The Word Cloud

Matters of Life and Death

The fundamental question for a human being is this: do I die when I die? If yes, then it might be fair to assume everything is physical, that matter is all.

If the answer is no, then we have a far bigger implication. Matter is not everything. Other stuff exists – call it spirit, mind, non-material reality, whatever. The point is, we suddenly have a massive unexplored meta-universe.

This is what people have generally believed, everywhere, always – heaven, hell, the afterlife, the beyond, bardo, tir na nog, spiritual realms, and so on. But not now. The prevailing western attitude can be summarised in a conversation between Ralph and Piggy in Lord of the Flies. Here’s the how it goes:

            Ralph raised the conch to his lips and then lowered it. “The trouble is: Are there ghosts, Piggy?..”
              “Course there aren’t.”
              “Why not?”
              “Cos things wouldn’t make sense. Houses an’ streets, an’ – TV – they wouldn’t work.”

And that’s it, more or less. We live in a manufactured world of houses, streets, TVs, footwear, cars, computers – all the material objects that insulate us from other realities. None of them survive death, so why should we?

Technology has persuaded us. Science has persuaded us. Nothing exists except matter. Which is odd, because science says no such thing.

Here’s what science really says. Our sort of matter (baryonic matter) makes up about 4% of the universe. That’s right: 96% of the universe is other stuff. We can’t emphasise this enough. All the resonant certainties of St Dawkins and his fellow prophets are based on one basic assumption: that matter is all.

And they are wrong.

The rest of the universe is made up of dark energy (73%) and dark matter (23%). And the point of the word ‘dark’ is that we scarcely know anything about these things. Nonetheless, putting a label on them can fool us into thinking we have some understanding, so it is good to shuffle the synonyms around, just to jog ourselves out of complacency. And when we do that, we find some very interesting synonyms for the ‘dark’ component of dark matter: hidden, undetected, unseen, occult.

That’s right: 73% of the universe is occult energy and 23% occult matter.

Now, we mustn’t get carried away and immediately conclude that all the mystics, shamans, yogis and spiritualists have been right all along. It may or may not be the case that all this occult matter and energy corresponds to heaven, hell, the afterlife, the beyond, bardo, tir na nog, spiritual realms, and so on. We are in no position to know.

But it is interesting to note the congruence:

·       Religion says there are vast other realities we cannot detect by physical means
·       Science says there are vast other realities we cannot detect by physical means

It is a fascinating parallel, although in our present state of knowledge we can say no more than that.

A while ago I was experimenting with twitter. What sort of items did I like reading? Offbeat thoughts, wit’n’wisdom, snippets of this’n’that. Maybe I should try a few such things myself. So I came up with a series of dark matter tweets.

·       Gosh, there's a lot of dark matter in the kitchen today. Can hardly push past it to the fridge...

·       Sod it – fridge full of dark matter too. Now is that a bottle of milk or...?

·       Some fascinating galaxies floating through this lounge...

·       Really kicking off in Dark Matter right now. Good and bad angels having a right set-to. Woops, nearly knocked over a saucepan there

·       Oh come on now, this is silly – good angels lobbing lifetron bombs at bad angel patrol – yikes, what about our stair carpet!

·       Think I'm back with proper matter now (baryonic). Mind you, I do appear to be tweeting. (Remind me, is that normal?)

And so on. The basic idea is that every room, every house, every street, car, bus and train is likely to contain vastly more dark matter and dark energy than anything else. If computer screens exist in dark matter (uncertain, I grant you) then there could be six dark matter screens in each room for every one of ours. (Have a look: can you see them?) And if dark energy could configure itself into the likeness of computer screens (even more uncertain) then there would be eighteen such screens for each of ours. (Eek: hardly space to breathe!)

‘Dark’ computer screens are, of course, unlikely. Far more likely to have angels and demons battling it out over the kitchen stove. Or bleeding ichor (the blood of angels) onto the stair carpet.

Or, well, we can’t really guess. And that’s the point of calling it ‘dark’.

We just don’t know. But when someone trots out the weary old ‘wenyer dedyer ded’ they don’t know either.

