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Good morning, everyone!

In this week's Spotlight On, we're joined by Helen Lane, a Junior Agent at The Booker Albert Literary Agency.

In addition to supporting authors as an agent and an editor, Helen is a querying author herself. She enjoys reading and representing fantasy (adult and YA), sci-fi, horror, paranormal romance, thriller and adventure. Authors represented by Helen include Camri Kohler (Peachy, published April 2023) and K. C. Harper (Marked for Grace, published March 2023).

Helen offers agent one-to-one sessions and editorial services with Jericho Writers. You can find her on Twitter at @HFLane_writing.

"Imagine browsing a bookstore. There are books you’ll pick up and consider, and ones that are not for you. And when you read the ones you’ve chosen, there are books that you thought you’d love and don’t, and ones that surprise you in the best way possible."

Hi Helen, thanks for speaking with us today!

What brought you to agenting?

I came the long way around. I started off as a writer, then interned for several agencies for a few years, and finally started at The Booker Albert Agency as a Junior Agent (which is where I am now).

What does the day in the life of an agent look like for you?

Busy. I work as an agent, an editor, and a writer. All of this is juggled around being a wife, and mum to three kids and a stupid (but lovely) spaniel. I rarely switch off from working, it’s just my focus that changes. I never have the same two days in a row as an agent though. Some days you are looking at manuscripts, others dealing with contracts or finances. You can be talking to editors, sometimes pitching your clients’ work or talking about a project that’s sold and looking at cover designs or edits or marketing plans. Putting together submission lists (which is easy for one client but gets really complicated when you are juggling many different clients at different stages of submission). Other times it’s just talking to your clients, working through edits, book ideas, plotting, and sometimes just being a reassuring voice when they need it. And queries. I can’t forget the queries.

When you’re reading a query letter, what are some things you like and dislike seeing?

I’m not particularly fussy with query letters. They do need to be professional and courteous. They need to provide enough information about the story to interest me. But I actually don’t always read them. For me, the pages are the most important thing and I’ll return to the query if I am interested in the writing. That said, I love it when writers put in content warnings. It tells me that they have considered their reader and I appreciate that.

Some agents love synopses, others don’t. What do you think of them, and are there any things you look for in a synopsis?

I tend not to read them, and I don’t request them as part of the query package. I will only ask for one if I am interested in a project. Even then, it’s rare as I don’t like spoilers.

Is there anything an author can do in the first few pages of their manuscript that will really grab your attention? Anything you don’t enjoy as much?

I will always give writers who ask for my editing services the standard advice for querying and writing in the industry. For me though, there’s nothing I look for beyond good writing. But for me to request and then offer, it will come down to a connection. Imagine browsing a bookstore. There are books you’ll pick up and consider, and ones that are not for you. And when you read the ones you’ve chosen, there are books that you thought you’d love and don’t, and ones that surprise you in the best way possible. This is why manuscript wish lists are so difficult. I can list the types of books I’m often drawn to, but in the end it’s all about voice and execution.

However, my tastes are broad and always changing, and there are very few things I really don’t like. My anti manuscript wish list would be cheating and abuse though. But even that’s a difficult line to draw because I represent books with both of these things in it. As a general rule though, I don’t want to read about those subjects.

Many authors have concerns about submissions etiquette: how long should they wait before sending a follow-up email; when is it appropriate to send an update or resubmit, etc. Do you have any guidance to help authors navigate the querying process?

Generally, just follow querying guidelines and be polite and professional. If an agent is closed to queries, assuming you are the exception and emailing your query every few weeks will only get your email deleted. Outside of that, I think most agents are pretty easy going (unless stated or proven otherwise). For me, I will ALWAYS respond (unless you’ve snuck into my emails or Twitter to be rude). If I haven’t responded, I haven’t got your query, it’s that simple.

I would suggest that 3 months is a good time to send a follow up email. Resubmitting is fine, but only if you’ve made changes to your manuscript. Otherwise, if I’ve passed, it’s because it wasn’t a good fit for me.

You’re fairly active on Twitter, where you talk about reading, writing and agenting. How (if at all) does social media influence your work with books, and do you have any comments on how authors can make good use of platforms like Twitter?

Funnily enough, I’ve actually just taken a Twitter hiatus. But the advantage of Twitter is being able to talk to writers. To learn what they need from the process and apply it to my work. For example, based on writer feedback I now try to make querying more accessible by not asking additional questions on the submission forms, not requiring a synopsis, not asking for any personalisation, and not asking for comparison texts.

As a reader, Twitter lets me discover new books and authors that I might not have heard of otherwise. It’s also great for community and I have found many friends through Twitter.

