Meet Literary Agent Nicole Payne!

Today's Featured Writefest Speaker is Nicole Payne, a literary agent at Golden Wheat Literary, a faith-based literary agency with a bit of a twist. While Nicole is primarily interested in young adult, new adult, and adult novels, works with a killer plot, beautiful voice, and realistic characters will always make the exception. 
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What book/story/poem have you read recently that you’re really excited about?
I really loved The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It was the first epistolary novel I'd ever read and it was done so well that I'm constantly on the lookout for books like that now.

How did you first enter the publishing industry?
I started off as marketing intern at a publishing house and I also was a submissions intern for a few literary agents.

How do you replenish your creative well?
Well, if I have writer's block, then usually reading, music, or dancing seem to help untangle the knots and let the creativity flow.

What are some of the questions you ask authors when you talk with them for the first time about their career?
​I ask if writing is something they want to do long term or if it's a one book kind of project. I also ask about their writing process and style, their views on an agent-author relationship, and any other projects they're working on.