On
Tuesday night I thought I'd try out The London Writers' Club live event at a
fabulous space called The Cube on Commercial St (right next to Hawksmoor,
so I was tempted to drop in for a Dutch-courage cocktail en route). I first
came across The Cube, when a writing friend bought me a `retreat' Sunday
as a birthday present, so I could go along and have a creative day without
distractions- apart from fellow writers plugging in their laptops and
clicking away demonically or chatting/bragging over the sandwich lunch and in
the kitchenette, stocked with distracting biscuits.
There were about
20 people who turned up to listen to Hattie Grunewald from Blake Friedmann talk
about the submissions process and the agency- a good mix of young and older men
and women. I'd arrived early at the venue, so I popped into the Costa opposite
and enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate spotting the earnest looking,
casually dressed, middle-aged women on their own, waiting to head
across the road.
The London Writer's
Club is run by Jacq Burns and Kirsty McLachlan. Jacq agents non-fiction and
runs writing retreats and workshops and has written `Write A Bestseller`, a
copy of which I received with my ticket. Kirsty is an agent at David Godwin
Associates Ltd. (Disappointingly, their website isn't very user friendly and
when I emailed them via their form to say I was unable to book a one day course
they were offering- the button didn't work- I never heard back.)
Hattie herself
was a delight. She talked a little about Blake Friedmann, a medium sized
agency that prides itself in investing in the lifetime careers of its authors.
Hattie herself has been assisting the formidable Carole Blake (`either the
nicest of the tough agents or the toughest of the nice agents'), but is now
accepting submissions in her own right. She likes women's fiction, crime
fiction (but not the hardline male cop kind) and is particularly interested in
psychological thrillers with strong female characters. She also mentioned
that she likes young fiction. Someone asked what this meant and she explained
that this was fiction that a 20 year old might pick up who generally didn't
read a great deal- she therefore especially likes protagonists in their
twenties. She extolled Kerry Hudson's `Thirst' in this category.
With submissions
she explained that for her it's all about falling in love with the writer's
voice. She puts all submissions into a submissions' folder which she then looks
at on a Friday afternoon. She was refreshingly honest about the process. The
first thing she looks at is the letter and if she doesn't like the `concept',
she often doesn't get beyond that. She said it helps if you can show that you
can take editorial feedback, so if you've had a book report done or have a
detailed response from another agent, which has led you to make changes, then
do mention it.
If she does like
the concept, then she looks at the chapters next and usually judges them by the
first couple of pages. It's only if she's been prompted to read the whole
submission that she will look at the synopsis, just to see where it's going and
if there's an interesting twist. I've not met a writer yet who liked their own
synopsis, so it was a big relief to know it's not the first thing read. She did
say she liked short, clear sentences in a synopsis and the Blake Friedmann
guideline of 300 words was definitely too brief.
She said she makes
a decision on the spot whether she wants to read any further and aims to
respond within three weeks. Given the length of time most agents take to
respond- if they deign to respond at all- this was certainly music to
everyone's ears. She is happy to get involved in the editing process and said
that sometimes a whole structural edit is also needed.
Lastly, don't
submit in March, April, September or October because of London and Frankfurt,
as agents are either busy preparing or recovering from the Fairs. Don't try and
write to a trend, as these are always changing and of course there's a year's lag
time between successful pitch and publication. The Buyer's Guide is a good
magazine to look at, as it shows what's being published and how each book is
described- hundreds of mini pitches to learn from!
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