Submissions and competition update

I was quite stunned to have recieved over 500 entries to the Great Novel Openings competition and am afraid I’m still reading through the entries which has been really interesting. However, I will be in a position to post a longlist this coming week and the winner by the end of August. I think because of the interest and number of entries you deserve the excitment of a longlist. So watch this space.

I’m also afraid that I’m terribly behind with submissions. Please bear with me but if you haven’t heard from me within 3 months, or 6 months for a full manuscript, please do chase.

Current wish list

Liz Harris asked what genres I’m looking for at the moment. Short answer: I’m not looking for genres, I’m looking for great writing. Longer answer: …great writing, a brilliant book premise, marketing potential and a writer behind it I want to work with for 20 years.

Footnote. Actually there are a few things that, were I writing to Santa now (I know it’s April) I’d be asking to appear in my inbox:

1. A cosy mystery. What’s a cosy mystery? Think Midsomer Murders but different. Big genre over in the US. Small here but I love ‘em and think they are a growing genre. Does not have to be rural either. In fact bend the genre if you like…be creative… as long as it’s cosy.

2. Really intelligent women’s fiction. With characters so real that it does not feel like fiction but written with confidence and panache. A relationships story that works on several levels.

3. Adventure fiction with a superb leading character. This genre’s been around since the 19th century but don’t copy the classics. I want to see something written with the voice of a writer of today (even if it’s historical set).

4. Crime fiction with a superb leading character who is *not* a world-weary, divorced, whisky-swilling detective. And the darker, the better.

5. Fun, feisty and funny chick-lit but populated by likeable characters with real problems, not silly girls-about-town with nothing more to worry about in life than which handbag to buy.*

6. A novel so brilliant I can’t even conceive what it might be but I’ll know it when I see it. Yes, not helpful I know…

* Leave the handbag buying to the professionals.

Want an auto-rejection?

Something that surprises me is when, on receiving news that I have passed on a query, some writers immediately, by return of email, query me with opening chapters from another manuscript of theirs.

Why is this the wrong thimg to do?

Well, firstly I expect you to send me your best (and most likely your most recent) work in the first place. And secondly, if I liked your original submission and wanted to find out what else you had written, I would ask. So when I receive a second submission immediately I am already primed to reject it. Of course, I will look at it, just in case, but I don’t believe I’ve ever requested further material from a situation like this.

So what if you do want to send me something else?

Leave it six months or more, by which time I am highly likely to have forgotten your previous submission and will be looking at your work with fresh eyes.

Closed to submissions

The Kate Nash Literary Agency is now closed to new submissions until 1st December 2009.

If you have an outstanding submission with the Agency, thank you for your patience. Kate Nash reads all submissions personally but will be taking a maternity leave break over the next few weeks.

Submissions update

Because of holidays and recent conferences, I’m running very behind in considering submissions. Please be aware that you may not have a response to your submission until mid to late August. Normal service should resume in September.

It’s Friday

Having completed the judging for the SWWJ, I was able to get back to The Pile of full manuscripts this week but I am still behind! I will catch up soon but once one becomes an agent and has clients to look after, reading material for clients becomes a priority above reading submissions. As I only have one pair of eyes I’m looking for a reader or two (email with CV and rates if interested please).

Last week I made it to the RNA Summer Party in London where the Joan Hessayson New Writers prize was awarded to Allie Spencer. Watching the line up of debut authors waiting to hear the results announced reminded me when I was in that line-up back in 2005, and also how successful some of my fellow nominees have become with their literary careers since then.

Back in the office, Lelsey Cookman’s Murder in Bloom was published on 18th May and I’ve been watching it doing well on amazon. I was asked to do some one-to-one appointments at the RNA Annual Conference in July, so sent off my bio etc for the programme. Feedback from publishers has started to come through from my early post-Book Fair submissions, some of which is encouraging, and a large print sale of my own latest short novel to Linford Romance/Ulverscroft.

I’m looking forward to spending a couple of days away from it all over the bank holiday weekend. The weather forecast is looking good.

Busy judging

As had been pointed out by one of my clients, I’ve not blogged for a bit. Usual excuses I’m afraid: have been busy. And especially busy in any free moments going through the entries for this year’s Society of Women Writers and Journalists (SWWJ) novel writing competition, The Clemence Dane/Pat Garrod Cup.

Since the Book Fair most activity has been focused on follow-up with publishers, so while I did manage to catch up on a number of submissions, I’m still about a month behind so please bear with me, but do chase me if you’ve queried me before mid April and not heard anything. Emails do occasionally go astray.

Probably the worst time in the world…

… to be sending agents submissions. I seem to have received a good half dozen over the Easter weekend. However, the London Book Fair is next week, and with preparations, the Fair itself and then the aftermath. I have the least time in the world to consider submissions.

Please bear with me until normal service resumes sometime after the Book Fair.

It has gone a bit mad

I have had 8 queries so far this week. Many, I think, are a result of being on the front page of this month’s Writers News.

If you’ve queried me in the last couple of weeks, it is going to take a little longer than I would like for me to get back to you. I’m now actively working with four authors whom I’ve taken on as clients, plus I have full manuscripts that I have asked to look at to read (3 on The Pile at the moment). This leaves less time available to look at queries, but I do want to consider every submission carefully so I hope you will bear with me. Thanks for your patience.

One month in…

As we draw towards the end of January, it seems like a good time to look back and review where I’m up to in getting the agency up and running.

I have three clients and have had the chance to meet up with them and discuss and agree immediate and longer term plans. (I’m waiting until my client list numbers five or six before making an announcement to the trade about whom I am representing.) I’ve started to work with two writers on revisions that I think will get their scripts to the stage that they are ready to be sent out. I also got back to two other writers whom I have not offered representation to with revision suggestions. I’d be delighted to have the chance to consider again their revised or new work.

I have started to meet and introduce myself to several editors at different publishers and have started to find out what they are currently looking to buy. I have negotiated a new contract for one of my clients. I have prepared outlines and approaches to several publishers with two scripts I have that are ready to market.

I have spent a lot of time considering submissions. I have considered about thirty queries, of which I have requested to see eight full scripts. Five fulls I have made decisions on, and there are three still sitting on The Pile.

I have started to work with a couple of readers, although I have also read all the submissions myself.

I’ve given an interview to a writing magazine and have been invited to give two talks to writers later in the year.

I have also been sorting out initial plans for the London Book Fair in April. This is the major UK publishing trade fair and the best opportunity to meet with international publishers face to face.