Juliet Mushens: Things I have learned from 12 years as an agent
In this week’s blog, Juliet sat down to talk about some of the important lessons she’s learned in her twelve years of agenting.
Juliet Mushens started her publishing career in 2008 at HarperCollins, and became an agent in 2011. She has been shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year four times and is currently the number 1 ranked UK fiction dealmaker on Publishers’ Marketplace. She has been picked as one of the 150 most influential people in publishing by The Bookseller for the last three years, and The Times ran a piece recognising her as the first agent to represent the number 1, 2 and 3 UK bestsellers in the same week: ‘Star literary agent first to top the charts three times’, a feat she repeated in 2022. More than a dozen of her clients are Sunday Times bestsellers and five hit number 1 in 2022 alone. Her clients include million-copy no. 1 bestseller Jessie Burton, multi-million copy NY Times bestseller Taran Matharu, record-breaking multi-million copy no. 1 bestseller Richard Osman. Her guide to YA creative writing was published by Hodder in 2015. Juliet is currently President of the British Fantasy Society. You can find her on twitter as @mushenska.
London Book Fair 2023 marks 12 years for me as an agent (plus another 3 in publishing). In that time I’ve seen a lot of change: when I started out ebooks weren’t granted as a right in contracts, book subscription boxes didn’t exist, and most submissions were still sent typed with a SAE for the response! I’ve also learned a lot in that period – about publishing, agenting, and writing – so get ready for my 12 things about traditional publishing that I have learned in 12 years of agenting.
1. Titles get changed. A lot.
I’ve written a blog post on this (see here) but I couldn’t have ever predicted how many change between author’s idea to published novel. I’d definitely recommend having a title decided upon when you submit to agents – a good title can absolutely make a novel leap out from a submission pile! – but try not to get too attached, as market sensibilities will often mean the final result is very different from the initial thought. I often think the best titles tell a story, giving the reader a hint of the world, or conflict they are about to enter, and it’s a wonderful moment when everyone hits upon the right one.
2. The only thing authors can control is the quality of the book they write
Authors are by and large fairly involved with the publishing process. Book jackets might go through several iterations but it’s important to make sure that the author is happy with the finished look – even if it isn’t what they originally imagined. Author views are also consulted on marketing and publicity and events. However, ultimately, whether the book is stocked in a supermarket or not, whether you get a book subscription box or not, whether you get good/bad/indifferent reviews… it’s not in the author’s control.
I can interrogate the process regularly, offer my industry expertise on strategy, and work in a collaborative way with the publisher to try and get the best possible outcome. But it’s also ultimately out of my control how the book sells. That can feel extremely frustrating, I know, but I actually think it’s good to remember so you can focus on what you can control… the next book you write.
3. The only thing authors can control is the quality of the book they write (redux)
That can sometimes feel depressing, but actually it’s pretty exciting – maybe the first two books didn’t set the world on fire, or the debut novel met a lot of initial enthusiasm only to be rejected by every acquisitions meeting. But that doesn’t mean the same will be true for the next one by any means. I have authors who had their biggest deal four or five years down the line, who hit the list on novel seven, who trunked two novels which didn’t find a home before their next book was pre-empted in a big deal. So whilst it might feel hard in traditional publishing to cede most of that control… the book you write is a major part of the puzzle!
4. Things are so, so slow. Or really, really fast.
Typically it’s 12-24 months from selling a book to seeing it on the shelves. There may be vast swathes of time in that period where the author is doing little other than refreshing twitter and writing their next book. And then suddenly everything swirls into action! The publicist sends a long list of potential events, the sales team wants a video pitching the book from the author, a newspaper or blog wants an interview, the author’s asked to share their pinterest board and thoughts on the cover brief, the French publisher wants to know if they can go to a French festival… suddenly your inbox is full of requests and questions.
The same is true when on submission. Some books sell overnight, sure, but they are the exception not the rule! Last year I sold a novel at auction seven (!) months after the initial submission. Sometimes the book doesn’t sell on an initial submission but editors ask to see a revise and then a year later the deal comes along. My greatest recommendation is take up a distracting hobby alongside publishing or, ideally, always be writing something new.
5. Editing isn’t the enemy.
Editing is a dialogue, not a monologue, and often a very rewarding one at that. I think sometimes for first time authors it can feel incredibly daunting having their baby critiqued! My advice always when you get an editorial letter is let it sit with you for a bit rather than have a knee jerk reaction. Then sort the comments into: 1) yes, totally agree! 2) hmm, might be tricky but can see the point and 3) nope nope nope. Ideally, there will be none or very few in the third category – in my experience at least. Sometimes you will find that the editor or agent suggests a fix you don’t agree with, but usually the problem they are flagging is correct, even if the fix isn’t the right one. I love seeing the journey a book goes on from the first draft I read through to the often very different one that makes it to the shelf.
6. Money is slower than you think.
No matter how long I think it will take for HMRC to process tax forms, or a contract to be fully executed, or a novel to be delivered and accepted… It always takes much, much longer. Often the temptation for an author with a big book deal is to quit their job but I have become very circumspect around money owing to my years of agenting. We will do our part (negotiate the contract, invoice, chase) as quickly as possible, but things change – sometimes an author delivers late so the money they thought would hit in 2022 hits in 2023; sometimes a book goes through more stages of edits than we thought which knocks payments back; sometimes (always) HMRC lose tax forms so the process has to begin again.