So let’s be cheerful and relaxed about science. It’s good stuff, it’s great stuff, but it does have its limits. And real science is honest about this. So if anyone tries beating us over the head with it – saying we’re nincompoops for wondering about this or that – well, they’re just not being scientific.

 

We have a few spaces still available on our fab 10 week online How to Write A Novel Course that starts this weekend.
 If you are at an intermediate level and have been writing for a little while but still want to learn the key tools of writing then think about getting some help.   If you want to learn all the tricks of the trade and get proper guidance on skills and techniques then this course is ideal. Tutor Rebecca Connell will take you through exercises, tutorials  and give feedback on your work all within a private group on the Cloud.
If you want to acquire writing skills to last a lifetime then this course is the answer.

For less than £40 a week you have advice and guidance from a successfully published author who knows and understands the market and what it takes to write a bestseller

Bookings can be made here

Week One: Ideas and Concepts, Week Two: Openings, Week Three: Settings,  Week Four: Aspects of Style, 1, Week Five: Aspects of Style, 2.,  Week Six: Finding your Voice, Week Seven: Characterisation and Inner Worlds, Week Eight: Plotting and Structure, Week Nine: Rewriting and self-editing, Week Ten: Endings, agents and sources of help.

I submitted a short story to the Mslexia magazine competition and paid an additional £45 to have it professionally critiqued - GULP, today I got the results of the critique (though think the competition winner is announced next week).
Having never had anything critiqued before (I've been too much of a wimp to post anything on here - except briefly to Lou who, incidentally, pin-pointed the same 'problem' as this critiquing person!  If only I'd shown Lou, and probably all you Cloudies before I submitted...  Lesson learned!)
Anyway, I thought I'd share the basic layout of the critique I received (although it's obviously very specific to my story) so that other writers scared of critiques on their work might feel less afraid.

So, it begins with General Comments (which is most of the critique):

"This is a highly imagined and well-rendered evocation of a teenager in break down and (for a person who in the narrative can't communicate) uses metaphors as concepts of reality..."  So basically outlines the plot!

"The narrative is rendered here in a highly personal and idiosyncratic way as universal experience.  At another level it also bespeaks a quality of isolation and distancing that marks anybody - not just teenagers - in the process of breakdown.  In this it raises the literary quality of this piece of writing..."  So comments about writing style and suggested audience.  Was chuffed by this comment!!

"You are explicit about your literary intentions: 'Time was a train, a speed train, an express'.  I wonder if you need to express this explicity as what comes after shows us how this metaphor is working.  I think 'the rest of your life platform' is a great culmination to the chunky metaphor that is this paragraph..."  Less is more...

"It is telling when you range around these metaphoric notions then come back to earth with 'and I still haven't done any sewing'..."  Not sure what 'telling' means - any ideas?

"You use the sense of sight to great effect.  'It's distracting.  Red crayon like sickeningly bright blood, is dribbling down her chin.'  NB I think this would be even more powerful if you lost the adverb sickeningly..."  Bloody adverbs!

"Nettie's hypersensitive sense of taste is used very well here: '...water...a familiar tang of metal hits my mouth'  And: 'Water looks clear but smells bad, like my palm when I've held change too long'.  Then in one wonderful phrase you manage to combine taste and sound..."  Enjoying the compliments but the negative is coming!

"We see her degenerating into total isolation and further and further into disabling paranoia.  I would render this without capitals.  The words themselves have sufficient power..."  This comment was made by Lou (thanks Lou - sorry you saw it after I submitted the story!)  I used capitals when she (the narrator) wanted to emphasise a feeling.  It clearly was a bad choice as she repeats later in the critique.

"And you need to use explanation marks much more sparingly: 'They'll kill us, Nettie... They've sent snipers in helicopters...  They're outside the door...'  Explanation marks reduce the power of the meaning of the words..."  This comment is really very helpful to me as I had no idea I did that!  Clearly, when she quotes me, I do it too much.

