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My guest today is literary agent, Lisa Eveleigh from Richford Becklow Literary Agency, who kindly accepted my invitation to write a post for this blog. I first met Lisa at The Romantic Novelists' Association's Conference in July 2014, and we saw each other again at The Historical Novel Society Conference, a couple of months later when I helped to organise the setup for the agent pitches. We've since bumped into each other at various events, and it's lovely to host Lisa on my blog. Thank you, Lisa for visiting, and over to you...
Lisa Eveleigh on What Agents Look For:
Hello everyone and thanks for inviting me to the blog, Anita.
My guest today is literary agent, Lisa Eveleigh from Richford Becklow Literary Agency, who kindly accepted my invitation to write a post for this blog. I first met Lisa at The Romantic Novelists' Association's Conference in July 2014, and we saw each other again at The Historical Novel Society Conference, a couple of months later when I helped to organise the setup for the agent pitches. We've since bumped into each other at various events, and it's lovely to host Lisa on my blog. Thank you, Lisa for visiting, and over to you...
Lisa Eveleigh on What Agents Look For:
Hello everyone and thanks for inviting me to the blog, Anita.
The first
thing to say is that agents really want to like every submission they are sent
and dream of finding a bestseller. You
can increase your chances of being read quickly by a polished approach.
Do follow
the submission guidelines on an agency website to the letter, and make sure
that you aren’t submitting a genre that the agent doesn’t represent; for me
that means no horror or erotica. Do email your submission if requested and
don’t send by post if the agency website asks you not to. Don’t phone to pitch
your book – ever. Somehow the phone seems to deaden a story and in any case we
make decisions solely based on the quality of the writing and the way a story
is told.
If you are submitting to more than one agent at a time that’s fine, but please say so. Write the very best submission letter that you can, then print it and read it again after a good night’s sleep to see if it can be improved in any way.
Write the very best novel you can and then put it aside for a week – or even two - before reading it out loud to yourself – you will almost certainly hear any faults in your dialogue, and revise things, and they will always be good changes. It’s not a great idea to send a first or second draft, because a third is always better and I know many authors who do four.
I personally have truly
eclectic taste in fiction written for women. I love novels by Jilly Cooper,
Katie Fforde, JoJo Moyes Marian Keyes just as much as books by Helen
Dunmore, Raffaella Barker, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Esther Freud and Julie
Myerson. So I’m very open to both literary and commercial fiction, contemporary
and historical.
But if
I think about what attracts me to all the writers named above it has to be that
they all create strong, memorable characters, describe the scenery and the
natural world convincingly, and write with a strong sense of time and
place. So I’m looking for all those qualities in a submission, and
if I’m made to laugh or get a bit teary then that’s a good sign too.
This is
how to approach an agent in the best possible way.
Send a
professional presentation consisting of; a brief but compelling covering
letter, a one-page synopsis and the first three chapters.
Manuscripts should be double-spaced throughout and use a clear font like Times
New Roman or Garamond. I only accept submissions by email, as Word attachments
Explain
in your covering letter what you’re aiming to achieve, and what you think
your market is
If
appropriate, tell me writers you admire and think you may be similar to, or
define your USP (Unique Selling Point)
I
always read past the first page anyway, knowing that openings can be
tricky, but there’s no doubt that a really arresting first paragraph does
impress. Write and rewrite until you’re happy that it is going to grab an
agent’s attention.
It’s
not a good idea to send a novel before you’ve finished it. Debut writers need to shape and structure an
entire novel before it is ready to be seen, and let it grow into the best work
it can be. Surprising things can happen even if an author is working to a
detailed synopsis; a character can suddenly do something wholly
unexpected.
That
said, I do work on fiction as it is being written with my existing clients but
this is after we have worked on a few titles together and know each other’s
rhythm.
It’s
also quite important that authors know how to conduct a relationship with an
agent once they have formed a partnership. Constantly asking ‘is there any
news?’ is frustrating to the agent who obviously has a vested interest in
making deals and chasing up submissions. Any good agent will keep an author in
touch with progress when time permits so resist the temptation to hassle! It’s also important to respect the
confidentiality of the relationship so be discreet in what you share with other
writers. That doesn’t mean that you can’t pass on useful contacts you’ve made
in the industry but do beware that gossip can backfire.
Lastly,
it may seem like stating the obvious but it’s important that writers read as
widely as possible in order to enrich and enhance their own skills and to avoid
writing a story that someone else already has…
Good
luck!
Writers seeking agent representation will undoubtedly find this post very helpful, Lisa, and thank you so much for writing it! (Wish I'd had this post to read when I first started submitting Book 1!)
On the fifteenth, the ambitious Charlotte, Duchess of Richmond, held what was to become the most famous Ball in history. Published to coincide with the Waterloo bicentary, the book recounts the experiences of those at the ball, and the surprising coincidence that Wellington's despatch was presented to the Prince Regent at another ball, six momentous days later.
About Lisa:
Lisa Eveleigh read English literature at the University of
Durham and began her media career at the BBC where she was a researcher. Meeting authors and their publicists, she
realised that most successful writers had agents. She then set about becoming
one…
After 10 years at A P Watt, the oldest literary agency in
the world, where she was a Director, she set up her own agency, and following a
career sabbatical in Glasgow came back to London and founded Richford
Becklow.
The agency is named after the street she lived in before she
moved to Glasgow, and the road she lived in when she moved back, signifying a
new beginning to her agency career.
Lisa is currently doing a part-time MA in Biography and
Creative Non-Fiction at the University of East Anglia. This only takes her out of London for one afternoon
a week and ‘I represent very little biography, yet I read it in my private
time. It is fascinating to explore a
genre that is slightly out of my agent comfort-zone, and since I’m allowed to
do a Creative writing module in Year 2, I have chosen ‘Adaptation and
Interpretation’ which means I shall have to write the beginning of a screenplay
based on a novel that I love. This will
also add to my agency skills.’
Lisa lives in London with cats Nate and Snoop, and Stewart
McCartney, who is an author and TV question-writer.
Lisa
published a book in June 2015, and the wonderful painting below is from the
cover.
Beauty and
Chivalry: The Duchess of Richmond's Ball
 |
Summoned to Waterloo: Brussels, Dawn of June 16th, 1815
By Robert Alexander Hillingford, 1898
|
Brussels, June 1815: The Duke of Wellington was marshalling the Allied forces in
readiness to fight Napoleon, who had escaped from Elba in February. The many
British living in the city at the time were enjoying cricket matches,
race-meetings and picnics despite the threat of war.
On the fifteenth, the ambitious Charlotte, Duchess of Richmond, held what was to become the most famous Ball in history. Published to coincide with the Waterloo bicentary, the book recounts the experiences of those at the ball, and the surprising coincidence that Wellington's despatch was presented to the Prince Regent at another ball, six momentous days later.
I have downloaded Lisa's book, and look forward to reading it, especially as it's set a few years after my current work in progress ends; a fascinating period in history.
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