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.

  • Four Months On...

    02 Mar 2005

    Andrew Lownie gives the latest news from the Agency. It is four months since the new website was launched and the agency became the first British literary agency to take on a PR person and I thought it might be useful to recap on what has been happening. Jennifer Solignac has been working hard in a number of areas. The first task was to conduct a publicity audit to establish how well authors had been publicised in the past by their publishers and to create a database of contacts and ideas to be used in the future. Our thanks to all the authors who filled in their forms. The material is s...Read more

  • A Reader's Guide to Writing

    01 Feb 2005

    David Haviland, one of the agency's readers, offers his ten point plan for better submissions. I'm a freelance reader and editor, which means I see a lot of proposals and drafts of every kind of writing, from personal finance guides to radio plays, submitted by authors ranging from anxious novices to embittered veterans. This gives me a rather unusual perspective on the process of writing, which will hopefully allow me to provide some useful insights in this, my ten point plan for better submissions: Avoid anything that looks academic One of the reasons teachers are miserable is that e...Read more

  • Engaging the Local Press

    03 Nov 2004

    Written by Jon Latimer Faced with promoting my latest book, Burma: The Forgotten War, I decided to expand on an idea that began with my previous title, Alamein. Then I offered short articles to local newspapers in the areas of regiments that took part in the battle. Since one can't guarantee national review coverage, and since that only reaches a small proportion of a prospective audience, this is a good way of making up the publicity gap, especially if it means an item in the free sheets. Few of them will pay but all publicity is good publicity, and most are keen to get copy. This time, ...Read more

  • The maze of US tax bureaucracy and ITIN numbers

    02 Oct 2004

    Written by Neil McKenna. You've done all the hard graft – found an agent, found a publisher, written the bloody thing, gone through the editing nightmare, had the book published and received some reasonably good notices. At last, you say to yourself, I can come off Prozac, get that leaking loo attended to, have a holiday and reclaim my life from the dark madness of writing. Then your agent rings. It's good news. A resolutely upscale New York publisher is desperate to publish your opus. The money's not brilliant, but not to be sneezed at. Besides which, they're so polite, compared ...Read more