A Day in the Life of a Literary Agent: Juliet Mushens
September and October are amongst the busiest months of a literary agent’s year. In October the Frankfurt Book Fair takes place, where we meet with publishers, scouts and producers from all over the world. This year, it’s taking place digitally, which means that instead of one week of very intense meetings, there are around 4 weeks of slightly-less-intense meetings! We thought it would be interesting to do a literal day-in-the-life-of a literary agent in the run up to Frankfurt, and asked Juliet Mushens to tell us exactly what she did one day last week…
The first thing I do every morning is I check the company bank account and email my assistant, Liza, and our book-keeper remittances and money breakdowns for what is in there. Money comes in from all over the world, and as it’s royalty season right now (royalties in the UK pay out twice a year, by end of March and by end of September) it can be a ‘fun’ game trying to match the payments to the authors. It’s even more complicated by the fact we’re working remotely: some publishers have shifted to digital royalty statements (god bless them), but some are still posting them out so it can be tricky to track where they went to!
Once I’ve sorted the money I then dive into my emails to see what’s come in overnight. Working as we do with publishers all over the world means that lots of emails can hit whilst I’m sleeping. The following key ones have come in:
A Korean publisher requesting a contact from the UK publisher to license their cover-art for an author
An American publisher looking for cover copy on an author’s newly delivered second book
A foreign newspaper interview request for an author
An American film-agent has an offer in for a client and wants to set a time to Zoom with me and the author
Some of these can be done quickly, others will require quite a lot of back and forth, or in the case of the cover copy – me writing it.
The cover for the Mushens Entertainment Frankfurt Book Fair 2020 Rights Guide
Because it’s Frankfurt time of year (or ‘Fakefurt’ I should say), I have Zoom meetings every day (or Teams, or Skype, or BlueJeans…). Today, there are 5 (I have around 50 total over the 4 weeks around the fair). Today’s are with 4 foreign publishers, and 1 of our co-agents. Our co-agents work in their own countries, and submit our books on our behalf there. We talk daily, as I’m sharing updates on existing publications as well as future and current submissions. They work on our behalf all year round, and I’ve been working with the same co-agents in some cases for over seven years! Some of our authors who’ve had big success in translation are GIRL A by Abigail Dean (27 territories), THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman (34 territories) and THE MINIATURIST by Jessie Burton (40 territories). The first co-agent meeting is great as I’m updated on some sales success for a book, and hear that we have an auction in one territory, and an offer in another for two other books. In nice news, the offers are all for titles which are already published in the UK. We continue to push books internationally and try to get sales throughout the lifetime of their book, not just when they sell in the UK. I leave the meeting and have a lot of updating to do with my authors!
In the meetings with foreign publishers we talk about shared books and I pitch new books. Publishers might want an update on sales figures, ask for the marketing contact for a book, want information on a book jacket, ask when book 2 will be delivered, when they can expect edited files… anything and everything! They will also update me on how the book is performing in their territory. I’ll then pitch new and upcoming books.
In between those meetings I’m emailing, emailing, emailing. I receive an update on an Italian auction for a book and discuss the auction strategy with the Italian agent (hooray!). I email all other co-agents around the world to update them on the news. I also email the scouts to update them. Scouts work for film companies and foreign publishers to ‘scout’ hot books for them and it’s their job to know everything. Having shaken the trees, I then receive a Brazilian offer and a Czech offer for the same book and discuss strategy with the co-agents there. I email the author with an update (the most exciting part!) and I again email all other co-agents around the world to update them on the news, as well as the scouts. This is… a LOT of emails. There are around 15 scouts we deal with and 10 co-agents, and sometimes in book fair time it feels like I’m emailing every five minutes!
I try and get away from my desk for a little bit every day so head over to the post office. When we sell books in other languages the publishers require 2 or 3 copies for production purposes. Some of our books are sold in numerous languages, so it can be expensive to ship them over, but my local post office now knows me by name! I package up some copies of THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB by Richard Osman for overseas publishers and take them to the post office. I pick up a sandwich to eat at my desk, which feels like a novelty during lockdown.
On the way back I call an author to talk through the editorial letter he has just received and to brainstorm some fixes. I love talking to authors on the phone and often find that very complex email conversations can be quite easily resolved over a quick call. I also have a call with a publicist about an upcoming publicity campaign, and then have another call with one of my colleagues to advise on a submission.
This whole time I’ve had a client manuscript I’m reading open on my laptop but I’ve not QUITE made it past the first ten pages yet! This can be the issue with my job – it’s very reactive, so sometimes much of a day can be eaten by responding to emails, but equally that’s a huge part of my job too. I receive around 200+ emails a day plus 20 submissions, which can feel overwhelming when much of the day is taken up by meetings. Dealing with cover queries, chasing edits, chasing money, liaising with publishers… it’s all part of my role. Every day I ensure I do something proactive too – whether that’s notes on a manuscript (often it’s evenings and weekends that this happens), sending out a submission, updating co-agents with news on a book to encourage new deals, sending out a new book by an author to option publishers, or signing a new client.
In between my remaining meetings I’m still on email dealing with things ranging from questions about an author’s social media presence (gender split and nationality of audience), some queries on a contributor agreement for an essay anthology, and asking for sell-in and pre-order numbers for an upcoming publication release. I’m also checking some marketing and publicity plans for an author, and chasing everything from stray remittances to publication day assets for social media for a few clients. I send back notes on a deal memo to an editor and discuss a film negotiation with the film co-agent.
I get a contract draft through for a UK contract and go through it in detail, comparing it to the deal memo and against my previous contracts with that publisher to make sure that the terms match our boilerplate. I speak with a client about some queries on their contract, and end up talking them through what all the different terms do and don’t mean. I’ve been an agent for nearly a decade, and prior to that was an assistant in an agency, which means I’ve been negotiating contracts for a long time. It’s part of my job I really enjoy, but from an outside perspective the contracts can seem archaic or confusing unless you have someone (like me!) to explain them and how the different royalties and subsidiary rights split work.
I read a few chapters and outline for two projects a client is deciding between. I prefer one of them and send back my thoughts and tweaks on what I’d suggest next steps are. I love that creative involvement!
Finally, I shut my laptop in the evening to make dinner and vow to finish that manuscript tomorrow – who knows, with a fair wind I might make it to page 20 before I’m called away?