SPOTLIGHT FEATURE – Saskia Leach from Kate Nash Literary Agency
Good morning, everyone!
Welcome back to our Spotlight On interview series, where we uncover the day-to-day work of agents, what they’re looking for in submission packs, their thoughts on the publishing industry and much, much more. Looking to read more? All our Spotlight On interviews can be found right here on Townhouse: #JWSpotlightOnInterview.
This week, we’re speaking with Saskia Leach, junior agent at Kate Nash Literary Agency. Her clients include Anna Britton (Close to the Edge, published September 2024), Leonie Mack (In Italy For Love, published October 2024), Ally Wiegand (Going For Two, published October 2024) and A. J. Clack (Lie or Die, published March 2024) Authors on Saskia’s list with upcoming books to look out for include Kerry Watts (Bury Your Secrets, coming November 2024) and Hannah Kingsley (Soul Hate, coming March 2025).
You can follow Saskia at @saskialeach_ for updates on her work, or view her agency profile here. Read highlights from our interview with Saskia below and view the full interview on her AgentMatch profile…
Hi Saskia, thanks for speaking with us today!
What brought you to agenting?
I always knew that I wanted to work in publishing. I was an avid reader right from when I was a child and I loved storytelling and writing. But as I went through secondary school and university, whenever publishing was spoken about as a career path, it was usually in the context of editorial work for a publishing house.
I graduated from university in 2020 just as we went into lockdown, which meant opportunities for work experience and internships had dried up. So, I signed up to as many virtual events as I could with places like the Society of Young Publishers, New Writing North and New Writing South. I joined the Spare Room Project – rebranded for 2020 as the Spare Zoom Project – which paired people who wanted to work in publishing with somebody already in the industry for a one-to-one call where they could learn more and get advice. I tried to have as many conversations as I could with people working in the industry, and this opened my eyes to the many different areas of publishing: editorial, sales, marketing, publicity, rights, production, scouting… and agenting.
When I heard about the role of a literary agent and found out a bit more about what that entails, it instantly appealed to me. I really liked the prospect of being able to work closely with the authors and being involved in the early formative stages of a book as opposed to the completed product. So, I started applying to formal vacancies that were being advertised for literary agency assistants and other entry-level roles. But I also decided to take matters into my own hands, and I drew up a list of all literary agencies based in the South East of England. I emailed each of these individually, explaining that I was a recent university graduate who was really keen to pursue a career as a literary agent, that I’m eager to learn, and that I’d be interested in any opportunities or experience that they were able to offer – whether that was a formal position, work experience, an internship, or even just some advice. I thought that the worst that could happen was that everybody said no or everybody ignored me, and that would just leave me in the same position that I was already in!
It was from this that I found a job with the wonderful team at Kate Nash Literary Agency. I originally joined as an agency trainee, where I learned about not only the agency and our authors, but what it is that a literary agent does and how the industry works in general. After six months, I was offered a permanent position as an agency assistant, and then after about two years as an assistant, I was promoted to junior agent.
What I would love to see more of in educational environments is coverage of all the different roles available to students who want to work in publishing. It’s not just about editing books; there are so many more ways to be involved in the journey a book takes from an idea to a finished product.
Could you tell us more about the difference between an agency assistant and an agent?
In the context of Kate Nash Literary Agency at the time, my time as an assistant was spent working with Kate and Justin on their client lists, helping with day-to-day admin work to support their authors.
But there were also wider agency responsibilities that came with being an assistant. Every agency does have a different setup and a different structure, but in my experience at Kate Nash Literary Agency, I worked a lot on our, at the time, centralised submissions inbox. I would review the material that was coming in, and would bring anything I thought was especially promising to our weekly submissions meeting and present it to the agents in the team. I also sent replies and rejections to submissions that weren’t being taken forward. Other wider responsibilities included updating the agency website; the agency’s social media platforms; being a point of liaison with other contacts in the industry such as film and TV scouts; or day-to-day things such as a publisher asking if one of our authors would like to provide an endorsement quote for an upcoming book.
About a year into that, I started building a client list of my own, so my time was split between working with the client list I had at the time and helping other agents with their lists. Now that I’m a junior literary agent, the key difference has been that the majority of my time is now spent working on my own client list, rather than having a foot in each camp. As I made the transition from assistant to agent, more and more of those wider agency duties ended up being passed along to other people in the company so I could focus more on my clients.
How does a day in the life of an agent look for you?
This is quite a difficult question because one of the joys of agenting is that no two days are the same. Sometimes I’ll have a meeting-heavy day, whether that’s internal meetings or external meetings with publishers. I might be meeting with one of my authors to hear about their next idea, to give some advice if they’ve got multiple projects on the go, or to give feedback on their current work in progress. I might be meeting with an editor to pitch one of my author’s books to them or to hear about what they’re looking to acquire.