Overall, (for traditional publishing) I’m not sure how much Twitter can help in selling books. Yes, engagement and retweeting your progress and updates is great for visibility, but it’s the publishers who can really make a difference to book sales. I always tell my clients to have a presence and do what they can, but not to stress about it. An author should not be responsible for the success or failure of a traditionally published book, and the pressure to think otherwise is usually detrimental to them.

Are there any books you’ve enjoyed recently?

This is a dangerous question, but here we go:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir; the entire InCryptid series and Middlegame series by Seanan McGuire; The Atlas Six series by Olivie Blake; the Stormblood series by Jeremy Szal; Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo; This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar; the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson; and the Clown in a Cornfield series by Adam Cesare.

I seem to be going through a sci fi (mostly space opera) and contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance phase in my personal reading. I’m sure that will switch again soon, as I read a lot. End of last year I was obsessed with ghost stories.

Outside the world of books, do you have any hobbies or passions you’d like to share?

I love the theatre and travelling. And I have a spaniel who requires A LOT of walks and attention.

Any last pieces of advice for authors in the querying process?

Honestly, to remember that it is hard for everyone and that you are not alone. And rejections are usually subjective and have nothing to do with the quality of your work. I’ve passed on projects that other agents have picked up a few weeks later, and the same the other way around. Sadly, there’s a lot of luck and timing with getting published (at every stage). I’m a querying author myself so I understand the frustration, but I also know that things can change in a moment, and you never know what is around the corner for you. So don’t lose faith (unless writing is making you unhappy, and then you have permission to stop!)

The full interview will be posted to Helen's AgentMatch profile.

If you’re struggling with your query letter and synopsis, do check out our free resources on our website. We have lots of info to help you on your way. Or, better still, if you’re a member with us, our lovely Writers Support team will be happy to offer you a free query letter review!

I have my usual summer hay fever at the moment, combined with a nasty cough and a few spadefuls of antibiotics.

So what follows isn't really a logically sequenced e-mail. If anything, it might be like the precursor to something useful – a collection of raw materials, in effect. But that’s the hopeful way to look at it. More than likely, what follows is just the ramblings of a delirious brain and sooner or later I will start telling you that I am the lost king of Sardinia and have the power to sprout feathers.

So, I’m not going to be too strategic here. I am going to spill out what I have and you can pick amongst the debris as you will. Deal?

OK. Then here we go:

1. Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse is – yeugh

I mean, obviously, I have never experienced it first-hand. And I could never see myself wanting to wear those ridiculous goggles. And maybe I'm not of the metaverse generation anyway. But have you ever seen a screen grab from matters multiverse nonsense that makes you want to explore further? It looks like a corporate waiting room, dunked in Really Bad Art, then extruded through some Hunger Games style dystopia.

It isn't only me who thinks that way. The firm has been losing stupid amounts of money on it and the popularity of the service still seems rock bottom.

2. Jane Austen’s metaverse is – yum

The art of fiction is obviously lovely and has none of the problems associated with the metaverse. But it does share some characteristics. You are an altered you in an altered world. It is a game that plays with and relies on an altered reality.

I suppose it is true that, in Zuckerberg's metaverse, you mostly role-play as you, rather than Jane Austen’s Emma or Melville’s Ishmael or JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. But that doesn't seem like a key difference. After all, when you enjoy a Jane Austen novel, it is because you choose to identify your hopes and fears with those of the heroine. So, in effect you are choosing to role-play as an avatar in somebody else’s meta-reality, just as you can choose your wardrobe in the metaverse.

3. Jane Austen’s world has way better clothes.

Also: Jane's characters have legs.

4. The difference is probably not terrible graphics

Jane Austen doesn't come with graphics.

5. I went to get antibiotics yesterday

The pharmacy was closed for lunch which was really annoying. So I sat in a coffee shop while I waited. The woman next to me was editing her novel. I mean I can't be totally sure it was her novel but it darn well looked like one and somehow the way she was working on it was the way a novelist cares about something they have given birth to. She didn't look like a professional editor doing a professional job all the 15th manuscript of the year. She sat forwards, almost cradling it. Her attention was certainly focused, but I would say that it was lovingly focused.

I am really not sure whether this is relevant.

6. Mark Zuckerberg wants you to love his technology

That's the focus, isn't it? You are meant to marvel at the possibilities. If that kind of technology has a selling point, it is that you can do anything. I mean, not have realistic bodies, of course, but, apart from that, you can do anything.

7. Novelists offer the opposite

You can't do anything. You can't make choices. You get on a train at the start of a novel, and then steel tracks steer you all the way to an outcome that you, the reader, has not chosen.

8. Readers choose the type of fun fair ride

Obviously, somebody picking up a novel by Jane Austen wants a shot of something different than does somebody picking up a novel by Louise Penny or Stephanie Meyers, or whoever else. But once a reader has chosen their type of ride, the power of choice leaves them completely. The author is in control.

