Roles in publishing: Bryony Woods, Literary Agent's Assistant

Bryony Woods is obsessed with all things book-related, and is lucky enough to have her ideal job – working in one the UK’s top literary agencies. She started her career working in libraries, where she developed her passion for children’s and YA fiction, before going on to complete an MA in Publishing at UCL. Whilst completing the MA she interned in literary agencies across London, before being offered her current job at the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency in 2010.

As a person who has always loved books and reading, I think I might just have the best job in the world. I am constantly surrounded by books and manuscripts, and I love nothing more than finding a talented new writer with a book that’s crying out to be published.

But although many writer-orientated websites focus on this aspect of the job, looking for new talent is only a small part of what I actually do.

It’s not all glamour and cocktail parties.

While I may occasionally get to go out into the world and hobnob with super-talented authors and editors, the majority of my time is spent taking care of all the little jobs that keep a literary agency ticking over – updating the website, maintaining the databases that keep track of territories and sub-rights deals (such as audio, large print and film deals), chasing payments, sending proof copies to sub-agents etc.

I spend a lot of time reading contracts, checking the language used in various clauses and the percentages stated (e.g. royalties). Agents spend many hours negotiating the finer details of publishing contracts on behalf of their clients, so it’s important to ensure that the contract we send to an author for signing is correct.

Luckily for me, I love contracts almost as much as I love books. And no, I don’t think that’s weird. Honest.

The creative side of my job includes writing blurbs and putting together colourful catalogues of our clients and the titles we represent, as well as making up artists’ portfolios for our illustrator clients. This is especially important in the run up to major industry book fairs such as London or Bologna, where we have lots of meetings with editors who’ll be looking to acquire new authors or titles.

I also deal with some of the permission requests that come to the agency. When a person or company – perhaps an editor compiling an anthology, or a revision guide or website – requests the right to print an extract from a client’s work (most often a poem or short story), I will get out my trusty calculator and negotiate the best possible licence terms and fee.

But my absolute favourite part of the job is finding new, talented writers, and wonderful books that we can help turn into a commercial success. I am constantly on the lookout – whether I’m reading submissions at my desk, meeting new writers at a party, even while I eat and sleep.

Reading submissions (aka the Slush Pile) is a full-time job in itself, and everyone in the office pitches in and does their share of reading on top of their other day-to-day workload. We get thousands – yes, THOUSANDS – of submissions, of all kinds: the good, the bad, the truly weird and sometimes the downright ugly.

But every now and then I come across a voice so powerful that it grabs me and demands to be heard, a character that I just can’t get out of my head, or a page-turner that makes me drop absolutely everything else just so I can finish reading it. That’s when I know I’ve found something really special.

Tips for writers:

I’m often asked for advice on how best to approach an agent. But to be honest, the only thing an agent cares about when looking at your submission is that you’ve written a damn good book.

Other than that, I’d simply advise that you check individual agency guidelines, keep your approach smart and professional, and that you’re passionate about your work. If that passion shines through in your covering letter, an agent is more likely to want to pick up your manuscript and start reading.

The best moment so far:


I’ve tried and failed to pinpoint just one moment since I started this job that stands out as the best. It could be the first time I read a submission and fell head-over-heels in love with it; it could be logging on to Amazon just after a book was published and seeing the first fantastic customer review come in; it could be the excitement when a long-awaited sequel was delivered by a client (or maybe the moment during reading where I realised it was even better than the first book); or it could be the any of the times I’ve entered the office kitchen to discover that someone has brought in a cake. As I say, it’s impossible to choose.

The thing that most surprised me about the job:

The thing that still surprises me is the pace. It’s easy to get the impression from various blogs or websites that all agency employees do is lie around reading manuscripts, eating cake* and drinking champagne**.

But the truth is that most days I barely have time to stop and catch my breath.

Even when I’ve reached the end of my mammoth TO DO list, there are still emails to respond to, phone calls to answer, submissions and manuscripts and reviews to read.

