The publishing industry occupies a unique space in our cultural landscape: it is ubiquitous in its influence, and yet persistently opaque in its operations.

Alia has been working to change that. In addition to representing some of today’s most successful authors as a literary agent, she has also taken on the task of demystifying the world of publishing with her debut book, Take It From Me: An Agent’s Guide to Building a Nonfiction Writing Career from Scratch.

In it, she details each step of the process with characteristic generosity of insight. Her account offers precisely the kind of peek behind the curtain that will interest even those who aren’t themselves in publishing, revealing, as it does, an insider’s perspective into how the books we love make their way into the world.

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IN THIS EPISODE, we talk about...  ...