9. That woman. In that coffee shop.

But it isn’t control without kindness or focus. I watched that woman writing her novel and she was caring about every word, as she should have done. As I would have advised her to do.

10. The technology of printing is still basically 15th century

The machines have got fancier, but they are still all about slapping some ink on some hard-wearing surface and pressing that against paper. Still. In this day and age.

11. We like books

Physical books. Things that you can throw at an annoying child, or leave on a bus, or put on a shelf somewhere. E-books have been revolutionary, but we still like the old-fashioned things too.

12. The metaverse is empty. A book is a conversation.

Between a human author and a human reader. And about a topic that they both deeply care about.

13. You can swat a hornet with a book.

I mean, I’m all for live-and-let-live. But there was a massive hornet in the kids’ room with a sting on it like some kind of scary-insect-Apache-gunship-poison-dagger thing. I couldn't get the damn hornet to go out of the window, so it ended up dying at the hands of Enid Blyton's Famous Five. Can't do that with an e-book. Now the kids want to squash the hornet into some modelling clay, so they can make a plaster cast of its corpse. Not sure if that counts as a parenting win or a parenting fail.

14. And look, it’s love, isn’t it? It all comes back to love.

Zuckerberg's metaverse seems cold because it is cold. It seems technologically focused because it is technologically focused. And books seem warm and human and living because they are born of a kind of love.

That woman in the coffee shop. Me when I write, you when you write. All of us have complicated relationships with our creations, of course. We are never only loving. We are also anxious and paranoid and fearful and self-doubting and all the rest.

But that is what we transmit when we write. We transmit love. And that is why people read it.

Put love in your books. And swallow antibiotics by the handful.

Til soon.

Harry

We spoke to UNWC course alumnus Alan Fraser, who has just received a publishing deal, about the crucial things he learned about revising his work ready for submission.

JW: What was your favourite part of the Ultimate Novel Writing (UNWC) course?

For me, the part I loved most was actually the part I thought I would like least: commenting on other people’s work – and having them comment on mine. Thinking about why I like, or don’t like, someone else’s writing made me think more about my own. It’s easy to pick holes in other people’s writing, but, more often than not, as I started to type out what I thought could be improved, I’d find myself thinking, ‘But haven’t I done exactly the same thing in my book?’ And having people critique my writing in detail was fantastically helpful in sharpening up the book

Thinking about why I like, or don’t like, someone else’s writing made me think more about my own.

JW: Tell us about your journey to finding a publisher. What steps did you take, and were there any turning points/transformative moments?

I started writing my first novel more than eight years ago when I was stuck on a plane with nothing to read and no access to my tech. I had the arrogance of a beginner and, after I’d mapped out the basic structure of the plot, just started writing with no help, and without doing any research about how to write a novel. It was only when I came to think about submitting the completed 192,000 word opus I realised there was a whole load of stuff I needed to know – and really should have thought about before I’d even started.

That was how I first came across Jericho Writers. They gave me a manuscript assessment which really helped me get to grips with what writing a novel involved, so I signed up to Harry’s weekly emails. This meant that when I was working on my second novel, I was far more aware of the industry’s expectations. I was determined to be more professional this time and signed up for the UNWC in the hope it would help me navigate publishing. Whilst on the course I started submitting to agents. I had five full manuscript requests in the first six months which gave me real hope – but then nothing. On one of the agent one-to-ones I got with the course, an agent said that the industry had moved on and what I was writing didn’t fit with what publishers were looking for now. I was despondent, but everyone in my tutor group – and my mentor – said how much they liked my book and reminded me that my writing was really strong. So I decided to have a ‘last throw of the dice’ and submit to small presses. In the end, I got two offers of publication but opted to go with Lightning Books.

I was really lucky to be in a fabulous and supportive tutor group. There’s no way I would have kept going without their encouragement.

JW: In what ways has the UNWC helped you to where you are now in your writing journey?

I was really lucky to be in a fabulous and supportive tutor group. There’s no way I would have kept going without their encouragement. When the rejections started to come, they really rallied round and encouraged me to believe in my writing. I also had an excellent mentor in Helen Francis. She believed in the book, but more than that, she believed in me as a writer and believed I could get published. Every time I thought I’d come to a dead end she encouraged me to keep going. The fact that she works in the industry, took the time to really understand my manuscript, and still felt that I should keep going when I’d lost all hope myself meant the world to me.

JW: Do you have any advice for new students for making the most of the course?

Don’t think you know it all. Commenting on other people’s stuff and responding humbly to other people’s comments about yours is actually a surprisingly effective way to become a better writer. Oh, and make sure you take advantage of every opportunity the course offers. It’s pointless investing in a course like this if you don’t commit the time to learning. I picked up loads of great tips – often in the places I least expected to. The course only works if you work the course!

