I'm going to write my own little true-life  story here and would be really interested to hear your views. About 10 years a go someone I knew sent off their submission package to one of the biggest London literary agents and received a response! Jac...

It's a topic that crops up regularly. Is self-publishing worth a go? Here's our humble opinion, for what it's worth, but the decision is yours. Fiction Simple. No. Not unless you've got a huge marketing plan to get your book known. Non-fiction Yes,...

This is a frequently asked question by many rejected authors (no pun intended). The reality is they are simply too busy to provide feedback to authors they have decided that they don't want to represent. It's nothing personal. Time is money, and their ...

Some literary agents ask for an initial email / letter before deciding whether or not they want to see your submission package. A couple of days ago a literary agent friend told me about a dreadful initial enquiry she had received. What made it so bad...

The synopsis is a fairly straight-forward document to put together. Literary agents do like to see synopses in a certain format and this is where we can help. Below you will find a summary of the main points on how your synopsis should be formatted an...

A synopsis is one of the documents that will make up your submission package when you start to approach literary agents when seeking representation. A synopsis is a summary of your story. It needs to reflect your story concisely – in less than 500 w...

Generally literary agents only want to be approached 'one at a time'. They don't want to be in a competition with other literary agents if you have a written a superb novel. Some actually ask you to confirm in your initial letter that they are the only...

So, the literary agent has read your synopsis and likes what he/she has read so far. The next step is to start reading chapter one. Your first chapter is crucial. It’s another stage where many submissions are rejected. But why? RED FLAGS There are ...

Creating a non-fiction outline will help you get the ideas for your book into some kind of logical order. Here are some ideas to get you started. Title up your document Outline: Chapter Summaries Firstly, list all the chapters you will be including...

As an unpublished author don’t get tempted to send in your ‘best’ three chapters to potential literary agents. It sends out the wrong message. Ensure that you send three consecutive chapters of your manuscript – the first three chapters (unless...

If you haven't proofread your submission package ... DON'T SUBMIT IT! If you want a literary agent to take you and your book seriously, then you need to make sure that your submission is error-free. It is fair to say that the odd typo may very well be ...