Operation Get an Agent
Welcome to Operation Get an Agent!
June 2020
I have been commissioned by Literature Wales to deliver a series of four articles under the banner of 'Operation Get an Agent’ and will be posting these on my blog as well as them being published on Literature Wales. I hope you enjoy them, and do get in touch or comment below if you have any queries or comments.
With literary events, workshops, festivals and book fairs cancelled, postponed or shifting online due to Covid-19, opportunities to learn from our peers and share information around author career progression in Wales are much diminished at the moment.
This series of four articles are written specifically for writers who live in Wales or who are Welsh and who would like to acquire representation. In these articles, we’ll cover why writers from Wales might want a literary agent, while also breaking down perceived barriers that writers might feel are inhibiting them from securing representation. We’ll also cover how to bounce back from rejection.
The articles are suitable for both emerging and established writers from Wales who are writing in any discipline, though they might be of most use to those who are working on projects of fiction, non-fiction or a children’s book.
We will explore the following topics together:
1. Why might we want an agent and what agents can do for writers in Wales?
2. Tips on how to approach agents and refining our pitch
3. What are the common pitfalls in securing an agent? How can we overcome them?
4. What to do if we are rejected? What are our next steps?
I have worked in the publishing industry for more than twenty years, including several years as an assistant to a literary agent and as a reader for agents while I also served on the Literature Wales bursary panel for six years. I currently work for The Literary Consultancy as a reader and a mentor and I co-devised TLC’s Being a Writer programme which launched in May 2020. Meanwhile, I work part time for New Welsh Review where I co-conceived and now administer the New Welsh Writing Awards, an annual writer development prize.
Acting as an intermediary for writers by way of recommending publishers and agents while also offering advice on how to submit is something I’ve done informally for many years – however this is the first time that I’ve had the opportunity to put all my thoughts on the process of securing representation in one place.
I hope that these articles are helpful, informative and give you a steer on how to go about seeking representation. I’d love to hear your feedback. Do please contact me on Twitter at @WriterForster if you have any questions or comments and enjoy…