About Alan

Alan Fraser is a writer from Birmingham (UK) who, after his dreams of rock stardom were cruelly dashed, took up writing.

His play, Random Acts of Malice, won the inaugural Derek Lomas Prize for New Writing, but for the past eight years, his focus has been on fiction.

His novel, The Muse of Hope Falls, will be published by Lightning Books in the second half of 2023.

You can follow Alan on Twitter here.

Being an author can be a lonely and paranoia-filled occupation when writing alone. Without feedback and guidance, it becomes all too easy for doubt to creep in. We interviewed former Ultimate Novel Writing Programme (UNWP) student Nicky Downes and spoke about how the programme helped her achieve her dream of finding a publisher, the lessons she learnt, and the people that helped along the way.

JW: What was your favourite part of the UNWP?

I started the programme with just an outline for a novel and a fledging idea for my protagonist – a female Detective Inspector who climbs mountains. If it wasn’t for the support of both my writing group and my mentor, Helen Francis, I wouldn’t now have a complete novel and a publishing contract.

I loved all aspects of the programme, but it was the time spent in the webinars with my group discussing our writing problems and the critiquing of each other’s work that had the most impact. And meeting everyone at the York Festival was amazing! I loved the courses there too. I had some real lightbulb moments.

I loved all aspects of the programme, but it was the time spent in the webinars with my group discussing our writing problems and the critiquing of each other’s work that had the most impact.

JW: Tell us about your journey to finding a publisher. What steps did you take, and were there any turning points/transformative moments?

I had already self-published a police procedural series before starting the course and knew how difficult it can be to promote your work successfully. I was ideally looking for a publisher that would love my protagonist and ideas for my new series, and that could place the series in front of more readers. In terms of the genre of my novels, I knew that a digital first publisher would be a good option.

The one-to-ones that I had with agents were excellent and helped enormously with my understanding of what the key themes of my novel were and my pitch.

In the end, I had two offers of representation. The first with Storm Publishing who offered me a three-book deal for the DI Jack Kent series. As I was considering this, I was approached by an agent who had read my submission to the UNWP anthology. After reading my full manuscript, she offered me representation. That was a wonderful and unexpected surprise. In the end, I plumped for Storm. I can’t wait to work with my publisher, Kathryn Taussig, on editing Urban Climber (the title may change) and the other books in the series.

JW: In what ways has the UNWP helped you to where you are now in your writing journey?

The programme helped me to understand which areas of my writing I needed to improve. It also gave me a much clearer understanding of the industry and what works. Being able to discuss my writing with my peers and tutor really helped, particularly during those moments when I floundered and found it difficult to keep going.

The fact that the programme covers everything from the first page to the final draft is so important. I’m sure I’ll keep returning back to both the programme materials, and to the support of the members of my writing group, whenever I get stuck in the future.

The programme helped me to understand which areas of my writing I needed to improve. It also gave me a much clearer understanding of the industry and what works.

JW: Do you have any advice for new students for making the most of the UNWP?

There will be times when you will struggle with your writing. But there is so much help and guidance available at Jericho. Don’t feel that you have to do everything. Do what is working for you and your book. Sometimes you’ll get advice that you don’t immediately agree with. Take a step back and look at it again with fresh eyes, as this is often the advice that makes a real difference to your writing. Be prepared to make some lifelong writing friends too!

You can learn more about the Ultimate Novel Writing Programme and how it could help you write a publishable novel in a year!

About Nicky Downes

Nicky Downes has previously written a self-published crime series featuring DI Amelia Barton of the National Crime Agency. When she’s not writing, she loves cruising the canals of Birmingham and the Midlands on her narrowboat, Chanelle.

You can follow Nicky on Twitter, or view her website here.

A year or two back, when the world was young, I loved the music of Bob Dylan and knew much of his canon by heart. One of his lyrics has always stayed with me: 

Everything passes 
Everything changes 
Just do what you think you should do. 

And, you know, the Bard was right. Right about the world, right about publishing. 

You can’t blame the world for changing. You just have to make your own best accommodation with how it is. 

This thought is prompted by an article in the Bookseller magazine – the equivalent, roughly, of the US’s Publishers Weekly. The writer is an editor working in publisher. He/she chooses to remain anonymous, but I’m almost certain that she’s called Hepzibah Plum. She says: 

Over a decade ago, when I first came into the commercial publishing industry, my fellow assistants and I were well versed in early starts and late finishes, and regularly worked weekends. However, what I have seen a marked leap of in recent years is what is expected of each editor, publicist and marketeer in terms of the volume of books – a growth that, in my experience, is often not supported by an increase in budget and resources. The inevitable result is a cutting of corners elsewhere, and it is author care, whether intentional or not, that is effectively deprioritised. 