"You as the writer, by using all the senses - aural, oral, sound and smell - is very cleverly into the mind of this girl; we hear what she hears, we see what she sees... Through this sick girl's rendering we share the parents' despair.  Very good writing..."  Phew!

Then the heading reads Publication:
"A highly commended piece of writing.  This story would be suitable for the higher quality small magazines or could be one story in a collection to reflect the writer's range.  It could also be at the core of a very interesting novel..."  Wow, it is at the core of a (hopefully very interesting!) novel!!

Then Presentation / Layout:
The layout and syntax here is fine and the language is accomplished.  But I do have reservation about the the use of different typefaces.  I had thought that the use of different typefaces here would be viable but on re-reading I have changed my mind.  I think particularly the use of upper-case typeface becomes irritating and distracting.  The words are - and should be - powerful enough..."  OK

Finally the bizarre bit Any Other Comments:
"I have a personal problem with the name Nettie.  It looks terribly old-fashioned here.  And in my part of the world it is a slang name for an outside toilet..."  Excuse me?  Where in the world does this person live?!

Anyway, overall am pleased but totally kicking myself for not posting this story on the Cloud first!  Hope it's of use to any of you Cloudies as it's been a great help to me.

Peter Buckman, Ampersand Agency
Peter Buckman was on the editorial board of Penguin Books, and moved to New York to be a commissioning editor with the New American Library. He then became a full-time writer, producing books, films, plays, and scripts for tv and radio. Agenting has always been part of his life. The Ampersand Agency Handle literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction. Contemporary and historical novels, crime, thrillers, women’s fiction, memoirs, history, biography, cookery – anything as long as it’s well written. No fantasy / sci-fi / horror though.

• When did you come into agenting? What did you do before? And why agenting?

I was a publisher and then a full-time writer before becoming an agent in 2003, so I know the pleasures and pain involved in all aspects of the creative process.

• Have you ever opened a new manuscript, read a single page, and thought ‘I’m going to end up making an offer on this’? What was it about that page which excited you?

Yes. The opening sentence of “Q&A”, which turned into “Slumdog Millionaire”

• What’s your pet peeve on covering letters?

Packages or envelopes so plastered in sticky tape that I have to get a carving knife to open them. Anything addressed “Dear Sir/Madam” or “To whom it may concern”

• Do you need good personal chemistry with your authors?

Not necessarily, though agenting is a very personal thing – like having a lover, without the sex. You need to respect and be generous to one another, as well as being capable of surprise.

• The grim stats: how many submissions do you get per week (or year)? And how many new authors do you take on?

Around 100 a week, say 5000 a year, and in nine years we’ve got maybe 60 authors. You can figure out the stats.

• Do you like your authors to tweet & blog & Facebook … or do you really not care?

Don’t care

• Which is most important: the editor, the publisher or the advance?

The most important thing is that the author is happy and well-served

• Do you secretly have a book in you? And if so, tell us more …

I’ve published seven books, all out of print, and some of them so boring not even my wife has read them

Peter is one of the agents appearing at this year’s Festival of Writing. Each year we invite literary agents who are hungry for new talent and who represent some of the biggest and best agencies in the business. Don’t miss your chance to book a one-to-one session with an agent of your choice.

Last year (2011) we took a trip to America for the first time, hiring a Ford Mustang and driving through California, Arizona and Nevada. It was glorious discovering new places, new environments, new ways of doing things, but we didn’t leave all the discovery till we arrived. We brought a couple of guidebooks beforehand, googled a few places on the Net, pored over some maps and studied details in the brochure.

All this is quite natural.

How about the Bigger Trip at the end of earthly life? Where are the guidebooks? Which web pages should I google? Where are the maps and tourist brochures? Once again it is natural to want some information. Where should I try?

From time to time I hope to post articles on 'Matters of Life and Death', and shall be evaluating various sources of information:

·       Science: how much, if anything, can it tell us about non-material reality?
·       Religion: how much can the familiar Christian variety tell us?
·       Poetry and music: can these reveal any ‘Truths of the Imagination’ for us?
·       Inner Resonance: how much weight can I place on something that ‘rings true’?

