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.

  • Reflections of a Sales Rep

    01 Dec 2006

    John Lee, author of a forthcoming book on the Churchill family, looks back on some of the changes he has seen during his forty years in the book trade. Where to begin? Once all the main publishers kept a sales force of twenty, thirty, forty or more reps, organised under Area Sales Managers. The Net Book Agreement (NBA) was in place and every bookseller, be they chain (which meant W. H. Smith and John Menzies) or independent, sold books at the same price – the ‘level playing field’ of blessed memory. Along came the new chains – Words and Music that morphed into Books...Read more

  • How I Found The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency part 2

    01 Nov 2006

    Last February I ran an article about how authors heard about the agency and thought readers might be interested in a further selection. It shows just how varied are the ways that authors can find an agent. Simon Berthon ‘I first met Andrew in my role as a TV producer when he was energetically and assiduously passing on to me suggestions for documentaries based on his author’s books. When I mooted the idea of a book based on my series ‘Warlords’, Andrew was immediately encouraging and informative on the style of pitch etc that was needed to attract publish...Read more

  • How I Got Slim and Fit, Eating Like a Caveman

    29 Oct 2006

    Author and journalist Jimmy Lee Shreeve reveals how he got his jeans size down from a tight 36 inches to 32 in six months by following ancient diet and fitness patterns. As an author and journalist my work dictates I sit at a desk for most of the day. I'm not alone. It's the same for nearly everyone these days, whatever their line of work. But as I approached forty I had to accept the consequences of a sedentary work life - encroaching middle-aged spread. I was in denial for years. But standing in front of the mirror in the changing rooms in outdoor clothing store, Hawkshead, I had no choi...Read more

  • Fifteen Tips on Approaching an Agent

    02 Oct 2006

    Andrew Lownie offers some advice on how best to present yourself to an agent. Authors are often angry, frustrated or shocked by the responses or lack of responses from agents and it might be useful to give some background and advice which might help with pitching to agents. Your book is special to you and may one day be to other people but at the moment it is just another submission. Authors need to remember that agents are inundated with submissions. Most have full lists already and need to concentrate on their existing clients. Of course we are looking for new talent but the chances of ...Read more

  • An interview with Damien Lewis

    01 Oct 2006

    Damien Lewis is making an all too rare trip to London from his writing retreat in the mountains of France, on a publicity programme to support the launch of his latest two books, Bloody Heroes and Desert Claw. Both are very much in the same vein as his best selling Operation Certain Death, the true story of the SAS’s daring and dangerous mission to rescue hostages held in the jungles of Sierra Leone by drug crazed, lawless and lethal rebels known as the West Side boys. Damien is smaller than you might imagine from his picture and even settled comfortably in his favourite hotel with a...Read more

  • Another Week in the Life of a Literary Agent

    01 Sep 2006

    My January article covering some of my activities during an average week attracted a great deal of interest . I’ve been asked to provide another ‘snapshot’ of a week which I am happy to do. MONDAY E mails received 90 E mails sent 100 Submissions this morning include an account of an American couple’s year in London (I think it insufficiently lyrical), a sci fi novel, a ‘bleak chick lit’ novel from a Portuguese woman living in Germany, a memoir from California ‘American Fugitive in Mexico’, a mystery novel set in New York in the late sixtie...Read more