andrew lownie literary agency

Articles

Andrew Lownie uses his expert knowledge in the publishing field to maximise the potential of his clients and build up their careers. Here Andrew Lownie, and some of his clients and guest columnists, share advice on a variety of topics to writers. Elsewhere on the site you can find a Frequently Asked Questions list on literary agents, as well as advice for submitting work to agents.

  • Publication is not the end of the journey

    05 Nov 2009

    Imran Ahmad, author of the highly-praised memoir Unimagined: a Muslim boy meets the West relates how through his own efforts he brought his book to wider international attention. His website is www.unimagined.org If you’ve had a long struggle to find an agent and a publisher (like most new authors), then once your book is published, there’s a temptation to think that’s the end of the journey. In actual fact, you are still at the beginning. Unless you are a major celebrity, politician or criminal, it’s unlikely that your publisher is going to do much in the way of m...Read more

  • Ghost Writing: The Inside Story

    13 Sep 2009

    Neil Simpson reflects on what it entails to be a ghost writer. He recently helped Ben MacFarlane with the writing of Holiday SOS just published by Hodder www.holidaysos.com. For more details of Neil's biographies go to www.neil-simpson.com. Are you comfortable asking about someone's sex life at 9am – even if you've only just met? Do you mind holding hours of entirely one-sided conversations where you learn as much as you can about your companion - but never have a spare second to talk about yourself? When you get a book published are you OK about being relegated to the status of 'plu...Read more

  • International Rights

    12 Sep 2009

    Andrew Lownie was recently interviewed by the Society of Young Publishers magazine for a feature on international rights. Website visitors may be interested in his responses. Q: What are the main things that a literary agent does to promote a writer internationally? I use my website www.andrewlownie.co.uk which has extensive information about each book represented with synopses, review extracts and details of rights sales. The website has about 10,000 visitors each month and I also write a monthly newsletter which goes to the 3,000 subscribers (many of whom are foreign publishers) giving ...Read more

  • Do You Really Need a Literary Agent?

    27 May 2009

    A few recent submissions with original spellings which show the faith some people have in an agent’s range of expertise and powers. I write for pleasure. I wont to do tv and film exrea wotrk We would like to ask you if you look at Travel Feature Packages? I would like to write an article for a major newspaper of magazine. Can you help me get my article published? If you cannot can you tell me who can help me? Harley-Davidson is launching a brand new motorcycle in the coming months and we would like the honour of presenting Bono with the first one... I understand you are not his a...Read more

  • Being Published

    04 May 2009

    Clare Mulley details how she generated publicity interest in her first book. Seven years after I first became interested in Eglantyne Jebb, my biography of the founder of the international development agency Save the Children, and author of what has since evolved into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - the most universally accepted human rights instrument in history - was published last month. It’s a gem of a story, ‘The Woman Who Saved the Children’ was not fond of children herself, ‘the little wretches’ she once called them, and raced through a d...Read more

  • Websites for Writers: A Brief Overview

    30 Apr 2009

    Alan Baker looks at various websites which may be of interest to authors in terms of raising profile or generating editorial feedback. His latest book ‘The Edge of Science: Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time’ is published later this year and he is now writing a novel ‘The Lighthouse Keeper’. We all know that the internet is having a significant effect, both on publishing and on the ways in which authors (whether published or unpublished) can further their careers. Over the last few months, several websites have been established which offer help and advice, both to ...Read more