When the news breaks that a publisher has paid a huge advance for a new or emerging author, it sends a message to the industry. It signifies that – despite excruciating pressures on retail and variable results for debut fiction in particular – publishers still believe that they know how to make and find great…
The first property we bought was a disaster. It was a flat with the most beautiful floor to ceiling windows. It should have been a lovely home, but there was a problem, in the building. I moved in with my mother to try to escape it, while my husband painted walls through the night so…
Another year is turning: Time is drawing attention to itself again, bragging about how fast it's passing. Some days I let it swing by, grateful; but I ought to catch hold of its coat. In a few months I'll be forty-five. My teenaged daughter watched me getting dressed the other day and commented, pointedly: "You…
To my fellow literary agents, gathered this week at the London Book Fair: let's take this opportunity to consider why it is in the author's interest for the Halls for one year to go quiet, to shrink and go small. For the noise from the IRC to roar above - for the agents to take over Olympia. Agents are under increasing pressure from the big…
Anyone can be an agent. You can be an agent today. All you have to do is to write 'literary agent' after your name and go get yourself some clients. There is no professional body to which you must belong, there are no qualifications which will put letters after your name; there is no limit…
One of the little jokes that the publishing industry likes to tell about itself is that we all love to lunch - that we spend most of every day at lunch. "I really feel we should have a lunch, don't you?" and "Surely it's time for lunch!" we proclaim to one another on the phone,…
Sometimes, my non-publishing friends stumble on how to express what I do. They can't get their heads round the fact I don't "publish" anything... what is it I do with books again? With authors? I explain to them that the agent's verb is: to represent. I represent a list of authors; I represent their interests.…
After over forty years in the same offices, just over a year ago David Higham Associates moved to new premises. Some of us worried about losing our characterful, rather shambolic old offices. There was a sense that perhaps the offices *were* DHA. You could find our history in the teetering piles of manuscripts; read our…
I've been dogged by poor health for a few weeks now - a cough that won't shift, some sort of virus hanging around me, poor sleep - and a few of my friends, clients and colleagues have started up a loving interference. 'What time did you go to bed last night?' they enquire nosily. 'You…
We are supposed to be nominating each other, we publishing professionals: the closing date for the Bookseller Industry Awards is nearly upon us. If we think we can discern the Imprint of the Year, Rights Professional of the Year or one of many other Publishing Persons of the Year including, indeed, the Literary Agent of…