285 Lauren Gardner | Literary Agent

Um, [laughs] let's start with, uh, your career in publishing.

Mm-hmm.

So you started, am I right in thinking you started at BLM in 2014?

I did, yeah, 12, 12 years ago now.

Yeah, long time.

Uh, [laughs]

Long time.

[laughs]

Was that, was that your first job in publishing, or had you, had you been in the industry before that?

It was my first job in publishing, but before I joined the agency, I was actually working in, um, luxury, uh, PR and entertainment PR.

So had been doing that for about four years since I graduated uni.

Um, so not kind of the same, but sort of threads of similarity.

Um-

Right

...

but it was a big, it was a big, it was a big shift, um-

Yeah

... at the time.

What...

I mean, that's, uh, I'm sure obviously there are transferable skills there, but it's a big, uh, a big change of scenery.

What, was it, was publishing something that you'd always sort of wanted to, to move into? Or was it just a sort of the opportunity arose and you, and you, and you jumped on it?

No, I'd, I'd never even really considered it as a career.

I think I went to uni with the hope that I would figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

[laughs]

And then I left uni, and I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up.