And there is one more source I shall consult, Spiritualism. For a writer, it is a brilliant resource. Spiritualism had a considerable vogue before and after the First World War, but nowadays it is deeply unfashionable. As a result, there is a cornucopia of wonderful but neglected materials for me to plunder

At my bedside I have volumes with such evocative titles as Life Beyond the Veil, Gone West and The Living Dead Man. They all date from the time around the First World War and have a sense of the drama and intensity involved in the time. But wait a moment, you might say, aren’t they too spooky for the bedside? Not at all. They make splendid bedtime reading, often cheering, frequently astonishing, always fascinating. I have dog-eared many a must-revisit page, made vertical lines in the margins of read-again extracts, and added double – or even treble – lines for especially mind-boggling material.

But how much can I trust such things, I hear you ask. Well, there are basically four answers to this:

·       Firstly, I can check the materials for consistency. How do they match up against each other – and also against more recent material coming from Near Death Experiences and Hypnotic Regression? Do they support or contradict each other?
·       Secondly, I can ask how far the stories match up with common sense. That is, do the humans behave as humans (albeit in different circumstances)?
·       Thirdly, I can employ the Inner Resonance guide (as mentioned above) – do the stories and descriptions ring true?
·       Fourthly, as a novelist I can ask whether they would make darn good tales.

That last one is a good criterion for me. I am engaged on writing an updatedDivine Comedy trilogy in which the scope and vision of Dante are compounded with the buddy-style interplay of, say, Butch and Sundance. A mismatched pair of cousins are sent to quarrel their way through Earth, Hell and even Heaven (which is not where you’d expect to see a lot of quarrelling, but they’ll find a way).

Recently I have been busy with Book Two, A Short, Selective Journey Through Hell, and have happily drawn on Life Beyond the Veil, Gone Westand The Living Dead Man, as well as plenty of other resources.

Well yes, you might say. Rattling good tale, you might say. But is it all true? Do you really believe all that stuff?

Well, my friends, believe is a funny word. It implies loyalty to one set of propositions and not to another. This can be very limiting, and, if you are a scientist, it can be disastrous. There you go building your career on – what? – certainties about dinosaur bones, about continental drift or perhaps even the speed of light, and then along comes evidence to prove your whole life is one big mistake.

No, belief is a very limiting word. Let’s go with something rather more open. It has been suggested that science fiction writers do a lot better in the Next World than saintly believers, and this seems credible to me because science fiction writers are in the business of imagining the unimaginable. They’re not held down by the diving boots of belief.

So let’s say I value Life Beyond the Veil, Gone West, The Living Dead Man and suchlike for their Wow factor. They may or may not hold vast amounts of truth, but I can try to check them for consistency, common sense and resonance. And, having done so, I’m inclined to say yup, they make the better story.

(This post has been simultaneously published on my blog  http://dimensionsbeyond.typepad.com/ 
complete with a lovely pic of Death Valley - seen from 'Dante's View' - which I would have included here, only I couldn't get the picture uploader to cooperate, alas. Do feel free to call in on said blog and sample the numerous delights therein...)

Warning - I am quite possibly going to stir a bit of controversy here. That's not really my intention, but after years of reading self pubbed stuff, from a friend of mine who self-published her entire fantasy trilogy 12 years ago (well before the trend) to stuff posted on various sites such as Fictionpress to the Kindle app for my laptop and now, finally, a proper Kindle, I've come to a conclusion.

I can see exactly why a good 80+% of the books available never found a publisher.

However, the plot thickens, because this, in general, does not apply to Cloudies. And I am not just saying that because I am a Cloudie and consider fellow Cloudies my friends.

Yesterday, I downloaded 6 books, and I read the first chapter of all of them. Of all of them, the only one that felt like a 'proper published book' was Bren's. That's not to say I didn't like the other ones I downloaded - I did, and I will read them - but I couldn't help but notice the adverbial redundancies ('the door slammed loudly'. Can a door slam in any other way?), excessive description (and that's coming from me!!) and weird details (for example: '...my throat constricted thirty-five percent as a desire to cry tingled behind my eyes.' Uh, that's oddly specific, but okay...). Things that, whether we like it or not at first, are expunged from our writing here - and for a good reason!

