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.

  • It’s a Biscuit, It’s a Bike – But It’s Seldom Just a Book

    01 Jan 2008

    Neil Glass argues every book needs to be published differently. Every time I’ve had a book published, I’ve found the experience of dealing with publishers deeply frustrating. I’m quite sure that publishers felt exactly the same way about working with me. One explanation could be that I am an extremely unpleasant and uncooperative person. I would prefer to believe a simplistic prejudice that the problems stem from the fact that many commissioning editors, desk editors, PR and production people are middle-class university graduates who view their jobs as almost part-time c...Read more

  • Where Hollywood Tries to Meet History

    03 Dec 2007

    Susan Ronald, the author of The Pirate Queen – Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers & The Dawn of Empire, reflects on the recent relationship between film and history. When I was seven years old, I was browbeaten into becoming a child model in one of my mum’s charity fashion shows in Los Angeles, where Hollywood greats like Janet Leigh and Jayne Mansfield were the main attraction. While we were backstage at the dress rehearsal, I overheard Janet Leigh say to my mum (who was admiring her latest movie script) that, ‘History has nothing to do with Hollywood. Hollyw...Read more

  • In Defence of Misery Memoirs

    25 Nov 2007

    Foster carer Cathy Glass, whose misery memoir Damaged was a no 1 in hardback and paperback and whose second memoir Hidden has just been published, responds to critics of ‘mis mems’ showing how they highlight terrible stories and can galvanise a public response. Drunken mothers, bestial fathers, paedophilia and incest. They're the titillating popcorn of publishing today. So began an article in the Daily Mail (9/10/07) by Danuta Kean; titled The Pornography of Misery Memoir. It was a furious attack on inspirational memoirs and I read it on the same day that The Bookseller had a...Read more

  • The Long Hard Sell

    05 Nov 2007

    Christian Wolmar, author of eight books including most recently Fire & Steam and The Subterranean Railway, gives his tips on how to promote your book. Having written several books that did not receive as much media coverage as I thought – probably mistakenly - they ought to, I have become a dab hand at self-publicity. Boosting your book is not a task for shrinking violets. Even the best publishers can do just so much and you have to use every opportunity and tool available to squeeze out the maximum mileage. Most importantly, you have to take up every offer to speak at an event...Read more

  • Getting Yourself Properly Published in Canada

    02 Nov 2007

    John Pearce is a literary agent with Westwood Creative Artists in Toronto, and acts for the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency in the separate sale of Canadian rights. He argues that separating Canadian rights for the appropriate book can be greatly beneficial for an author. At a guess, 200,000 new books flood into Canada from British and American publishers every year. The log-jam is enormous, whether your book is with a Canadian distributor you’ve never heard of; or whether you’re with a multinational company in Canada (such as Random House, Penguin or HarperCollins) or a Canadia...Read more

  • Boom or Bust? The Big Advances

    05 Oct 2007

    Sheelagh Cullinan, a graduate of the MA Publishing class 2006/07 at The London College of Communication and who now works in Children's Marketing and Publicity at Simon and Schuster, looks at author advances. When I first set out to look at the current trend of excessive author advances for my MA Publishing dissertation at the London College of Communication, I like many others assumed celebrity autobiographies were on the way out and excessive author advances along with them. However after six months reading, interviewing and analysing, the outcome was very different. The excessive autho...Read more