*Ok, I admit it – there is quite a lot of cake.
** There may also be the occasional glass of champagne

Sometimes this job is very stressful, and I constantly find myself wishing that there were more hours in the day.

It’s not a job I could ever leave at the office, and my pile of Books-To-Read is usually taller than I am (and I’m not exactly short).

But aside from the perilous towers of books slowly taking over my flat, I honestly think I have the best job in the world. I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.
Slushpile note: submission guidelines for the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency can be found here. And OF COURSE Caroline Sheldon is the best literary agent in the entire world: she sold Slated, as reported here. Oops. I'm giving away my secret identity again, aren't I?

SCBWI Undiscovered Voices 2012: The Launch Party, or The Tale Of The Level Playing Field

by Jo Wyton and Maureen Lynas

Thursday evening saw the launch party of the third Undiscovered Voices anthology. In the anthology are twelve novel extracts (written by thirteen unpublished, unagented authors - including both myself and Maureen) and gorgeous illustrations by six very talented illustrators. Katie Dale has already blogged about the event here, and we don't want to get repetitive! So instead we'll focus on something else, something which came up in conversation a few times during the night.

It seems that one thing agents and editors want, what they really, really want is...

A level playing field.

Or at least they'd like, every now and then, for writers to act as though they're on one.

Because here's a secret (shh... don't tell anyone): agents and editors are people too. I know, shocking news.

The thing is, as writers we are used to sitting behind our laptops and sweating over every sentence, every word, until we don't think we get it any better. Then we send it out, and although we hope against hope for something positive, we inevitably expect to be rejected. If there is the merest sign of anything positive, we climb up to the nearest rooftop and dance a jig.

Now the UV launch party was great for a lot of reasons, but the main one for me was the intermingling of agent, editor and writer. There were no barriers in that room. If we wanted to approach people, we could. If people wanted to approach us, that was even better. So many surprises were had because of that breakdown of the neuroses which normally get the better of writers. Conversations were had that bore no relation to writing, or at least the anthology to hand, and more than that, they were enjoyed. This was a very different world than the one we are used to.

And here’s why. To a writer, the Industry Professional seems a mysterious creature. When we submit work, we think about what the person on the other end might say if they do like it, if they don't, and if they detest it with everything they have. Even if we know what the Professional looks like, we don't tend to think of them in that way when we know they have our work in their hands. We don't think of the person sitting at the other end of the e-mail, we only think about their reaction.

Will they like it, or won't they?

A number of times during the launch party, conversation turned to not only how intense the evening was for both writer and agent/editor, but to how much they were enjoying themselves. Partly, we imagine, this was due to the copious amounts of Prosecco that disappeared strangely fast. But it was also because agents and editors were surrounded by writers who weren’t afraid to talk to them.

Think about things from their point of view. Every month they receive hundreds of submissions. They know that with most of them, they either won't fall in love, or won't think that the book is ready to move on to the next stage. And yet they continue to fight through those slushpiles, because somewhere in there is the writer they would love to represent.

The reason we say 'love' is that for somebody to represent you, they have to LOVE your writing. Agents have to be able to walk in to a room and convince somebody to put money behind you and your book. Editors have to be able to face an acquisitions meeting and convince them all that your book is worth backing. You don't want somebody who likes your book, you want somebody who loves it.

And that's all agents and editors are looking for - writing they love. They want to find writers as badly as writers want to find them.

We wouldn't mind betting that when an agent or editor finds something they can get behind - something they LOVE - they look for the nearest jig-worthy rooftop as quickly as we do.

So next time you are at a conference or workshop, and you are avoiding eye contact with an agent or an editor in the desperate hope that they won't talk to you, go and say hello. You don't have to pitch (although don't tell anybody we said that). You really can just say hello. Act like there's a level playing field, and you never know, one might appear as if from nowhere.

