While Mark Gottlieb has agenting in his blood—he’s a second generation lit agent—he’s not your typical agent. He doesn’t specialize in any particular genre but bounces between fiction and nonfiction, with some children’s books and graphic novels in between. And though he works with the Big Five publishers, he’s open-minded when it comes to self-publishing and the new wave of publishing.

In this episode we talked about how being a writer requires audacity, how tough it is to make a living as an author without a side profession and how most people don’t even know what a lit agent is, among many other topics.