Going Forth Episode 6: …And Get It Published

After listening to our last episode, you went home and wrote a book — now what?! Or maybe you adore books, but aren’t certain that you want to write them yourself — what else is out there?

Part II of our segment on all-things-literature features Clare Mao ’14, a literary agent at Europa Content in New York. Clare represents writers and their interests at every step along a book’s journey, and few understand the publication process quite as comprehensively as she. Today, Clare takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of publishing, offering key tips on how to take that document on your computer to the top of the bestseller list. Clare walks us through various roles in publishing and explains why having an agent is critical to a book’s success. Topics also cover the changing literary markets, the financial realities of professional writing, the need for labor unions in publishing, and how Clare traces her career back to serendipitous Grinnell connections she made along the way.