This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Our brand new Writers' Tuesday Series, What An Agent Wants, will be starting on March 20th.
We've quizzed our panel of top commercial fiction literary agents on topics such as, what EXACTLY they're looking for in potential clients, what they think of self publishing, and whether Chick Lit really IS dead… Over the next ten weeks we'll be presenting the collated answers right here on Novelicious.
Today, we're proud to introduce our What An Agent Wants panel of agents…
Madeleine Buston of the Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency
Since graduating from St Andrews University with a degree in English Literature and Language in 2004, Madeleine has worked for the independent publishing company Trojan Books in Berlin and the oldest literary agency in the UK, A P Watt, where she specialised in foreign rights. She then spent five years at the Darley Anderson Literary, TV & Film Agency where she was the Head of Rights and built a strong stable of authors of adult and children’s fiction. In 2011, Madeleine was listed as a Rising Star in The Bookseller’s first annual feature on the crop of people who will lead bookselling and publishing for decades to come. In 2012 she decided to combine all this experience and launch her own Literary Agency, the Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency which opened for business on March 12th.
Laura Longrigg of MBA Literary Agents
Laura Longrigg has been with MBA Literary Agents since 1997. Her clients’ books range from genre – sagas, rom com, mystery – to ‘high concept’ and literary in fiction, and memoir, travel, self help and ‘Mind Body Spirit’ in non fiction. Before becoming an agent, she worked as an editor at HarperCollins, Heinemann and Penguin discovering authors like Stephen Leather, Bryce Courtenay and Susan Lewis. Last year she was appointed joint Managing Director.
Hannah Ferguson of The Marsh Agency
After finishing a Masters in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths in 2007 Hannah began as an intern at The Marsh Agency. She now works as a literary agent and is building her list of authors. Hannah’s interests lie in fiction, both commercial and literary, and she represents women’s fiction favourites Ali McNamara, Miranda Dickinson and Andrea Semple. You can find her on twitter @AgentFergie talking about all things books, writing, and actually quite a bit about tea and biscuits too.
Lisa Eveleigh of the Richford Becklow Literary Agency
Lisa Eveleigh founded, and is the primary agent at the Richford Becklow Literary Agency. She has a degree in English Literature from the University of Durham and also studied American literature for two years.
After graduating, Lisa worked at the BBC, and her publishing career took off in 1986, when she joined A P Watt Ltd, the world's oldest literary agency. Authors she worked with at the agency include Michael Holroyd, Frederic Raphael, Jan Morris, Graham Swift, Ben Okri, Carol Clewlow and Tony Parsons. She was the first agent to recognise the talent of authors Helen Dunmore, Philip Kerr and Joseph O'Connor.
Lisa took a sabbatical from publishing in 2007, relocating to Glasgow with her boyfriend who is a writer and broadcaster. On their return to London in 2011, refreshed by the experience of reading widely and at leisure, she set up Richford Becklow.
Sarah Lutyens of Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency
Former publisher Sarah Lutyens set up Lutyens & Rubinstein literary agency in 1993 with Felicity Rubinstein , bringing together the combined experience of twenty-five years of publishing, agenting and bookselling both sides of the Atlantic . The agency represents a broad range of fiction (including crime and non-illustrated children’s books) and non-fiction.
Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates
Diane Banks Associates is a commercial literary agency based in central London representing commercial fiction and personality-led, media or current affairs based non-fiction in the UK, US and foreign language markets. They also offer their clients first class representation for film and TV rights.
As well as working with individual authors, Diane Banks Associates work closely with and represent book rights for selected TV agencies and production companies, PR agencies and sports and music managers. They also represent an extensive list of ghost writers and can assist in matching up projects with appropriate writers.
Diane Banks founded Diane Banks Associates in 2006 following 9 years in London's trade publishing houses including Penguin and Hodder & Stoughton. Diane is a committee member of the Association of Authors' Agents.
Sheila Crowley of Curtis Brown
Sheila is a native of Dublin and started her publishing career at Poolbeg Press, before moving to London in 1991. She was a high profile Sales and Marketing Director, working at a number of leading publishers, including Harper Collins and Hodder. Through that period she worked with many bestselling and debut authors, and is now representing some of those authors as an Agent. She had a close working relationship with Authors and as the landscape of Book Retailing changed in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, she believed she would best serve Authors by changing to ‘the other side’. She became an Agent in September 2003 and moved to Curtis Brown in September 2008, and she was shortlisted for Agent of the Year in 2007.
Sheila represents a wide range of authors and specialises in women’s commercial fiction, crime and thrillers, memoir, business, sport and MBS. Her broad knowledge of the book industry in the UK, Ireland and international markets is a wonderful asset in her work with authors and publishers.
Be sure to return next Tuesday for the What An Agent Wants series kick off!