I think that’s right. I honestly don’t think that author care in the industry has been satisfactory at any time in the last quarter of a century, which is how long I’ve been playing this game. But it’s got worse and the most wicked effects are to be seen when it comes to marketing. As the good Ms Plum tells us,  

It is simply impossible for each book to have a comprehensive marketing and publicity plan or for each author to have direct contact (or indeed any interaction) with the wider publishing team. The worst setup I’ve experienced in my career saw one marketeer overseeing six editors’ lists, and each list was considerable (my own included 17 authors, most of whom were publishing two or even three books a year). 

That means, effectively, there is no meaningful marketing for almost anyone. So what you get is an editor telling you excitedly that (ta-da!) you’re going to have cover reveal, yay! On Twitter and Insta! And, naturally enough, you’re liable to feel a tad disappointed. The impact of those things on sales is exactly nil. 

The people who are telling you about your cover reveal know that what they’re saying is meaningless, but they’re nice people and they can’t bear to tell you the ugly truth. So you get no meaningful marketing and a packet of sweetly told lies. 

So why don’t publishers just get more selective about the books they take on and give each one a proper marketing spend? Well, alas, the Big Publishing strategy is perfectly rational. The books which sell in volume are the ones bought in volume by the biggest retailers. And although Barnes & Noble and Waterstones (in the UK) sell a lot of books in total, those chains are now managed rather like chains of indie bookshops, with each store manager making their own buying decisions. That means they can no longer reliably build a bestseller. Instead, it’s supermarkets that have the real market clout – the ability to place large orders for books and to sell those books fast in a short space of time. 

But do the book buyers at those major retailers have the time to read everything they’re being offered? 

Of course not. 

Result: it’s become ever more of a crap-shoot which books do or don’t sell big. An excellent book cover will do more for you than any amount of wonderful prose. (Of course, big name authors will always be picked up by the supermarkets, so they’re going to sell at scale no matter what.) 

So if it’s a crap-shoot, publishers are – quite rationally – buying and publishing more books and investing as little as they can in them. Each book is an extra lottery ticket and if you manage to invest very little in the book, then you can pick up a lot of tickets at very low cost. 

But: 

Authors don’t get any meaningful care. They’re going to be lied to about their prospects. Real industry relationships will be attenuated. And the quality of what’s on sale at a bookshop or supermarket near you will be patchy. 

There probably are print-led publishers who do things differently (and, Hepzibah Plum, if you’re reading this, I’d love to know who you rate.) But I will say this: the digital-first crowd do arrange things differently. There’s proper marketing spend for every debut novel. There’s a proper focus on analytics. If one book cover doesn’t work, they’ll try another. Those tricks won’t always work, of course. It’s not like there exists any sure-fire strategy in publishing. But effectively, a good digital-first publisher works to get the right books in the right packaging in front of the right audience in the right way. 

Self-publishing essentially deploys the exact same tools to deliver the exact same result. 

And what do you do with this information? Well, you take your cue from Bob: 

Everything passes 
Everything changes 
Just do what you think you should do. 

You can’t change the world of publishing. Lots of people still want to work with a print-led publisher, because they like the sense of a book as a physical object, that idea that you haven’t been properly published if you don’t have something you can put on a shelf. But digital-first is wonderful, and less overstretched, and more meritocratic in terms of outcomes. Ditto self-publishing. So make whatever choice you want. Just do what you think you should do. 

That’s it from me. I’m going to wear a red-silk dressing gown, drink a glass of mint tea and smoke a thin-stemmed pipe, packed with the best Moroccan hashish. Best of all, I shall do it outside, in the sun. 

Til soon. 

Harry 

Good morning, everyone!

This week, I'm delighted to introduce Kesia Lupo: editor, author, and new Associate Agent at US literary agency The Bindery.

Kesia started her publishing career in Editorial Services at Pan Macmillan before moving to children's book publisher Chicken House where she worked up to the position of Senior Editor. In 2019, Kesia's first novel We Are Blood and Thunder was published by Bloomsbury YA, with a sequel following in 2020. Her latest novel, YA thriller Let's Play Murder, was published in April 2023.

As an agent, Kesia is primarily looking for YA and middle grade fiction, but she is also open to adult genre fiction including fantasy, horror and psychological thriller.

You can find Kesia on Twitter @keslupo, where you can learn more about her experiences as an editor and agent.

"Having an agent on my side since 2015 has been so valuable and I would love to provide that kind of support to others."

Hi Kesia, thanks for speaking with us today!

What brought you to agenting?