Reading self-pubbed stuff is always an eye-opener. There are gems to be found amongst the dross, but more interestingly (for me), it allows an unfettered glimpse into what other people see as 'good writing'. It's fascinating, to say the least.

It also makes me even more aware of how important it is to get someone without an invested interest to vet your works before doing anything with it! O_o

So, in a roundabout way, I guess I'm trying to say 'bloody hell, we're good here...' ^^D

 

We are thrilled, delighted & tickled every shade of pink to announce that the Greenhouse Literary Agency, in conjunction with the Festival of Writing, has created the Greenhouse Funny Prize for children’s writers. Greenhouse’s Julia Churchill loves every kind and flavour of children’s writing, but she doesn’t get enough submissions that make her laugh. So help her out. Enter the prize. You could win representation from her and a ticket to the Festival of Writing besides. What’s not to like? Here’s Julia:

ANNOUNCING THE GREENHOUSE FUNNY PRIZE – OPEN TO UK/IRISH WRITERS

I’m excited about something. The UK side of the Greenhouse is running a prize in conjunction with this year’s Writers’ Workshop Festival of Writing. It will be called the Greenhouse Funny Prize.

At Greenhouse we love all sorts of writing. We love edgy, wincingly close-to-the-bone YA fiction, we love thrilling, commercial concepts with big surprises, and beautiful and heartfelt younger stories. I could keep going, but in short, we love quality. And there’s something that Sarah and I agree that we don’t see enough of: Funny.

I had the idea for a prize because every time I sit down with an editor and ask what they’re looking for, they generally say, ‘Funny. We need humour’. When I was little, half of my reading was humour – Dahl, the Ahlbergs, JUST WILLIAM, MR MAJEIKA, WHAT-A-MESS, FUDGE, ASTERIX. And there is loads of great humour on the market today – WIMPY KID, Andy Stanton, Lauren Child, Dave Pilkey, David Walliams. Funny is selling in the shops, publishers are wide open to it, and yet we don’t see that represented in our submissions inbox. We want more laughs.

The Greenhouse Funny prize is open to un-agented writers who are currently resident in the UK and Ireland. Entries will be judged by me and guest judge Leah Thaxton, Publisher of Egmont Children’s Books (and discoverer of Andy Stanton).

The winner will get an offer of representation from the Greenhouse and a full weekend ticket to the wonderful Festival of Writing that runs 7-9 September ’12 (worth £525). The winner will also be presented with a bottle of champagne at the Festival’s gala dinner on the Saturday night. The runners up will each get five of my favourite funny books, and maybe even a comedy mug.

Our judging criteria is very simple. Funny, and we are wide open to all ages. The winner may be a picture book like OLIVIA or DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS, or a young series à la HORRID HENRY, FLAT STANLEY, THE GREAT HAMSTER MASSACRE or UNDEAD PETS, or for 8-12 year olds like Lemony Snicket or RAMONA. It could even be for teen readers, like Louise Rennison, DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS? or THE PRINCESS DIARIES. It’s going to be the person with funny in their DNA.

Funny is subjective, of course. Perhaps the winner will have a slow-burning, sly wit. Perhaps a Python-esque sense of the absurd. Or maybe the concept, and the freshness and immediacy of it, will do much of the heavy lifting.

Entry guidelines:

To get a good sense of the voice and where the character is headed, we’d like to see the first 5,000 words PLUS a short description (a few lines) of the book AND a one page outline that shows the spine of the plot.

If you are submitting a picture book (or shorter fiction that comes in under 5,000 words), then send the complete text.

Please send your entries to funny@greenhouseliterary.com

The deadline for submissions is Monday 30 July.

You must be resident in the UK or Ireland.

The shortlist will be announced Monday 6 August. We anticipate that 6 writers will be shortlisted.

The winner will be announced Monday 13 August. If we get two or more outstanding entries, we may offer representation to more than one writer.

Entrants will not be acknowledged on receipt, but all entrants will be emailed when the shortlist is announced.