Or, I might be having more of a desk day where I could be drafting pitches for any books ready to go out on submission. I could be negotiating a contract between one of my authors and a publishing house. Or I might be reading: the next book by an author on my list, some submissions I’ve received, or a manuscript that I’ve requested in full from a writer seeking representation.
Most of the time, it’s a combination of the two. My day will typically be split between a couple of meetings and then some desk work, but no two days are the same, which is something that I really enjoy about the role.
What do you think makes for a good agent-author relationship?
Good communication, without a doubt. I think that’s the backbone of any good working relationship really, and that’s what builds trust on both sides. Certainly as an agent, it’s really important to have an open and honest dialogue with the authors that you work with and to manage expectations. And I think that’s something that works both ways.
When you’re reading a query letter, what are some things that you’d like to see? Is there anything you prefer not to see?
Every agent will have their own preferences on what they like and dislike in a query letter, and this will often be outlined in their own agency’s submissions guidelines. If you’re a querying writer, do take the time to read up on those guidelines so you can adjust your query letter accordingly.
For me personally, I recognise and really appreciate it when the author has personalised their query letter to the agent that they’re querying. This could be as simple as referencing a Tweet that you’ve put out recently about a specific genre or specific theme that their book happens to explore. I like to see anything in the opening of a query letter that indicates the author has thought about why the book they’ve written is a good match for the agent they’re querying. I would advise authors against having one generic and unaltered query letter for every single literary agent in the country. Make sure you have checked how that particular agent or agency accepts submissions or which genres they’re looking to represent. I do appreciate a tailored approach is more time-consuming, but I do believe that it will yield much better results.
In addition to having a short blurb about your book, I also really like it when the author includes a one-line hook or elevator pitch for their book. I like to see a bit of information about the author and what inspired the book, because it’s often these stories that I remember a submission by. I’m always interested in hearing the anecdote or the life experience behind the book – it’s something I find really interesting and memorable.
How do you feel about synopses? Is there anything you’d like to see or anything you dislike?
I like synopses but I will often read the author’s writing sample ahead of the synopsis. When I’m making a decision on whether this is something that I’d like to read more of, or ultimately if it’s something that I’d like to represent, it will almost always be the writing sample that this decision hinges on.
My #1 tip for a synopsis would be to give the agent all of the spoilers. Remember that when you’re querying, the synopsis that you’re writing is only for the eyes of your agent, and later on your editor. It’s not for the eyes of readers, so please don’t hold back the key twists of your book to try and create jeopardy or tantalise the agent reading it. If it’s a murder mystery, then include the solution: who did it and why? I’m going to need to make a judgement call on whether I think the plot works and whether the ending is satisfying, so it’s really important that I’m given all of the facts I need about the plot.
Same question for the opening pages of a manuscript. Is there anything that tends to stand out to you in those pages?
I love it when an author opens with a bang and drops me straight into the middle of a high-stakes moment. Or if they open with a moment where everything changes for the main character, that’s something that really catches my attention.
Something that I sometimes see in submissions is a chapter or two of preamble before the event that kickstarts the story. This is quite natural for an early draft of the book – but before you start querying agents, ask yourself whether your story could start with that ‘Chapter 3 moment’, or whether Chapters 1 and 2 could be cut completely with the story still making complete sense. If the answer to either of those is yes, that’s perhaps an indication that your story needs to start in a different place.
Outside of the world of books, do you have any hobbies or passions that you’d like to share?
Yes, my two biggest loves outside of reading are musical theatre and football. I’m a lifelong supporter of Brighton and Hove Albion. I absolutely love musical theatre, both as a performer and a viewer. I’m a member of my local amateur dramatic society and I love getting up to the West End, seeing touring productions or watching local musical theatre productions.
Any last pieces of advice for authors in the querying process?
When querying, build your village. Make sure you have a support network who will be there through the highs and lows of querying, and can celebrate the wins with you, both big and little.
If an agent comes back to you with some personalised feedback saying something like: “I liked X, Y and Z about your book but I sadly won’t be offering representation because…” I think that can sometimes be taken as a negative or upsetting piece of news. But something I’d really like to demystify is that if an agent has taken the time to come back to you with personalised feedback, that’s usually a real compliment! It shows that the agent has seen something promising in your work and has decided to take time out of their day to help you get one step closer to that offer of representation. So please do take that feedback on board and know that it’s a positive sign.
Check out Saskia’s AgentMatch profile for the full interview.
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 Premium Member, our lovely Writers Support team will be happy to offer you a free query letter review once per year of membership! Finally, we have plenty of fantastic agents offering Agent One-to-One Sessions in November only – book your session now to hear their feedback on your submission pack.
Responses