Going back to your writing roots, with Celia Rees

I think it's fair to say that no list of top children's authors is complete without Celia Rees.

She is most widely known for her historical novels, including Witch Child, followed by Sorceress, Sovay and Pirates!, but her writing career began in contemporary teen thrillers. This year Celia has gone back to her roots with another contemporary thriller: This Is Not Forgiveness. Here Celia talks about writing This Is Not Forgiveness, and the process of going back to the future...

The question I’m asked most often is, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ And it’s a difficult one. Every book I write begins with an idea, but ideas can come from anywhere. All I can say for certain, is I know when one is there. You can’t dial up ideas and it doesn’t do to search too hard for them. Virginia Woolf once likened ideas to fish swimming in the great pool of the mind. Look too hard and nothing will break the surface. Turn too fast when you catch a glimpse of that great leaping fish, and it will disappear, leaving scarcely a ripple. You have to be subtle and you have to be quick.

Virginia Woolf

When I have an idea that could become a book, I feel a kind of thrilling excitement and I know to go with it. To dismiss that special feeling would be pure foolishness. To start on anything without it, would be like trying to breathe life into something that is already dead.

The idea for This Is Not Forgiveness came to me when I was watching Francois Truffaut’s film, Jules et Jim. What interested me was the triangular relationship between the two men, who are close friends, and this extraordinary girl, a real free spirit. They both fall in love with her, and I was thinking: You could update this. Make it now. I’d been writing historical novels. The book I was working on, The Fool’s Girl, was based on Shakespeare’s comedy, Twelfth Night. Shakespeare was one of the characters. So this new idea did not exactly fit my current profile but I knew that it would be my next novel and it would be contemporary.

Every Step You Take, Celia's first novel, and Fool's Girl, a historical novel - the style for which she is largely known

The story starting to tell itself in my head was happening now. That is when I got my second thrill of excitement. When I began writing, all those years ago in the early nineties, my first novel, Every Step You Take (now long out of print) was a contemporary thriller. I would be going back to my roots.

Could I still do it? Could I connect to modern teenagers? Could I mirror their world? Echo their voices? It was easy then. I was a teacher. My daughter was a teenager. But things had changed. I no longer teach. My daughter has grown up. Did that put me out of touch? Could I write something that would interest and engage teen readers, keep them turning the pages? It was a challenge but one I would have to take up. Once an idea is there, it is impossible to un-think. Once it is in my head, it has to be done.

I often have the first chapter a long time before I start writing, so I didn’t find that hard to do. I began to write in the voice of the main narrator, Jamie, who is seventeen. I was writing in the First Person, Present Tense. I’d written in the FP before, but not Present Tense. It took a bit of getting used to, but felt right for the book. My first idea was that the book would be written entirely from Jamie’s point of view.

Then came a piece of writer serendipity by the way of an Arvon Course with Patrick Ness. I was there as Patrick’s co-tutor, but the Arvon magic can work for us as well. We sat in on each other’s sessions and took part in the workshops. Anyone who knows Patrick’s work, knows that he is passionate about voice. He is also a daring and innovative writer. He made me think that I could write in other voices, too. So I made Jamie one of three narrators, joined by the other male character, Rob, his older brother who is a soldier, and the charismatic, enigmatic Caro.

Arvon + Patrick Ness = a golden equation even for the practised amongst us

Once I decided this, the book really came alive. I didn’t have any problem with the voices at all. It was almost like taking dictation. I wrote the book very quickly. Far faster than my historical fiction because I didn’t have to keep stopping. I enjoyed being able to write without the constraints of period life and language and writing in different voices was exhilarating.

The resulting novel is very different from that first book but I’m glad I decided to go back to my roots. The book is finished now and published. Did I succeed in meeting the challenge? Only time and the reader can tell.

Slushpile note: I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of This Is Not Forgiveness, and am happy to attest to its brilliance! It's a book that stays with you long after you've finished reading it. Jo