I’ve been working in publishing for around a decade now. I started out in Editorial Services (working on copyedits, proofreads and project management) for Pan Macmillan – where I got to work for some amazing imprints including SFF/Horror list Tor – then I spent eight glorious years working my way up from Junior to Senior Editor at boutique children’s publisher Chicken House, acquiring and editing middle-grade and YA fiction. An international move (from the UK to California) led me to a big crossroads in my career. I was attracted to the Bindery – and agenting generally – for a lot of reasons. The Bindery is a small and passionate team, their main expertise is in non-fiction but they’re keen to expand into other areas (hence hiring me!). I love the idea of learning a new area of the industry I love, and especially the idea of advocating for authors and finding and developing new talent ready for publishers.

How has your editorial background influenced your approach?

I’ll probably always be an ‘editorial agent’ – meaning I will be expecting to work on projects editorially before submitting to publishers. I love the idea of finding something with real potential, then working with the author to make it sellable. I think my experience on the other side of the publisher/agent desk will really help here as I know what editors (especially in children’s!) are looking for.

What about being a published author yourself? Has this influenced the way you approach your work as an agent, or your understanding of what makes a good author-agent relationship?

I love the fact that as an author myself, I understand better than most people what authors are going through and what they want and need. Namely: communication, kindness, realism and transparency! As a result of my experiences, I will always level with my authors as well as fighting for their best interests. I’ve learned from the best: my own agent (Veronique Baxter at David Higham Associates) has been incredibly supportive and kind to me. Your relationship with your publisher and editor is important and can last years, but due to a variety of factors (staff turnover at publishers or writers wanting to pursue different genres, for instance) you are more likely to change publisher/editor than you are to change your agent. Having an agent on my side long-term (since 2015!) has been so valuable and I would love to provide that kind of support to others.

What’s your favourite thing about being an agent?

So far, I’m loving all the submissions I’m receiving and talking to lots of authors online! There has been so much excitement about a new agent on the block. I know there will come a point when the number of submissions feels overwhelming, but right now I’m so grateful and am enjoying reading so much creative work.

What’s at the top of your wishlist in fiction?

I would love to continue in my areas of expertise – YA and MG fiction. In YA I’m particularly looking for original fantasy, romantasy, psychological thrillers, horror, science fiction and heart-pounding adventure. In MG I love stories that feel classic but accessible across genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, adventure and contemporary.

In addition, I’m looking to build a genre fiction adult list: fantasy, psychological thrillers, horror – I enjoy adult science fiction too but it has to be accessible, I’m not the right fit for big, complex space operas. I’m interested in romance and historical fiction as well.

In general, I adore anything high concept and absolutely love a twist. And I love it when an author brings their personal experiences to bear on what they write. Finally, if you consider yourself or your experiences underrepresented in publishing, I would absolutely love to hear from you.

For lists of titles I acquired and edited at Chicken House, books I wrote and some books for adults I like please see my bookshop.org shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/kesialupo

How about non-fiction?

I’m really interested in history (my bachelor’s degree was in history!), culture, politics, psychology and narrative non-fiction. Across the board, I am looking for non-fiction proposals to feel accessible and engaging. My non-fiction favourites include The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright, A Bit of a Stretch by Chris Atkins, and Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I listen to lots of non-fiction podcasts on subjects such as mythology/paranormal activity (I love Lore!) and true crime, though I prefer tricks and scams (Scamfluencers is my absolute fave) to murder and violence – so I’d look at non-fiction in those areas with interest, too.

Are there any genres you would prefer not to receive?

I’m not the right person for poetry, very literary/experimental fiction, anything highly illustrated or academic non-fiction. Beyond that, there’s nothing I would specifically rule out!

What does the day in the life of an agent look like for you?

You’ve caught me on my very first week of being a literary agent! At the moment, I don’t have any clients (!) so my day is literally spent reading submissions and spreading the word that I’m open to submissions. Within the first 48 hours I had well over 200! I’ve already made a few full manuscript requests which is really exciting. I’ve also been shadowing my lovely new boss, Trinity McFadden, and getting acquainted with the rest of my team – so I spend an hour or two on Zoom every day.

When you’re reading a query letter, what are some things you like and dislike seeing?

I love to see the author telling me a bit about themselves and why their story is important to them – it’s something that I often find is missing (people don’t like talking about themselves!). An author who pitches their book well and with clear, strong comparison titles is also a wonderful thing. If the author has addressed the letter to me personally and said why they think I’d be a good fit, that’s also a huge plus! I’m not so keen on letters that skimp on any of these things, or in general letters that feel impersonal or a complete copy-and-paste job.

Some agents love synopses, others don’t. What do you think of them, and are there any things you look for in a synopsis?

They are a necessary evil! Nobody likes writing or reading them, but I have to know what happens in the novel to see whether it’s likely to live up to the pitch. They need to be short (no longer than a page, single spaced) and they need to cover the whole plot from beginning to end, including spoilers. Try to be clear and don’t get lost in the detail of the story, just cover the main points. If the synopsis feels overcomplicated that’s a big warning sign to me that the book might be too.

