Literary Agent Interview: Alive's Beth Jusino

Beth Jusino came to Alive Communications in 2004 with a love for words and a passion for serving a new generation of writers. Before becoming an agent, Beth contributed to dozens of books as a writer and editor, and was widely published in national magazines. She spent six years as the Managing Editor for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International and sat on the organization's Publishing Acquisitions Team. She is also the former editor of MOMSense Magazine, the most widely-distributed Christian parenting publication in the United States. Beth grew up near the New Jersey shore and earned her BA in political science from Wheaton College, Illinois. Beth is an amateur photographer and loves to explore thrift and antique stores. She and her husband, Eric, live in the Denver area.

Tell us a little about yourself, Alive and how you got into agenting.

I’ve been an agent with Alive Communications for three years. Prior to that, I was the managing editor at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International for almost 7 years, and freelanced as a writer and editor full time for a while in between. In fact, I had just launched my website back in 2004, and was feeling pretty proud of myself, when I got a call from a friend/colleague at Alive. (I’d done some writing for them, and had referred a couple of writers who had exceptional book projects.) He asked how I was, and I said I was fabulous. He asked how I liked working from home, and I said I loved it. He asked if I wanted to give it all up to be an agent at Alive. I was speechless.

I had always known agenting was something I wanted to try sooner or later – I love working with authors to develop ideas, I love the balance of words and marketing that come with book proposals, and I am about equally left- and right-brained, so I manage numbers well and multi-task. But to be recruited so soon – I don’t want to admit how old I was then, but it was younger than I thought an agent should be. And to be recruited by Alive Communications, arguably the most influential agency in Christian publishing… it was overwhelming, and an invitation I couldn’t refuse.


Share with us how a prospective client would submit to you for consideration.

We have very clear submission guidelines at: http://alivecom.com/queryguidelines.asp. We only consider projects from commercially published authors, or through referrals from existing clients. We prefer queries via email, and have a submissions coordinator on staff who gives everything a first read. With more than 200 submissions coming every month, even with our guidelines, we would be swamped without her.


Every agent has areas they are particularly strong in. What aspect of agenting do you excel at?

Good observation. I usually tell people that my job is 25% editorial – finding the idea and crafting the words; 25% legal – negotiating and enforcing contracts; 25% marketing – selling proposals and authors to publishers, and then helping the author and publisher sell the book to readers; and 25% crisis management. I enjoy all of the parts for different reasons… but when it comes down to it I’m a “word” person. I am happiest in the process of pulling proposals together – finding the right hook to explain the project, crafting the appropriate author bio and marketing suggestions, polishing the sample chapters, and then sharing it with editors and publishers who I know will get excited about the writing and the topic.

I run my authors through their paces on proposals, and it sometimes takes 2 or 3 back-and-forth revisions until it’s ready to go out. But the authors know they are sending their best stuff to publishers, and editors know that anything I send them will be professional and well done (whether or not it’s the right fit for them).


What does your dream client look like?

Pulitzer Prizes, blockbuster movie spin-offs, and 7-figure advances all come to mind… seriously, though, my ideal client is a talented writer and a creative marketer. He/she has more good ideas than they can possibly write, and each book sells more copies than the last. There’s a buzz in the industry about this author’s work, with words like “innovative” and “brilliant” tossed around.

My dream client works in perfect harmony with both his/her editor and the publisher’s marketing/publicity departments. He/she is personally humble but professionally confident. He/she meets deadlines. (I have all of these things, by the way, in my current client list – well, except the Pulitzer Prize and the 7-figure advance.)


What are some questions an author should ask of a prospective agent?

*Who do you currently represent?

*What books have you sold – and to what houses – in the past 6 months?

*What is your process from the point an author turns in a proposal?

*Do you represent other authors in my genre?

*How do you like to communicate (phone or email)?

*How often should I expect to hear from you?

*What do you see as the agent’s role?



What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

Read critically. Study good books and good writers to see how they approach their craft – whether it’s persuasion, or dialogue, or tension, or personal narrative. Push deeper than the words on the page and really think about the processes of how the author got there, and why it works… or doesn’t. Never stop learning.


What’s the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

“Just write from the heart and turn in the first draft.” We can craft some really imaginative stories when “inspiration” strikes, but they should still be proofread and edited for clarity before you hand them over.

Message matters, but so does delivery.


What are a few of your favorite books?

I don’t have a “favorite book” in the sense of having one book that everything else is judged by, and that I go back and read every year. I’m constantly amazed by the new things I find, and recommend the, loan them out, and move on to the next. But a few of my most-recommended books recently include:

Siri Mitchell’s Chateau of Echoes (the first book I sold); Lauren Winner’s Mudhouse Sabbath; Mary DeMuth’s Watching the Tree Limbs; Lori Smith’s A Walk With Jane Austen; KAhlil Gibran’s The Prophet; Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird; Harry Potter series, especially the last two; Phillip Yancey’s Church: Why Bother?; Henri Nouwen’s The Genessee Diaries. I don’t know that I loved it, but the book that “stuck” most in my mind was Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. Wow.