In the meantime, if you want to book a place at the Festival of Writing, please go ahead and do so. If the winner of the Greenhouse Funny Prize has already booked for the Festival, the Writers’ Workshop will refund your money and (if needed) upgrade your ticket.

Penny Holroyde, Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency Ltd.
Interested in children’s books for all ages – She particularly like’s laugh-out-loud books aimed at middle grade children but also loves books with emotional depth and strong plots for older children. For her adult portfolio, She’s very interested in memoirs. Historical settings and again, a really compelling voice that works in whatever world the author has created are key likes. The Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency is one of the UK’s leading literary agencies representing a bestselling roster of authors and illustrators. Our particular areas of interest include fiction, non-fiction—especially human interest stories and memoirs—and all types of children’s books.

• When did you come into agenting? What did you do before? And why agenting?

I came into agenting seven years ago. Prior to that I was working in the USA as Director of Rights and Licensing for Candlewick Press. As I had worked for Candlewick’s sister company in the UK, Walker Books, I was quite often asked to comment very early on whether a project would have worldwide appeal and I think it’s helpful to have that hat on as an agent. More than that though, in my previous job, authors would call for help when they couldn’t understand their royalty statements or if a film producer had been in touch. As more and more authors got representation, that side of my job got less frequent and I realised that being at the coal face was a place I could be very happy, and I am.

• What sort of books do you love?

Have you ever opened a new manuscript, read a single page, and thought ‘I’m going to end up making an offer on this’? What was it about that page which excited you? Yes, I have. I started reading the manuscript at my desk and knew I had to get away from the phone and email and read it all. It was the writing and voice. Stunning. I went to a café and devoured it. When I finished, I mopped up my tears, stroked the manuscript and swore I would make the author mine.

•  What’s your pet peeve on covering letters?

‘Dear Sir/Madam’ or ‘Hi there’ usually gets me heading for the delete button. We are (we think!) open and welcoming on our website and provide a picture and an email address. Unless one of us needs a makeover badly, I think it’s quite clear there are no ‘Sirs’ working here. It bothers me when authors don’t bother.

• Of the authors who are not on your list, who would you most love to represent?

(You can pick a few names.) I’ll plead the fifth on that question!

• Where do most of your authors come from? The slushpile? Personal recommendation? Or what?

As you get more established as an agent, authors come via recommendations from other authors and from acknowledgements pages. Publisher recommendations have also brought me some good talent. I’ve got a slushpile (hate that word!) author publishing her first books this May which is very exciting but has happened to me only once!

• Do you need good personal chemistry with your authors?

I think you need a certain transparency with your authors. It’s a very close relationship so there certainly needs to be a lot of trust and the author needs to feel safe in telling me exactly what they think about something  but I don’t think that needs to extend to going on holiday with each other!

• Do you get involved in shaping an author’s career?

I like to give advice about new directions and of course I feed back to authors when publishers are asking for projects in certain areas of the market, but at the end of the day, it’s the author’s call.

•  If you had one bit of advice to give to new writers, what would it be?

Read more books and join a very critical writer’s group.

• Are e-books going to bring about fundamental changes to the publishing industry? What would you say if one of your authors wanted to e-publish their next book, cutting out conventional publishers altogether?

I think most published authors would prefer to be published by their publisher and if an author suggested direct-to- e pub, I might suspect there was a problem with the relationship; but it could also be that there was something about the project that better suited it to e pub.

• Have you enjoyed reading more since becoming an agent? Or are there times it feels like a chore?

Before becoming an agent, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to read Richard and Judy selections for example, but they were so powerful in the first place I thought I can’t really work as an agent and say ‘no, I haven’t read We Need to Talk About Kevin’ and also because I read almost exclusively books for young people for work, I’ve started to read a lot of crime in my spare time, ie something that I would never, ever take on in the course of my job.

• The grim stats: how many submissions do you get per week (or year)? And how many new authors do you take on?

We get over 10,000 submissions a year which can feel quite onerous but we work hard to respond to every one. I’ve had a bit of a bumper 12 months and taken on about five new authors but the year before that, it might only have been one.

