Posts Tagged ‘literary agent’
Quercus Books, famously known for starting the Scandinavian thriller trend by publishing the Stieg Larsson series, recently published TLC client Max Kinnings‘ Baptism. The book is a thriller that tells the story of a terrorist hijacking of the London Underground by Christian fundamentalists .
Max first heard about TLC in 1997, when a friend passed him a leaflet about TLC’s services. His first novel, Hitman, was assessed by TLC and Rebecca Swift was able to place the novel with Literary Agent Annette Green, who managed to interest a couple of publishers in the book, among them Hodder & Stoughton, who bought a two book deal.
Baptism is Max’s third novel and the sequel to it will be published in 2013. Max writes about TLC, “I have always been extremely grateful for the service that TLC provided which basically opened the door for me to become a professional writer.” Today, Max lectures in Creative Writing at Brunel University in London.
TLC is delighted about Max’s recent publication. The book is also available as an ebook. Click here to check out the opening pages.
TLC is delighted to announce that Jude Cook’s novel Byron Easy has recently been picked up by Heinemann, Random House. Literary agent Anna Webber at United Agents, who first saw Cook’s work in TLC’s March showcase, sold his novel to Heinemann earlier this month.
Cook first came through TLC when he won the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Competition in 2007. He lives in London and studied English Literature at UCL, where he graduated with a first. Originally a musician and songwriter, his band Flamingoes released two albums 12 years apart: Plastic Jewels (1995) and Street Noise Invades the House (2007). In addition to the TLC showcase, his essays and short fiction have also appeared in Staple magazine.
Click here to read Jude Cook’s showcased short story and his marvellous essay about the contemporary writing experience or click here to read our October Showcase, featuring an extract from Kate Belcher’s young adult novel.
TLC looks forward to the publication and wishes Jude all the best of luck with his next writing projects.
Agent Ben Illis at A.M.Heath recently accepted Jack Dash and the Magic Feather, a children’s story written by TLC client Sophie Plowden. Plowden writes, “My heartfelt thanks to your reader, Antonia Parkin, whose meticulous and insightful criticism coaxed my story into life, and also to Becky Swift, for her subsequent generosity and help in finding me an agent.” TLC recognised the book’s potential after her manuscript assessment and originally sent the manuscript to A.M.Heath.
TLC is delighted for Plowden and wishes her all the best in finding a publisher.
TLC has helped thousands of writers over the past 15 years. Once in a while the editorial feedback leads to a swift sale or contact with an agent, but in most cases the journey is still long and winding. For many writers the exchange with an editor at TLC and the knowledge that they ‘can write’ encourages them to be persistent. In the case of Jim Powell his tenacity helped him to attain terrific results in a notoriously unpredictable industry.
Jim Powell writes: “the immense encouragement and sound practical advice I received from The Literary Consultancy proved to be the bridge between the dream of being a published author and the reality of becoming one.” Nearly ten years ago, when Jim was in his early fifties, he decided he wanted to write novels. He submitted his first novel to agents, but it wasn’t accepted. One agent, however, recognised its potential and suggested he send it to TLC for an objective assessment. Although his reader, Charles Boyle, was immensely positive towards the manuscript and TLC championed his work, agents still did not bite. Then in 2007, Jim sent his second novel The Breaking Of Eggs to TLC for another assessment by Charles. Again TLC was encouraging and after many more twists and turns, Jim was taken on by insightful literary agent Susan Armstrong at Conville & Walsh. She immediately sold the world rights for a six figure sum to Arzu Tahsin at Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The novel was published in March 2010 in the UK (hardback), and in July 2010 in the US by Penguin (paperback). In March this year it was chosen as one of the best 12 first novels of the past two years by the BBC’s The Culture Show.
The success that the novel attained was due to a combination of Jim’s strong-headed approach, TLC’s support en route, and the fact that in the end Conville & Walsh recognised the writer’s potential. Jim writes of TLC: “both critiques gave me a much better insight into what I had written and how it might be viewed. Most importantly, the process helped to give me the self-confidence to believe I could write novels, and the stamina to go on making submissions despite all the rejections, and thus certainly contributed to what happened later.” TLC encourages writers to be realistic in their goals and to seek an objective opinion of their work before self-publishing or submitting their work to agents.
Check out Jim Powell’s website for more information about his previous and current writing projects.
TLC hosted a fabulous event last night on 22nd September, in which Fiona Mountain, historical novelist and author of Rebel Heiress, (previously published under the title Lady of the Butterflies) and Chair Paul Blezard, writer and presenter of One Word digital radio station, discussed her route to publication, and how two TLC reports helped her as part of a long journey into print. Paul Blezard teased out her story, from struggling writer to one who has just made it onto the bookshelves of Sainsbury’s.
During the second half of the event, Fiona and Paul were joined by literary agent Broo Doherty, creative writing tutor Greg Mosse, Professor Brenda Cooper and TLC’s Director Rebecca Swift. The panel discussed how to attract the attention of literary agents and the inner workings of the publishing industry. The Q & As went on into the night, focusing on very real questions such as whether writers can write what they really want to write anymore. After the interval, we had an energetic rapid-fire round of practice pitches of novels from members of the audience and the panel responded. It was inspiring, albeit rather terrifying, no doubt.
The Freelance is the bulletin of London Freelance Branch of the National Union of Journalists.
Rebecca Swift of The Literary Consultancy gave advice for an article titled “Get that book published” alongside Matthew Hamilton of literary agent Aitken Alexander.
Here is a quote from the article:
“Both our experts noted book publishing is a much tougher world than even five years ago, and your book proposal has to show you’re passionate enough – and have enough stamina – to pull it off. You need to convince an agent that you have the enthusiasm to carry out a labour of love, and only then look at the pragmatic, market-oriented aspects of the project.”
Follow this link to The Freelance website to read the full article.
