In case anyone is interested, I have decided to start a Weekly Top Tip. Until I run out of tips! Then it may turn into a story. Or insight. Or TV tips. Who knows where this mind might go...
I need answers … who read Flowers in the Attic when they were younger? I mean… THAT BOOK. Deranged or what? Hands up anyone in publishing who has read it and can imagine it being published anew today?
I was wondering how many of you know that I'm profoundly deaf, and that I lipread? I've been thinking about it lately as I've spent my whole life pushing it away and effectively pretending not to be deaf. But now at the grand age of 41, perhaps I should 'own' it?
So often I’ve sat in PR and marketing meetings for upcoming books and I hear - Twitter is great for building relationships but it doesn’t sell books. Today I’ve bought 3 books all off the back of Twitter chat. The new
@willrdean
and
#WhoisMaudDixon
and
#TheLamplighters
. So ... ?
I have Covid, my (vulnerable for many reasons) husband has it, and our 2 older children. I’m driving myself into a dreadful paranoid state Googling stories of people who have died or have long Covid. It’s hideous how vulnerable we all are. My god, wear a flipping mask.
Tonight I told the children they could join us for (early)grown up supper to celebrate the publication of
#TheSurvivors
. Sent them off to get into pjs (the 4 year old is well trained!) and they came back like this! “We have to dress like this to make it REALLY special.”
I am 40 today and it is ABSOLUTELY OKAY. The last year has changed a lot about my perspective and I am just so grateful for being here and with my family in good health and with the best job ever and those small happy moments.
never have I welcomed submissions with such open arms as now! Looking especially for submissions involving humour, love, wisdom, smart writing, thrilling plots ...
Ok SO. Being deaf makes it pretty hard for me to allow myself to be filmed for public consumption. But I love my job and CB, so here we are! Forgive the slight earnestness.
From all you fabulous authors, who desperately needs an utterly beautiful gothic thriller proof? We would love your support. A Lighthouse. A Curse. A mother and 3 daughters. Within months, 3 of them disappear and only 1 is left. 20 yrs later, she discovers what happened...
My dad died 25 years ago today. Time is the most astonishing elastic thing and our most precious commodity. Try to stop and remember that sometimes; don’t wish time away.
Try walking through LBF and not moving aside for anyone. Women will almost always sidestep. Men will almost always just walk into you if you don’t move.
I read this on twitter so decided to try it out. It’s true. Genuinely alarming.
Just had the most wonderful & exciting 2 days that reminds me why bring a literary agent is the best job in the world. Lovely news coming soon!
#booksbooksbooks
Happy 13 years to my lovely husband. This picture perfectly sums us up. His tolerant loving expression as I insist on having the roof down just as the heavens open.
'Magic is the first sin, we must bear it silently'. Anna is a witch who is not allowed to cast spells...Just rec'd my newly minted
#threadneedle
copies. Blown away by the detailing. Love magic? Re-tweet & I'll send 3 ppl chosen at random on Fri limited edition proofs I've saved.
Open to subs from 1st Aug! Esp on look-out for thrillers, horror (everything! Stephen King to Point Horror series to dark scary academia) and v moving love stories (Maybe Next Time is vg eg). Also love to find something steamy… think Fourth Wing, The Idea of You, Mills & Boon!
looklooklooklook!!! So bloody HAPPY! What well deserved recognition. I have read it at least 5 times in the process and could happily read another 5 times.
Some NEWS! MAYBE NEXT TIME is only the actual
@ReeseW
November 2023 pick! A book inspired by my life as a very busy stressed woman has been on such a wild ride and I hope you all love it. So grateful to Reese and her very lovely
@ReesesBookClub
team🧡😱🧡
How’s this for bad start to day? My alarm ‘went off’ (vibrating one to wake me up as I’m profoundly deaf). I leapt out of bed, anxious not to wake husband. Felt bloody knackered. Teeth, etc, heading down to wake kids. Look at watch. It’s 5am. I DREAMT IT WENT OFF.
This week has been the worse and the best of agenting. Let no one tell you this job is easy (although a HUGE PRIVILEGE). Just watching my flowers to remind myself that it is about moments of happiness, not solid continuous happiness.p.s. Those nasty penguins=kids!
When my 8 yr old daughter is asked what (if any) life skills she learned while on lockdown, I hope she will proudly say “learning how to make negronis”! (They’re the best)
Published TODAY from the wonderful
@CJessCooke
! Chilling, atmospheric, sinister and clever - this is a thriller at its best (with delicious gothic vibes). So very proud of this book and author.
For many reasons, this book holds a very very special place in my heart. I cried the first, third and last time I read it and again today when I saw this proof. Anyone who reads this is genuinely so lucky.
