Submissions

Submissions are accepted by email only. Please address your submission to a specific agent and make this clear in the subject line of your email. You can find out more about what each of our agents is looking for on their individual pages here and under the tab ‘About/The Team’. Any foreign-language submissions should be addressed to the agent in the relevant territory. Please see below for what to include and we look forward to hearing from you!

Due to the great volume of submissions we receive, if you have not heard from us after 3 months please assume your submission has been unsuccessful. We regret that we cannot enter into correspondence about your submission.

Submission Tips

• Do some research on the agents you think would be most suitable to represent your work (see Writers & Artists, agency websites, acknowledgements sections in books in a similar vein). Submitting to an agent is not unlike applying for a job: you are much more likely to have success if you put the time in and make a few personalised submissions at a time, respond to any feedback and keep trying, than if you send out a blanket letter.

• Pay attention to the submission guidelines of each agency and only send them exactly what they ask for. Double check for any errors in spelling, grammar or formatting.

• Keep your covering letter short and to the point. Use the first line to introduce what kind of book you are submitting, e.g. a YA thriller/romance/contemporary novel. Then go straight into a paragraph which tells the agent what the book is about. You don’t need to detail the whole plot, that’s what the synopsis is for. Nor do you need to tell us why you wrote it, or what the themes it tackles are – first and foremost we need to know if it sounds like an interesting, original story. The pitch should be designed to make us want to read more. Finish with a short paragraph about yourself. If you have relevant writing experience, great! If not, just tell us who you are and a little bit about you.

• Be patient when waiting for a response – reading unsolicited manuscripts is an important part of an agent’s job, but most of our time has to be dedicated to existing clients. It may take weeks or months for an agent to get around to reading your submission, so make sure it grabs their attention when the time comes.
• Be willing to revise your manuscript. Publishing is a collaborative process and many agents will work very hard editorially to get a manuscript into shape before submitting to publishers. Be open to constructive criticism, both from your agent and, if your book is sold, from your editor.