• Do you like your authors to tweet & blog & Facebook … or do you really not care?

It’s important to publishers that authors are active in the digital space but I have also had publishers rap my knuckles for what authors are saying there!! I’m careful to tell authors exactly when something is safe to Tweet or blog – if we’ve just done a film deal for example, we wouldn’t want the producer’s press release scooped by the author’s tweet.

• Do you secretly have a book in you? And if so, tell us more …

Blimey, no way!

Penny is one of the agents appearing at this year’s Festival of Writing. Each year we invite literary agents who are hungry for new talent and who represent some of the biggest and best agencies in the business. Don’t miss your chance to book a one-to-one session with an agent of your choice.

Sam Copeland, Rogers, Coleridge & White
Sam is an agent at Rogers, Coleridge & White. Sam’s first job in publishing was at Curtis Brown, where he started in 2001.  He left in 2006 to help create the Robinson Literary Agency, and joined Rogers, Coleridge and White in 2009 when the two companies merged.   He is building an extremely diverse list, representing writers of both literary and commercial fiction, science fiction, children’s (11+), serious and not-so-serious non-fiction.  In fact, he is happy to look at anything but self-help and business books.

• When did you come into agenting? What did you do before? And why agenting?

My first job in agenting was ten years ago, when I started at Curtis Brown. After 5 years, I moved to Rogers, Coleridge and White. Before that I was a  bookseller, cleaner, market trader, door to door salesman, bar man etc etc etc… And why agenting? Because on it’s day, it’s the best job in the world.

• Have you ever opened a new manuscript, read a single page, and thought ‘I’m going to end up making an offer on this’? What was it about that page which excited you?

Yes. Recently actually. It was original, brilliantly written and completely startling.

• What’s your pet peeve on covering letters?

Pet peeve on covering letters? All the usual. To be honest, there’s a lot of focus placed on covering letters by writers (and agents) BUT REALLY, IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. Couple of lines on who you are, a few lines about the book. Don’t fret about it too much, don’t try too much (the more you try the more you’re likely to mess up..). And pick the right agent. It’s all in the writing of the book at the end of the day.

• Do you need good personal chemistry with your authors?

You don’t need good chemistry, but it certainly helps. Many of my authors have become close friends.

• If you weren’t an agent, what else would you be?

I am utterly unqualified to do anything apart from being a literary agent. Oh – actually – maybe an astronaut.

Sam is one of the agents appearing at this year’s Festival of Writing. Each year we invite literary agents who are hungry for new talent and who represent some of the biggest and best agencies in the business. Don’t miss your chance to book a one-to-one session with an agent

David Headley, DHH Literary Agency
DHH was founded by David Headley in 2008, based in London, they represent an eclectic range of best-selling and award-winning authors, including novelists, historians, short-story writers and children’s authors. David created the D. H. H. Literary Agency—an agency whose main objective is to provide a more attentive and individual representation for our authors. They wish to help re-launch established writers as well as nurturing debut authors. They are currently only looking to represent fiction writers.

•  When did you come into agenting? What did you do before? And why agenting?

I became an agent in 2008 when I took on my first client. I decided to become an agent because I felt I was in a unique position to help unpublished writers.  As the owner of Goldsboro Books, a much admired independent bookshop, with a good relationship with many editors in all the major publishing houses, and with a commercial eye for great writing, it was an obvious step for me.

•  What sort of books do you love?

I love books that are written well but are a little bit different. I have been accused of liking books with a visceral voice and I am sure that I do but I like a unique voice.

•  Have you ever opened a new manuscript, read a single page, and thought ‘I’m going to end up making an offer on this’? What was it about that page which excited you?

Honestly, no I haven’t but I have read a page and thought there is real promise here. I do like manuscripts with amazing first lines and the fact that the author has clearly thought about how to grab the reader from the very beginning.

•  What’s your pet peeve on covering letters?

I’m quite forgiving so I don’t get too annoyed with silly mistakes on covering letters although I’d wish for a perfect one. I really dislike my name being someone else’s i.e. Dear Ms Smith..  I also don’t wish to read the synopsis in the covering letter if it is also attached.