@annafbailey
@KirstyDunseath
@alisonbarrow
What a HAPPY DAY - I am so lucky to now represent
@CressMcLaughlin
- the queen of feel-good fiction. Her latest, Christmas Carols and a Cornish Cream Tea, instantly hit the charts and is for all of you needing a booster (& not just the vaccc one).
Tip One: try summarise yr book in just 1 or 2 lines. For eg, a book I recently sold is described as ‘Ocean’s 8 meets Downton Abbey’.This tells us historical female-led thriller with appropriate glitz & glamour! Helps prospective agents, editors& readers. Tricky but give it a try!
THIS. I have been eking it out for days because I could not BEAR it to end. Definitely in my top 3 reads this year. So special and … no words. Put on your list right now. Thank you
@LouisaJoyner
for this intense privilege. Congratulations
@JoBrowningWroe
As a book agent and head of podcasts & audio at CB, this utterly infuriates me. It is a land-grab, clean and simple. A podcast is new creative content, whether or not it utilises the same topic as the book. (thread)
I genuinely feel really proud to be part of the
@CBGBooks
and
@CWAgencyUK
and never more so than last night when we gathered lots of our treasured authors together at
#TheakstonsCrime
❤️❤️❤️
I have just spent the afternoon (my first day off for ages) devouring this epic epic EPIC thriller / blockbuster / filmic /utterly immersing book. So bloody good, I didn’t take a breath.
#hostage
by
@claremackint0sh
Could cry, back has entirely given in again and I’m bent over at an angle, using a stick. If someone said to me- straighten up or I’ll kill your kids - I still couldn’t. Fed up fed up of constant back issues. I am 39. For f’s sake, THIRTY NINE. What does 59 hold for me?? Whinge.
@RichardMiron1
1. graphic novels / comics to get a reluctant reader started. 2. letting them entirely dictate what they read (find this hard as so want to share my loved books but if you tell them to read s.thing, puts them off)
“Among the most impressive historical fiction out this July is
@franquinn
That Bonesetter Woman, based on real story abt two sisters in Georgian London, one who is desperate to be a female bonesetter and the other who is a determined social climber.” Indep. TOO RIGHT!
BIG NEWS!! I'm so pleased to announce I am now represented by
@AliceLutyens
at Curtis Brown. Lots of work ahead but I'm so, so excited! (Someone pinch me because I must be dreaming??) 🥳🥳😁😁
In all seriousness, authors get so sad at the thought of abandoning a much toiled over manuscript (fair enough) but each and every draft or version takes you closer to that magical finally published book.
oh god ...is this SWOON or is it? Witches, motherhood, lighthouses, creepy dolls. Sound up your street? Keep your eye out for Sept. Hooray for
@CJessCooke
@HarperCollinsUK
@kim28young
I could not be MORE EXCITED about this, the Caledonia Novel Award is my absolute favourite of all the competitions. Please send your books to us, we are waiting excitedly. Yay!
"Mrs King laid out all the knives on the kitchen table. She didn’t do it to frighten Mr Shepherd, although she knew he would be frightened, but just to make the point. She kept good knives. She took excellent care of them. This was her kitchen."
THIS is an excellent idea. As an agent, it’s the same - if I can’t pitch it easily and clearly and swiftly, it is probably going to be a hideously challenging sale. No matter how beautifully written the book is.
When I get a book idea, the very first thing I do (after choosing a new notebook) is write the elevator pitch. That's 1-2 sentences that sum up the book and make people want to hear more.
Then I test it on reader and writer friends. If they aren't hooked, I don't start.
Oh my good god.
@Taffyagent
I am JEALOUS that you rep this brilliant chiller. Genuinely kept me reading after midnight (I get up at 6am so...). Everyone must pre-order, toooooo good. Congrats
@carlyreagon
Happy birthday to our writing school
@CBCreative
! 🎉 They are celebrating ten great years of helping writers tell their stories. Here’s to the next decade! Check out some of the highlights from
#10YearsofCBC
here:
Hooray hooray hooray!
#Threadneedle
@Cari_Threads
is no.4 this week. Hallelujah! Clearly lots of people fancy a witchy London-based dark yet light epic read....
Please can we talk about what editors out there crave a submission which is funny, dark, gory, sexy and clever ? I’ve got my lovely list but have I missed any of you secretly wild editors?!
I’m hurt about the responses I received tonight from children - falling over backwards, crying, screaming. I can’t help having been born with these teeth.
Let’s talk about what we are all doing right now, Saturday morning. I’ll start: nervously waiting for new puppy to arrive this morning, eating cinnamon buns and reading Easy Peasy Puppy Squeezy.
It is not an exaggeration to say I got a massive tear in my eye when this arrived on my desk. The love Headline has for it is oozing out, and it deserves it. Ocean’s 8 meets Downton Abbey set in 1905. Bliss.