It’s smart to be as realistic as you can about the cash flow of a deal. For example, say you are paid a sweet, sweet £100,000 for 2 books. That equates to £25k on signature (less agent commission and VAT), then £12,500 gross on acceptance, £12,500 gross on hardback publication, £12,500 gross on paperback publication, and the same instalments on book 2. So whilst that’s a fantastic deal, the payments will be spread over 4 years potentially. Is that enough to quit your job? And if the book takes off and you earn major royalties, brilliant. Or you sign another book deal even bigger than the first. But what if you don’t? It’s important to be realistic and ask your agent (and accountant potentially) as many questions about cash flow as you need.
7. Publishing is a business.
Publishing can be hard to get your head around because on the one hand it’s all about words, and creativity, and passion. But it’s also about profit. The most successful authors I work with are those who understand that balance, and will think carefully and critically about their ideas, how they might sell them, and where they might fit in the market. That’s not to say these ideas never push the boundaries (I had a huge commercial success with a thriller where the main character’s mother appears to her in the form of a snake every night!) but the author has a vision and gets why it might be marketable. This isn’t me saying ‘write to a trend’ or ‘write to a market’ but I think it’s worth developing an awareness of what works and what doesn’t, and becoming a critical reader and applying that to your own projects too. It’s great to write for yourself, but if what you also want is to find a wide audience and be paid for your work, then I think it’s worth remembering that publishing is a business.
8. Relationships matter.
The author/agent relationship hinges on trust and mutual respect. My authors trust me when I tell them why I don’t think an idea works, or that the POV needs to change, or that maybe they don’t love the jacket but we think it will work in the market. And I trust them when they push back on a blurb, or junk a book halfway through because it isn’t working for them. If there isn’t trust – if the author doesn’t think their agent knows what they’re talking about, or disagrees with every piece of advice, or the agent feels similarly about the author’s ideas – then there isn’t a workable relationship there.
9. Rejection isn’t personal.
I have represented many authors in my career where a project gets rejected by everyone. Or their option project gets turned down. Or maybe even I’ve been the one to reject them for earlier work. But it’s the project that is being rejected, not the person. Sometimes, the next book sells at auction, or they get 4 offers of representation when the previous novel had 15 rejections. It’s something I have to remind myself too! Sometimes rejections really, really sting. If I represent a book it means I love it and I believe in it and when everyone says no it can feel painful. But that’s the nature of an industry where there are no sure things, and everything is based on subjective taste. One rejection from a publisher doesn’t mean the door is closed forever – it means not this project. But maybe the next one.
10. Sometimes you have to know when to give up.
I know, this one feels contrary to every other piece of writing advice! But sometimes a project just isn’t working, and it’s time to take a step back, recalibrate, and try something else. That doesn’t mean ‘give up on writing’ but it means accepting that that book isn’t working, no matter how many rewrites you do, or no matter how many agents you try. It absolutely does not mean that the next thing you write won’t be the one to break out, or find a home. And you will definitely have learned a lot about writing, or plotting, or characterisation from the work. I think it can be very brave to say ‘it’s not right’ or ‘I got 40k words in and realised that I’m hitting a brick wall because the idea doesn’t work’ – and often the best work comes from bravery.
11. Agents need a head for numbers.
I often speak to people who want to break into publishing who want to know the difference between agenting and publishing. Every time, I’m surprised by their perception that the agent is furthest away from the business end, potentially sitting around in a tweed suit smoking a pipe and reading manuscripts before typing furiously on their typewriter.
The reality is that the money we make in commission is what pays for everything to keep the agency running – salaries, Book Fairs, travel, book copies for foreign publishers, office rent, lawyers for complex contracts, etc. It’s my job to negotiate the best possible deal for my authors in terms of upfront advance, royalties, rights. It’s also my job to strategise around their career with them whether that’s moving publisher, or genre, or picking a pseudonym, or turning down a deal that we don’t feel is the right next step. I’m very close to the business end of the job, which is one of the key things an author wants me for.
12. Comparison is the thief of joy.
My dad once said to me: ‘there are 7.8 billion people on the planet, chances are you’re not going to be the best. But that’s not to say you can’t be the best you can be.’ That potentially doesn’t sound inspiring, but I found it an incredibly freeing way to think of it! There is always someone doing better than you: and that’s just down to statistics. Maybe you sell tons of copies but have never been reviewed well. Maybe you won a big prize but have dreams of being a bestseller. Maybe your book hit the bestseller list but you never got a film deal. Or someone’s book got pre-empted in 24 hours, or sold in a ‘major’ deal… and yours didn’t. I think social media can make this feel even worse as sometimes it seems like you’re surrounded by everyone else’s good news. But I guarantee that all of those authors out there you compare yourself to probably have their own things they wish would happen for them. They might even envy your career!
All you can focus on is your own journey and your own writing career. If you constantly compare yourself to others you won’t get to enjoy the path you are on, which is unique to you. Enjoy your successes, strive to be the best you can be, and relish the highs as well as taking the lows in your stride.