Vice President & Literary Agent at Trident Media Group

There's a lot of apprenticeship in our industry because historically it had to be that way, otherwise what you would have in publishing - there's still a lot of this - is a bunch of English majors trying to make sense of how to run a business, right?Because book publishing or working at a literary agency - a talent agency for authors like I do - is at the crossroads of creative and business. And if you didn't have that kind of apprenticeship, someone to learn from at the company where you work, then we would all just be English majors just trying to feel our way in the dark.

I think that the important thing for people to really know about storytelling is that books are sort of like the oil paintings of the new media. It's a very fine art form, an old art form, and a story exists in everything, whether it's a photograph, a painting, a song, or a movie, it all began with a story. And stories have been here from the dawn of time. They're going to forever be in our existence, but I think people should just always have curious minds and seek out stories and storytelling and try to see the story in everything, not just look at things for face value.

Vice President & Literary Agent at Trident Media Group

Sometimes I think fiction is sort of like self-help in disguise. After we go through a journey and a story, and we live the experience with the characters or the narrator, we come through the other side with a new understanding of everything. And in a way, like a message has been imparted to us on an even deeper level than if we just read it in a plain, nonfiction book that's trying to convey concepts to us. It makes it such that we've had almost an actual lived experience along with a character, which is a very, very powerful thing.