Random story today. I’ve always been nutter reader, partly due to being deaf - it’s the best escape. when I was 8 or 9 I got hold of Mills & Boon (!). My father was hosting VIP biz dinner. In I wafted in my nightie, shrilly piping up “Daddy, what’s a PEN-is?”
Happy and oh so HAPPY publication day to
@CescaMajor
for MAYBE NEXT TIME. A truly glorious love story, equally funny and heart-reading, it is a treat and celebrating it last night was tip top. Also we need to wear brighter clothes.
My goodness the adrenaline. I am out with the most glorious masterful book. An epic adventure woven with elegant philosophy, Audry is cursed and must climb hostile mountains and traverse scorching deserts to escape her death. But is she in our world?
It's my job as an agent to blow the trumpets of my authors even when they are all modest & shy. SO,
@kate_katelondon
was amazing today with the fabulous Lorraine Kelly
@reallorraine
about
#TheTower
(on ITV at the moment). Have a peek...
Oh my god, so bloody good. twice this has kept me up WAY TOO LATE.
@ClioCornish
you made my week thank you. What a book
#theideaofyou
@robinnelee
ps I’m leaving my husband.
@jounwin
That is RIDICULOUS. Us older women are where they want to be! They have the talent and not the experience, just like we did, and now we are top of the game because we were once young and learned whether directly or indirectly from those older than us.
At last - I am just beyond happy and excited about this. It’s clever, joyous, powerful, dark, filled to the brim with action. I mean… it’s all there in one lovely package. Hooray!
"Alex has written such a slick, clever and extraordinarily entertaining novel in The Housekeepers",
@headlinepg
pre-empts
@Alex_P_Hay
's
@caledoniaaward
winning debut! Read more about the deal here:
I am really so proud of this book. I must have read it 6 or 7 times in editing and I laughed just as hard every single time. And I am a hard customer! Out in July...
This time last year I was in a work meeting, blissfully unaware that
@AliceLutyens
was calling to tell me WE HAD AN OFFER for
#TheHousekeepers
…
Luckily I checked my phone in the end. 🤦🏻♂️
Moral is - DO keep writing, DO keep going, DON’T put your phone on silent 🤷🏻♂️
Absolutely blown away by
#TheOneHundredYearsofLenniandMargot
WOW. I (here comes the cliche) laughed AND cried. Lenni is so believable, you wan to visit her in hospice immediately. What a talent
@itsmcronin
and what an agent
@susanW1F
. PLEASE READ IT.
Romeo & Juliet: a Novel by
@david_hewson
and narrated by
@RCArmitage
is up for the equivalent to an audio Oscar, the Audie Award for Original work
#Audie2018
CONGRATULATIONS David and Richard
#TheSurvivors
out today - Secrets. Guilt. A treacherous sea. Did a little book tour of my house with it. The puppy may have fallen asleep but YOU WON’T!
I can tell you I devoured it in the space of 24hours. Every bit as good as The Dry. Probably better, actually. May have to push
@janeharperautho
under a bus,
I am absolutely gobsmacked by
#ROAR
by
@Cecelia_Ahern
and published by the fab
@lynnedrew
@HarperCollinsUK
- I have decided to buy 10 copies for the best 10 women in my life. What extraordinary writing, and relevant themes - went straight to my heart.
This is my stepfather being knighted by the Queen nearly 20 years ago. This has been hanging up forever but has now taken on an entirely new significance. Huge loss.
@Scarlett_for_ya
#BoysDontCry
I am blown away. I actually sobbed (hardly ever do that, soooo cathartic) - what beautiful writing and what a story. This is a prize winning book. Lucky you
@AgentSophieL
for looking after this one!
#AdaLovelaceDay
I have just realised it is this day - she was a genius who came up with the fundamentals of what makes computing today, back in the 19th century. AND she is my great great great great great aunt on my mother's side. Very cool.
just doing a little bit of research. Who, in the lovely world of publishing, would kill to read something in the (very strong) vein of Gone With the Wind ??
COVER REVEAL! Could NOT be more thrilled to introduce you to
#TheHousekeepers
, a historical heist set in Mayfair 1905 - and to share this gorgeous cover from the amazing
@fifer_1
and
@headlinepg
!
UK edition Jul 2023 - available to preorder!
Telly telly telly. When I turn it on, there are just so MANY choices I get all overwhelmed. Looking for something immersive a la Happy Valley / Succession blah blah you know the vibe. Help someone who has no children for a week and no social plans in the eve!
It’s all getting very real.
#UnlawfulKillings
out in June with
@TransworldBooks
AND today Wendy Joseph was able to come out into the open as she retired today!
✨🌟📚 some news 📚🌟✨
I’m over the moon to announce I am now represented by wonderful, talented Alice Lutyens
@AliceLutyens
at
@CBGBooks
So excited! And it is yet to sink in….!