Nicola Barron joins one of the UK's most respected literary agents, Juliet Mushens, to talk about the publishing world and her upcoming Masterclass for Evening Standard.
Juliet shares her expertise and gives practical advice for aspiring authors.
Topics include:
- The role of literary agents
- Tips on submitting your manuscript and catching an agent’s attention
- Insider advice for those just starting their writing journey
- What to expect from Juliet’s upcoming Masterclass, "How to Get Published: Finding a Literary Agent for Your Novel"
Whether you're just dreaming of becoming an author or have a completed manuscript ready to go, Juliet’s insights offer invaluable guidance for every stage of the writing process.
You can find Evening Standard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you stream.
Here’s a fully automated transcript:
Hi, from London, this is Evening Standard Podcast, and I'm Nicola Barron from Masterclasses from Evening Standard.
Before we dive in, a quick reminder that Masterclasses from Evening Standard offers an incredible range of live, interactive workshops and classes.
Whether you're looking to sharpen your negotiation skills, manage stress and anxiety, or transform your sleep habits for good, we've got something for everyone.
You'll find all the details in our show notes.
And today, I'm thrilled to welcome Juliet Mushens, one of the UK's most influential figures in publishing.
She's been shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year four times, and her client list reads like a who's who of contemporary literature, including million-copy bestseller, Jesse Burton, author of The Miniaturist, and the publishing phenomenon, Richard Osmond.
Juliet, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you.
So before we dive into the specifics of publishing, I think a lot of people understand what publishers do, but the role of a literary agent, that sounds a little bit more mysterious.
Can you help demystify that for our listeners?
Of course, and it is incredibly mysterious.
I had no idea what literary agents did until I started working in a publishing house, so my first job was at HarperCollins, and I had no idea really that literary agents even existed, and suddenly these mythical beings would descend to the office of their clients, and I'd go and make them tea, and they'd make outrageous demands sometimes, and people would be scurrying around before the meetings, saying, oh, they're gonna ask us a really difficult question, or we're gonna have to prepare for this, or what if they ask about that?
And I thought, wow, that looks like a really interesting part of the job.
I really loved working in a publishing house.
I worked in marketing, and then I worked in editorial, but what I loved about marketing was writing book blurbs or coming up with marketing ideas and looking at positioning and publishing overall in a more holistic way.
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And what I loved about editorial was getting hands-on with an author manuscript, and I would really say that agenting combines those two things.
I'm the person that finds a book, loves the book, edits the book with the author, but I also get to help pitch the book to publishers, offer my opinion on marketing campaigns or publicity campaigns.
So I felt that being a literary agent really combined those two things.
And what's quite fascinating to me is that whilst no one has ever really understood what we do unless you're in the industry, any book you see on the bookshelf, there's a literary agent behind it, whether it's one based here, one based in America, or one based elsewhere.
So I would say our job very much is acting as the middleman between the author and the publishing industry.
So helping them get the best possible deal and helping them build a long lasting career.
And we work with all sorts of publishers.
I did a deal in Kazakhstan a couple of weeks ago.
Okay, so I imagine with that being said, that you receive countless submissions.
What's the one thing in a manuscript that makes you think, this is it?
I would say that personally, I'm always looking for an intriguing concept.
So an idea that feels quite rich and meaty.
So an example of a book of mine, which has done really well recently is The Wrong Sister by Claire Douglas, which has been a big Sunday Times number one bestseller.
And the concept for that was very simple.
It was that two sisters do a life swap.
So essentially, they swap houses for a week.
And then one of them is attacked and ends up in hospital.
And her sister gets a note to say it was supposed to be you.
So it's a kind of case of mistaken identity.
Why is someone after her?
She's a perfectly ordinary mum of two who doesn't have any dark secrets.
So who was trying to attack her?
And how can she make sure that she survives essentially?
And as soon as she sent me that idea, I was hooked in.
I thought that's so intriguing.
It's really meaty.
You have immediately a lot of questions about it, a lot of suspense inherent in it.
So I'm a sucker for that kind of concept where you have a lot of interesting questions around it, I suppose.
But I also love an intriguing character.
Some of my favourite books are books that don't start with a big crash-bang dramatic opening, but books with a really interesting voice from a character, or someone that you think, oh, they're hiding something, or there's more to them than meets the eye, or maybe it's quite spiky, or maybe it's quite funny, or it's got a really interesting sense of period or sense of place.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think often authors feel we've got to hook an agent's attention in those first few pages, so I'm going to throw everything at it, I'm going to throw the kitchen sink at it, we're going to have a fire, we're going to have a murder, we're going to be really shocking.
And actually, you do need to grab our attention, but more it's coming up with questions that I'm going to have, that I'm going to want to read on to find out how you answer them.