•  Of the authors who are not on your list, who would you most love to represent? (You can pick a few names.)

There are a number of authors that I wish I represented but I won’t mention names because I see them often in my bookshop and don’t want to embarrass them. They are great writers and I am always looking forward to reading their new books.

•  Are you most drawn to beautiful writing? Or a wonderful plot? Or a stunning premise? Or what?

I am drawn by all of those. Mostly, I would say that I am drawn by the voice or narrative. I just want to be told a wonderful story that I don’t want to stop reading.

•  Have you ever surprised yourself by representing an author whose work you had assumed you wouldn’t like?

I only represent authors whose work I like so this would never happen to me. I would never represent an author if I were in any doubt about their writing.

•  Tell us how you like writers to submit work to you. And how you’d like them not to submit work.

If you mean submissions, I make that quite clear on my website. I like a covering letter, which tells me about the person submitting, a brief synopsis (one page) and the first three chapters. Some people choose not to read my guidelines and in that case they are showing to me that they can’t follow simple instructions which is a concern.

•  Where do most of your authors come from? The slushpile? Personal recommendation? Or what?

I really dislike the term slushpile. I have taken on a couple of authors from submissions to the agency. Mostly, authors I represent are either recommendations or those who I have met at writing courses /conferences.

•  Do you need good personal chemistry with your authors?

It obviously helps if there is personal chemistry and I have found that good friendships can be formed. Ultimately, there has to be trust on both sides from the very beginning and from that foundation a good working relationship is formed.

•  What’s the most important part of your job? Is it editing/shaping the manuscript? Selling the manuscript? Or supervising the publication process?

All of those are most important to me and I can’t say one is more important than the other. All of those processes affect my author and their career and as such I feel I must do all to the best of my ability.

•  Do you get involved in shaping an author’s career?

Of course. Without my author’s I don’t have a job so I do my best to nurture and support all of my authors.

•   If you had one bit of advice to give to new writers, what would it be?

Write the best book you can. It is as simple as that.

•  Are e-books going to bring about fundamental changes to the publishing industry? What would you say if one of your authors wanted to e-publish their next book, cutting out conventional publishers altogether?

E-books have already brought about fundamental change. There are more self-published authors than there has ever been. There would have to be a very good reason to by-pass conventional publishers for me to agree with my author’s decision. I still have a large amount of faith in conventional publishers.

•  Have you enjoyed reading more since becoming an agent? Or are there times it feels like a chore?

Reading is never a chore and I have always been a voracious reader but, obviously, some writing is better than others and I find it difficult to read badly written books.

•  The grim stats: how many submissions do you get per week (or year)? And how many new authors do you take on?

On average we receive about 40 manuscripts a week and we take on less than one percent. It doesn’t mean that the majority of books submitted aren’t good enough to be published but that they just didn’t grab us enough to want to represent it.

•  What Unique Selling Points do you have as an agent or agency?

We are a new agency with a passion for our authors. Our objective is to provide a more attentive and individual representation. With my background in bookselling I feel I have a far better commercial understanding of what readers are buying.

•  Do you like your authors to tweet & blog & Facebook … or do you really not care?

Yes, I care more than ever that my authors do all of those because it is more important than ever that authors find their readers. With more and more books being published, publishers having smaller marketing budgets, less books being promoted in the media, these are ways an author can reach a wider audience.

•  Which is most important: the editor, the publisher or the advance?

All are incredibly important but for me it is the editor that makes the difference. A good editor will offer a good advance and champion the writer within the publisher.

•  If you weren’t an agent, what else would you be?

I’d continue to be a bookseller. I couldn’t do anything other than work with books.

•  Do you secretly have a book in you? And if so, tell us more …

No. I have no desire to write.

 

David is one of the agents appearing at this year’s Festival of Writing. Each year we invite literary agents who are hungry for new talent and who represent some of the biggest and best agencies in the business. Don’t miss your chance to book a one-to-one session with an agent of your choice.