Do you have much time to read for pleasure with so many submissions to look at?

I live in Denver and the Alive office is in Colorado Springs, so I spend about 2 hours a day in the car. It sounds horrible, but I’ve discovered the audio book collection at my local library… I’ve read almost all of my “fun books” this way, and experienced a great variety I may not have picked up off the shelf – this year I’ve “read” everything from Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America to Carl Hiassen’s Skinny Dip to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (again) to Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants to Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.


Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

Do I have to limit it to one? I get frustrated by publishers that overwhelm and overwork their staff, so that marketing and sales opportunities too easily slip through the cracks; I get frustrated by writers who turn in sloppy manuscripts or proposals because “I’m not good at things like spelling and grammar;” I get frustrated by anyone so stuck in the “this is the way we’ve always done it” attitude that they can’t see something that would work better.


Can you give us a look into a typical day for you?

I don’t know that I have a typical day. A day can include reviewing and responding to a proposal from a client, calling a publisher to follow up on marketing plans for upcoming releases, talking to an author on the phone about how they are moving their brand forward with the next book, meeting a publisher or editor for lunch to pitch new projects (love being in CO Springs with so many publishers), reading a publishing contract draft line-by-line to note the areas we need to negotiate and improve, reviewing cover options with an author for their next book, calling a publisher with more information they requested to get ready for their committee presentation, etc.

At home after dinner, there are just-published books from my clients to read (yes, I do read everything after it comes out, if I haven’t read it already in an earlier stage) and prospective client proposals and manuscripts.


What author do you especially admire and why?

Ooh, trick question. I’ll pick someone long dead, so that I’m not seen as favoring a client or kissing up to someone I would like to represent. And I have been reading a lot about Jane Austen recently… a writer with an incredible imagination, who captured the intricacies of human emotion and created three-dimensional characters. A writer who “wrote what she knew” – except in the case of romance, which she seems to have lived without (despite what the current Anne Hathoway movie says).

An author without ego, who did not put her name on her books and got annoyed at her brother when he told people she wrote the popular books. And a person with a sharp sense of humor, which I admire in anyone.


What is your favorite and least favorite part of being an agent?

Favorite part: Calling an author and telling them “We got an offer!” (Second favorite part: when the finished, published book arrives in the office after 18 – 24 months of anticipation)

Least favorite part: Calling an author and telling them “The publisher decided not to make an offer.” (Second least favorite part: Nagging publishers when they are overdue with offers, contracts, marketing plans, copies of books, PR packets, etc.)


What's that special something you look for in a manuscript?

First, a unique voice. Which sounds simple, but isn’t. Lots of people are trying to write spiritual memoir, but I rarely find one that doesn’t sound like just a litany of all the bad things that happened to the writer, and then Jesus came and saved them. And second, an indication that the author understands the business of publishing, and their role and responsibility in promoting their work when it comes out, rather than washing their hands as soon as the manuscript is turned in.



What are some things that set off red flags?

Cliché writing. Predictable fiction. Poor grammar or writing skills. A negative personal attitude that always seems to blame someone else. Submitting multiple proposals in different genres. Ultimatums. Calling every day. A cover letter that says “the angels” told him I would be his agent (yes, that really happened).


What makes a manuscript stand out from the rest?

Beautiful writing. A captivating story. A new solution to an old problem.


We all hear how subjective this business is. Would you elaborate?

Everything in this business is grey. I can send 6 identical copies of the same proposal to 6 editors at 6 different houses. One responds immediately and says he doesn’t resonate with the topic. Three more read the proposal and send polite rejections over the next few weeks, saying the proposal is not right for them. One thinks it’s okay, and makes a modest offer. One thinks it’s the next best-seller and enthusiastically presents a marketing plan and a much-better offer.

The reality is, we don’t know for sure what will become a best-seller, or what will hit stratosphere sales levels like Purpose Driven Life, or what will get a lot of attention but flop spectacularly sales-wise. We make educated guesses, and sometimes we get it wrong. There’s no formula to tell us whether the reading market will like what we’ve done, will buy what we’re created. And it’s the uncertainty that leads to the subjectiveness.


What's the best piece of advice you can give our readers about getting published?

Know who you are as an author. Know what you write best and focus on that, building your author brand and your writing skills in a particular area.

**Let's say I have an intriguing query, a well developed synopsis and my three sample chapters are strong. Why might I still get a rejection?

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