘Ask an Expert’ with Juliet Mushens: What We Learnt from a Literary Agent

Posted on March 12, 2018 in Uncategorized

I started my previous blog post outlining how, before I entered the industry, I thought the process a book went through to be published was pretty straightforward and only involved a few internal teams. Of course, I quickly learnt how naive that outlook was once I entered an actual publishing house. Yet, despite now having spent a number of years working within various companies in various roles, I still don’t know everything; in fact, I doubt in my normal course of working life I will ever fully understand the nuances and intricacies of each department and role in the industry.

Ultimately, the reason why the SYP’s ‘Ask an Expert’ series was set up was to try to remedy that. The goal of the series is to offer a clear insight into different roles and departments to those wishing to enter the industry, as well as those taking their first steps within it; offering members the chance to find out more about certain areas or aspects of the industry they’ve not worked in. Understanding what each department does, and how they interact with each of the other departments, is vital to truly succeeding within the industry. That’s why for our latest session we focused on an area I personally had never considered as a career path until recently, one that involves bringing authors and publishers together: the literary agent.

During this Q&A session, with superstar literary agent Juliet Mushens, when an SYP member asked what advice she’d give to someone within their first publishing role, the advice spoke volumes on how to progress up the career ladder:

Be inquisitive about all aspects of the business – ask people if you can buy them coffee and learn about their role. Read widely and develop your own taste. Try and understand why books work, and why books sell.

Don’t limit yourself and your view of the industry to just your role, your department. In order to learn why books work and sell, you will need to understand things from multiple perspectives rather than a potentially myopic one gained from only your own sphere. This is also worth considering simply because you never know what department you may end up in. So many people within the industry start in one department and move across to another (or two) throughout their career – after all, a career path is hardly ever a perfectly straight line.

In terms of possible paths, there are so many, and Juliet’s own career demonstrates this more than most across multiple levels. A number of questions from SYP members focused on what led Juliet to leaving a marketing executive role with HarperCollins and becoming a literary agent, before eventually starting her own (very successful) business with fellow agent Robert Caskie.

I really liked Harper but in publishing you tend to have to specialize – you acquire cookery books, OR humour, OR crime, OR literary fiction. My taste isn’t like that, I’m a real magpie, and I felt becoming an agent would best suit my skillset and passions.

The opportunity to work with autonomy, freedom and across various markets and genres was what inspired the move into agenting. If you are working in many traditional publishing roles, within a traditional publishing house, that ability to work across different genres and markets is not there. Therefore, if you desire to work across so many different fields, becoming an agent is potentially a great career choice.

One thing that became clear during the Q&A session was exactly how much interaction with clients and publishers a literary agent will have. In the previous post I hinted at how much of a key role a literary agent will play in every stage, and how hands-on they can be was explored in much more detail when Juliet was asked to what extent an agent stays involved throughout the life-cycle of a book, and whether or not they typically relinquish control once a manuscript is with a publisher. The response revealed that it can differ according to client and publisher but, for the most part, she is ‘there the whole way through the publishing process’, mediating on editorial notes, jackets, cover copy and more. The fact Juliet said each day she can receive ‘400 emails with queries ranging from arranging meetings, to chasing tax forms, to approving press releases, delivering manuscripts, events, publicity… anything in between!’, demonstrates just how crucial the work of a literary agent can be. (If this is the career path you want to follow, be prepared to be on your phone and responding to emails a lot.)

In terms of interaction with the client and publisher, arguably the most important stage of a literary agent’s role is managing the deal. Delving into life at London and Frankfurt Book Fairs, it was how the bidding process is conducted when there are multiple offers on the table that was of great interest. The length of the process and each of the stages were discussed, with the ultimate decision on which offer to choose coming down to what packages are offered by the publishers – including what advances, royalties, publishing strategy and more are outlined in the bid. (As someone who is a budding author, and likes the idea of being a literary agent myself, this was a fascinating insight.)

Given there is clearly so much work behind of the scenes (and in plain view) that an agent does for both client and publisher, it was surprising to hear how the possible decline of agents is a discussion that’s routinely had – due in a large part to the rise of self-publishing. However, Juliet’s response to such queries on the forum was emphatic:

I’ve been being asked if the role of the agent is becoming obsolete basically my entire career – and the 5,000 submissions I receive a year testify to the answer being ‘no’!

That isn’t to say that Juliet and other agents are against the self-publishing model. The choice to self-publish versus the more traditional route that involves a literary agent is a question of how much autonomy the author is looking for in terms of strategy versus the benefits an agent can bring you – that is, control of the marketing, editing versus knowledge of the industry and contacts.

As noted, Juliet receives 5,000 submissions a year, which shows how important it is to stand out as an author with your pitch. Among other pieces of advice given during the Q&A for how to perfect your pitch, the bottom line was to make sure you had made the manuscript as perfect as you yourself can before you send it out to prospective agents – don’t rush the process or give up hope. In order to find out what other tips were offered for those wishing to submit proposals to a literary agent, log in now to The Network on the SYP website to read the entire conversation.

But obviously, when submitting a novel or non-fiction proposal is not the only time you want to stand out. Applying for jobs and getting your foot in a company’s door requires the same amount of effort. Possibly of most interest to many, advice in the Q&A covered what paths could be taken to become a literary agent and what skills are vital to succeeding as one. As you might expect given there is so much interaction with clients and publishers, being ‘good with people’ is one of those key skills, yet so too is a sense of critical thinking. (Therefore, in applications, stressing you possess these skills is a good idea!) When it comes to interviews themselves, having recently recruited for a new assistant for Caskie Mushens, Juliet highlighted what really made the candidate chosen for the role stand out from the crowd, and you can find that out by logging into The Network and reading the discussion.

The Network and ‘Ask and Expert’ series is available to full and digital members of the Society of Young Publishers. If you are not one of these members but wish to find out what membership can offer, please visit here.

Until next time,

Carl

Website Officer

Society of Young Publishers