Posts Tagged ‘agent’

Bloomsbury Picks Up Another TLC Client

Editorial & Talent | News FlashAugust 4, 2011

PaoTLC is delighted to announce that Bloomsbury recently published Kerry Young’s novel Pao, a portrait of Jamaica’s Chinatown. Young had a TLC assessment in October 2007 by TLC reader Chris Wakling. Young says, “the TLC read gave me a completely independent view of the book……not a friend or family member….but somebody completely outside of the process and my emotional journey who could be absolutely honest about the book and my abilities. It was feedback from someone who was really focusing on the work and whose only agenda was to offer constructive criticism that would help me to improve the book.  It was fresh, it was honest, it was insightful. It was from someone ‘in the know’  about writing and publishing and that was important also.”

Young completed her revisions by summer 2008 and by the end of the year the manuscript was picked up by agent Susan Yearwood. After further revisions suggested by Bloomsbury editors, Young signed a deal with Bloomsbury in February 2010. In a recent Guardian books review Young is described “as a gifted new writer. Her novel is a blindingly good read in parts, both for its mesmeric story-telling and the quality of its prose.”

Pao tells the story of a young Chinese boy and his family who move to Jamaica escaping the revolution at home.  In Jamaica they enter into a world that is far from peaceful, with murder, corruption, blackmail, kidnap and incest.  The Independent writes: “Kerry Young’s energetic debut novel is a pacy but absorbing saga of domestic and gangland manoeuvring set against the violent backdrop of postwar Jamaican politics.”

Click here to see a YouTube clip with Young talking about her new novel.

TLC’s Director Short-listed for Kim Scott Walwyn Memorial Prize

Press & PublicityDecember 10, 2004

Rebecca Swift was short-listed for the prestigious Kim Scott Walwyn Memorial Prize and attended a prize-giving ceremony and dinner at Oxford University Press in December 2004, where Kym worked as an editor. The winner was Rights Manager Lynette Owen. Trustees for the prize included Dame Gillian Beer, Francine Stock and Hermione Lee among others. The prize honours an outstanding achievement by a woman in publishing or related fields.

In the article in the Independent on Sunday, Rebecca explains that the idea for the consultancy came while working at Virago.  She realised that writers who had had their submission rejected had no where to turn.  Rebecca writes, ” it became clear that a company that took it upon itself to try to perform acts of translation between the world of the writer and the industry should, as Carmen Callil later put it in in a ‘quote’ for us, ‘bridge the gap between agent, publisher and author and be of help to all three.’”

Click here to learn more about the prize and this year’s winner.