Is there anything an author can do in the first few pages of their manuscript that will really grab your attention? Anything you don’t enjoy as much?

Avoid starting with anything passive e.g. a long piece of description (however good the description is), or anything bland e.g. your character waking up in the morning. Instead, I think it’s generally better to start with action or occasionally dialogue. Ideally something big should happen within the first few pages. I have very plot-driven taste so if I’m not seeing the story moving forward quickly, I’m likely to lose interest!

Many authors have concerns about submissions etiquette: how long should they wait before sending a follow-up email; when is it appropriate to send an update or resubmit, etc. Do you have any guidance to help authors navigate the querying process?

I am currently estimating an 8-week response time to queries. I have no idea how realistic that is, but I’ve seen it elsewhere so I’ll give it a shot! I’m mainly using Query Manager right now which really helps me see and respond to queries quickly, so fingers crossed. Please feel free to chase me after 8 weeks. And if you do use Query Manager, I believe you can withdraw your submission at anytime to resubmit, as long as I haven’t responded yet.

Are there any books you’ve enjoyed recently?

I’ve just recently read The Magicians trilogy by Lev Grossman – several years late but I loved it!

Outside the world of books, do you have any hobbies or passions you’d like to share?

80s music, especially 80s era Bruce Springsteen – I have a secret talent for harmonizing too after years of choral singing and growing up in an extremely musical family! I love thrifting and try to buy all my clothes second-hand. My guilty pleasure is reality TV (Love is Blind, Married at First Sight Australia… I can’t get enough).

Any last pieces of advice for authors in the querying process?

If you’re querying a project for the first time, I would select a small number of agents (max 10) to submit to in the first instance, and ensure you tailor your query to each one, letting them know why you’d be a good fit and that you’ve only submitted to the agents you really want. Expand the circle slowly if you get rejections or don’t hear back. Most importantly, querying can be tough – look after yourself and step away from the dreaded email refresh! Don’t take rejections to heart; just because something isn’t a good fit for me doesn’t mean it isn’t good.

If you’re struggling with your query letter and synopsis, do check out our free resources on our website. We have lots of info to help you on your way. Or, better still, if you’re a member with us, our lovely Writers Support team will be happy to offer you a free query letter review! 

Sometimes, you know, publishers just get it right.

(And, I should say up top, this email has nothing useful to say. Contrary to my subject line, this email will not tell you how to make money in publishing. The fact is: this email is perfectly useless. If you’d rather just get on with your life, then please – direct your feet to the sunny side of the street. No offence, and I’ll see you next week.)

So.

Shakespeare.

In his lifetime, he was widely published, given the age. Much of his poetry had been through several editions. Roughly alf his plays had been published in some form.

But that still left out an awful lot. Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors – these and many others had never been published. The plays which had been published had often been come out in quarto form. To make a cheap quarto book, you took a large sheet of paper and folding it twice, to get four pages / eight sides. Binding was expensive, so was often omitted. An unbound quarto book would have cost about sixpence, or, in modern terms, a bit less than a contemporary paperback.

Now, another name for an unbound quarto is ‘pile of paper’ and, back when paper was valuable and not abundant, unbound books soon found themselves being used for other things. One ditty of the time said, ‘Publish me in the smallest size / lest I be eaten under Pippin-Pies [Apple pies] / Or in an apothecary’s shop be seen / to wrap drugs or to dry tobacco in.’

In short, the situation at the time of Shakespeare’s death in 1616, was dire. Half his plays, including some of his most important, were wholly unpublished. The rest had been published but in editions so impermanent that many of those too would disappear. The idea that this playwright would be seen as probably the most important author ever would have been just nuts. His star was fading by the day.

And then – 

Between 1622 and 1623 – four hundred years ago – a team of people banded together to produce the First Folio, or to give it its proper title: Mr William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies. A folio was the largest, most impressive printing format of the age, and the most expensive. The team needed the capacity of one of London’s major printing shops. Paper had to be imported from France. And the texts? These were gathered with surprising resourcefulness. Where there had been decent printed copies, those were used. Sometimes, they used Shakespeare’s own ‘foul papers’ or working texts. Other times, they used the prompt copies kept by theatre companies to nudge actors on their lines.

There were difficult squabbles over publication rights. Troilus and Cressida was originally intended to follow Romeo and Juliet, but was kept out, probably because of a rights issue, then inserted later. It never made it into the Table of Contents.

The publishing plan was bold, high-investment – and successful. The team printed and sold about 750 copies. Each copy sold for between fifteen and twenty shillings – let’s say £150-200 in modern terms, or $200-250. The cheaper copies were unbound. The posher copies were bound in calfskin and sold for more.

