Literary agent Juliet Mushens on what makes her offer representation, how she builds bestselling careers from debut to long-term success, and why writers need a life outside of publishing.

We discuss

• Why tension is the single most important quality an agent looks for in any genre of fiction.
• How personalized feedback from an agent signals you’re closer than you think.
• The editorial conversation that happens when an agent offers representation.
• What to consider when choosing between multiple agent offers, and why gut matters more than questionnaires.
• How some of today’s biggest bestsellers had their first and second books rejected — and what changed.
• Why writing for the market rarely produces the best books, and how to hold the tension between passion and positioning.
• The publishing myths that refuse to die, from social media requirements to green book covers.
• How agents negotiate contracts and why an escape clause matters.
• The concept of inconvenience over convenience and what it means for writers in the age of AI.
• Why building a sense of esteem outside writing is essential to surviving the highs and lows of publishing.

Resources & Links

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Mushens Entertainment Submissions
• Mushens Entertainment Blog
• Get Started in Writing Young Adult Fiction by Juliet Mushens
• Juliet Instagram
• Mushens Entertainment Instagram

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, and 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.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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Singer-songwriter and author Josh Ritter on writing songs for the muse instead of waiting for it, letting creative ideas find their shape across songwriting, painting, and fiction, and building a sustainable creative life over more than two decades.

We discuss:

• Writing for the muse instead of waiting for it.
• Why working across multiple art forms keeps each one alive.
• The craft behind a single narrative song, from first image to finished track.
• Balancing creative compulsion with everyday life.
• What sharing work publicly teaches you about your own work.
• How the relationship between an artist and their audience evolves over decades.
• Mental health and the myth of the tortured creative.
• Getting through the dead stretch when nothing seems to come.
• The campfire model of building a creative career.

Resources & Links:

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Josh’s Substack
• Hello Starling
• I Believe in You, My Honeydew
• Truth is a Dimension (Both Invisible and Blinding)

About:

Josh Ritter is an American singer-songwriter, musician, artist, and author. He performs and records with The Royal City Band. He writes on Substack at Josh Ritter’s Book of Jubilations. His latest album, I Believe In You, My Honeydew, is out now.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON

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Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon

Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon

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Novelist, memoirist, and Corporeal Writing founder Lidia Yuknavitch on writing from the body, finding form in the natural world, and why the stories we need most come from the places we’ve been afraid to go.

We discuss:

• Why the element that makes you vibrate — water, forest, rock, wind — might be the key to unlocking your creative access path.
• How to find your core metaphors through a body-based meditation practice.
• A practical portal for memoir writers.
• Why abandoning linear plot doesn’t mean abandoning form.
• The difference between prompts and portals.
• Why writers who’ve survived the hardest things carry a skillset the rest of the world urgently needs right now.
• A reframe for anyone afraid of writing badly.

Resources & Links

• 📄Interview Transcript
• Corporeal Writing
• The Chronology of Water
• Thrust
• Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Alison
• She Had Some Horses by Jo Harjo
• Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
• Writers’ Hour

About

Lidia Yuknavitch is the National Bestselling author of four novels: Thrust, The Book of Joan, Dora: A Headcase, and The Small Backs of Children, winner of the 2016 Oregon Book Awards Ken Kesey Award for Fiction as well as the OBA Reader’s Choice Award. She has also published a critical book on war and narrative, Allegories Of Violence (Routledge). The Misfit’s Manifesto, a book based on her recent TED Talk, was published by TED Books in 2017. Verge, a collection of short fiction, was released in 2020. Her widely acclaimed memoir The Chronology of Water was adapted for film directed by Kristen Stewart. Her newest memoir, Reading the Waves, was published by Riverhead books in 2025. She founded the workshop series Corporeal Writing in Portland Oregon, where she teaches both in person and online. She received her doctorate in Literature from the University of Oregon. She is a very good swimmer.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

*

FOLLOW LONDON WRITERS’ SALON

Twitter: twitter.com/​​WritersSalon

Instagram: instagram.com/londonwriterssalon

Facebook: facebook.com/LondonWritersSalon

If you’re enjoying this show, please rate and review this show!