🎙 INTERVIEW: Inside the Agent’s Mind: Building Bestselling Writing Careers w/ Juliet Mushens
** This is a LIVE interview with Juliet Mushens about the reality of building a creative career.**
What actually makes a book break out—and stay there? What does it take to build a writing career that lasts, rather than flashes and fades?
Juliet Mushens has been at the centre of modern publishing for over a decade, shaping some of the most successful writing careers of recent years. She represents more than a dozen Sunday Times bestselling authors, including multiple number one bestsellers, and was recognised by The Times as the first literary agent to represent the UK’s number one, two, and three bestselling books in the same week—a feat she later repeated.
Join us for a conversation with literary agent Juliet Mushens about how bestselling careers are built, what agents truly look for in new writers, and how she guides books from debut to long-term success.
We’ll also explore:
What agents look for when deciding to take on a new writer
The relationship between craft, market awareness, and timing
What distinguishes books that break out from those that quietly succeed
How writers can think strategically about their long-term careers
The realities of publishing success behind the headlines
About Juliet Mushens
Juliet Mushens has been an agent for over a decade. More than a dozen of her clients are Sunday Times bestsellers with half a dozen claiming the number one slot in the last two years 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. 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. Juliet sits on the advisory board of Book Brunch, is currently President of the British Fantasy Society and sits on the board of the Women’s Prize Trust. You can find her on twitter as @mushenska.
Your Interview Hosts: Parul Bavishi
Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to cofounding London Writers' Salon and the Webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher.She writes on The Belonging Mirror on Substack and is working on a short story collection.
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