That book saved Shakespeare. Literally. It kept (almost all) his dramatic work alive. There are still about 250 copies of that book in existence today. It’s because of that book that we know Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra and the rest. It’s because of that book that Shakespeare has the reputation he has. There were subsequent folios and subsequent textual revisions and arguments, but that single book stands alone in its importance for British (and arguably world) literature.

The story reminds you of the essential strange duality at the heart of any publishing company. Yes, it’s about money. And yes, it’s about art. A company only focused on the art would not have had the funds to do as that First Folio team did: to gather the texts, to refine them, to set them, to buy the paper, to hire the print shop, to do the marketing. And a company only focused on the cash would not have done as much to gather every text they could, to take as much care over each line.

Art and money, money and art.

Publishers don’t always get things right, but when they do, they make one hell of a difference.

Til soon.

Harry

With most projects, it’s clear when they’re done. A bike shed is built once there are walls, a roof, and a place to store bikes. A lasagne is done once you have a gooey tray of tomatopastamince steaming in front of you.

And a book? It’s done exactly when?

Well, as with most of these emails, I don’t really know. The image that I mostly work with is that of an apple. You don’t really pick it from the tree. You don’t pull it. You twist it. And the twisting isn’t best understood as an efficient way to separate fruit from bough. The twisting is, in effect, a question. ‘Are you ready to come now, pretty red thing?’ If the apple falls into your hand, it’s ready. And if it stays on the tree, it’s telling you that it would like another day or two to turn its pips from creamy white to nut brown.

And there you go. That’s how it works with books.

If that fruit-based methodology doesn’t work for you, here are some others:

Can you find places to cut text?

If you can, you need to do more work. And I don’t mean, “Can you find chapters, pages and paragraphs to cut?”, although of course that’s important. I mean, “Can you find a 12 word sentence that could use 10 words to say the same thing?” I mean, “Is there a descriptive paragraph that uses three sentences, where two word actually work just as well?”

The main aim of cutting text isn’t to reduce the amount of things you communicate. It’s to leave the communication unchanged, but with fewer words. If that process still has further to run, you haven’t finished.

How easy is it to make insertions?

There’ll always be little insertions you want to make. It might be a plot point, where your Big Reveal later in the book needs some little clue offered early. Or it might just be that you need to deepen Aunt Jem’s character up front, because of the new role she plays in the warehouse shootout scene. Or whatever.

One of the things I notice as I’m editing is that, the nearer the book is to completion, the harder it becomes to make those insertions. When a book is looser, less edited, there are plenty of places where you can insert the blade of a screwdriver and force open the text. As the book moves towards being finished, it just gets harder to make those insertions. Yes, you could in theory put something about Aunt Jem on page 36, but when you look at page 36, it’s feels very smooth. There’s a sort of inevitable logic to the way the text plays out. You can’t add anything about Jem without interrupting the emotional flow of something that needs to happen. That’s good. Your apple is nearly ripe.

Do you find greater density in your text?

Bit more Zen, this one, but as a book gets closer to being fully ready, you may well start noticing echoes that you hadn’t quite intended, but feel really good. It might be that a sea metaphor naturally crops up in Chapters 4, 12, 18, and 31. You wrote those damn chapters months apart, but now that you’re editing into shape, it’s almost as though you planted those references to show a particular evolution of something. The more you notice things like that, the riper your book is becoming.

Can you spot the bits you hated?

Frank Herbert, author of Dune, once said:

I don't worry about inspiration or anything like that.... later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, "Well, now it's writing time and now I'll write.”

That’s a good test. If you can still feel the sweat and the awkwardness, you might want to work a little longer.

Have you done The List?

Editing involves plot, it involves character, it involves settings, it involves prose, it involves everything.

It’s easy to think of editing as a process that starts at page 1 and ends at page 350, and, OK, that is partly how it works. But it should also be a process that simply works through items on a list. Aunt Jem’s character. The plot issue involving Gordon’s car. Your holiday house setting. Addressing those things will involve hopping around through the book, fixing Jem, fixing Gordon, fixing that holiday house. So you work in layers, not just by page numbers. And once you’ve worked your way through those layers, bingo. You’re done.

How does it feel?

I enjoy editing. It’s a pleasure, not a chore. But what you’re doing evolves. Early on, editing involves quite a lot of fresh writing. This chapter just doesn’t really work and you end up giving it a major rewrite. Later on, you are definitely editing – not writing, but manipulating plenty of text. And then you get a point where whole pages go by without you really touching them. Or maybe trying out a change here, reversing it, then maybe reversing again. And at that, you’re done. There’s a kind of sweet pain in realising it, though. Your book now is the best it’s ever been. It’s the first time you’ve looked at your text and not thought ouch.

That’s it from me. My own apple trees are coming into blossom, except the big monster tree which always blooms late and then produces huge green fruit well into October.

Til soon.

Harry