Alex Adsett is a literary agent and publishing consultant with over 25 years’ experience working in the publishing and bookselling industry. She has managed Alex Adsett Literary since 2008, and as an agent or consultant has helped thousands of authors review and negotiate their publishing deals.
As an agent she represents more than 50 authors of all ages and genres, including Melissa Lucashenko, Peter Greste, Isobelle Carmody, and many more. As a consultant, she reviews and negotiates publishing contracts for authors without an agent.
How do you describe what you do?
As a literary agent my job is to represent authors and their books – that is, I find great new manuscripts by reading hundreds of not-great ones, advocating for my authors’ rights, working with authors on strategy, pitching new books to the right publisher, and selling subsidiary rights like film and overseas territories. It’s a job that means knowing the book publishing industry inside out, and have many (many) balls in the air all at the same time.
How did you get started in your career?
I started as a madly obsessive reader, and armed with half an Arts/Law degree and some bookselling experience, I took myself off to London to try to break into publishing. It took me six months of applying for entry level publishing jobs (while lucky to also be working in a bookstore), before getting my first break at Simon & Schuster UK. After three years in London, I worked for three years in Rights and Contracts at Penguin in Melbourne, and Contracts Manager at Wiley in Brisbane.
After 10 years working for big publishers, I first started first my own consultancy helping authors who don’t have an agent negotiate their contracts, before finding the first ‘right’ manuscript to convince me to take the leap into agenting as well. For the first six years I had a part-time corporate job to help pay the bills while I grew the agency, but I’ve been full time in my own business for the last four years now, and it continues to go from strength to strength.
What do you most look forward to daily in your job?
What I love so much about being an agent and being able to talk to people about books all day, still feels like a dream come true. I love the buzz of connecting with a new manuscript, and the thrill of getting that manuscript in front of someone else who loves it as much as I do. I love knowing I’m making a difference to an author or reader’s life, I love walking into a bookshop, and knowing so many of the authors I see on the shelf.
I’m passionate about making stories happen in the world, and even when the neverending avalanche of emails gets you down, at the end of the day, I might get a package of one of ‘my’ latest books, and the thrill of opening that book box is the same as when I was a baby bookseller 25 years ago.
What are some of the misconceptions of your job?
A lot of people think an agent’s job is to edit manuscripts, and while some agents in Australia do, it is not a major part of most of our roles. For many of us, it’s about finding the gem of a manuscript and getting it in the hands of the right publisher.
There is also a perception that all agents are sharks, and while there are some terrifying agents out there, most of us are trying to represent our authors in a way that’s win/win for the author and the publisher. That doesn’t stop me having the tougher conversations if needed, but it’s not the starting point.
If you were to interview for your job what skills and qualities would you look out for?
There’s many types of agents, and a love of books and reading is a must. I would also be looking for someone who also has an underlying respect for authors and sees themselves as an advocate for their client, not as someone an agent dictates to.
Agenting is a job built on industry experience, so someone starting up as a literary agent needs to have a background already in the industry. I think you also need a good dose of tenacity – it’s not an easy job to crack and it takes years to build up an income (if ever), so you need to be in it for the long haul. I’m also a massive copyright and contract nerd, so it would be nice to have more people in the industry who have this very obscure love as well.
What’s the best thing that’s happening in your sector?
Over the last few years there has been a boom globally in stories across all genres of underrepresented perspectives.
As an example, say, just the young adult category, we have incredible First Nations voices like Lisa Fuller and Gary Lonesborough in Australia, The Hate U Give tackling Black Lives Matter in the US, groundbreaking LGBTIQ representative by authors like Freya Marske, or Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper, and then Australian diverse voices breaking into international award winning markets overseas like Shelley Parker-Chan and Vanessa Len.
For underrepresented authors to be finding such an enthusiastic audience has been wonderful after being ignored or sidelined for so long. Publishing itself still has a long way to go. It has belatedly acknowledged the lack of diversity employed within the sector, but it is a work in progress.
Otherwise, publishing was very lucky to get through the last few years better than many other arts sectors, and while debut authors have very much suffered, the industry overall in Australia has been able to keep ticking. We’re now seeing audiences return to writers festivals around the country, and international travel recommence for the book fairs overseas. We’re hopeful for blue skies ahead after such a rocky few years.
