News
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Rachel Kelly's latest column for HuffPost
20 Jun 2014
In my last post, I gave you tips about eating to stay sane. But even if you know what you should eat, it is still hard to break old habits. It’s not what you are eating, but what’s eating you. For me, and I suspect it is the same for most people, our attitude to food is as much about emotion as it is about satisfying hunger. It is a case of mind over platter…
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Irish Times piece on A Very Private Diary
20 Jun 2014
Discovering an Irish nurse’s unique WWII diary
A researcher’s chance find at London’s Imperial War Museum gives a frank insight into war by a feisty, honest young Irish woman -
Bobby Friedman - How We Work Together
20 Jun 2014
Bobby Friedman is a BBC journalist whose books include a biography of John Bercow and Democracy Ltd: How money and donations have corrupted British politics which was short-listed for the ‘Practical Politics Book of the Year’ at this year’s British Political Awards ,
Andrew has an important role in almost all aspects of the writing process, from start to finish. For every idea I have that gets off the ground, there will have been countless others that have been forced to face up to the harsh scrutiny of Andrew’s opinion. With the benefit of Andrew’s eye for what works and what doesn’t, the bad ones get cast aside. Meanwhile, Andrew helps to come up with his own suggestions and works with me to improve promising proposals. This includes arranging meetings with editors to brainstorm particular ideas, often over a glass of wine.
I always leave the mechanics of negotiating a deal to Andrew. The fantastic thing is that I know Andrew will get a proposal to the right people for consideration. Often, I am amazed at how he manages to get a vital change into the contract, or persuades the publisher to go just that little bit higher.
When it comes to writing the book, Andrew is my first port of call for comments on the initial draft, providing a useful sounding board before I send the manuscript to the publishers. He is on hand to advise on all the issues that crop up, from negotiating a serial to any points of disagreement with the publisher.
When I give my advice to potential authors, one question that often follows is whether it’s worth giving up a proportion of your income to an agent, when he or she doesn’t have to sit down and slog at getting the words out onto the page. In my experience, an agent is cheap at the price: simply, I couldn’t do it without Andrew’s help and guidance.
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Eleanor Fitzsimons - How We Work Together
19 Jun 2014
Eleanor Fitzsimons won last year’s Keats-Shelley Essay Prize. Duckworth have recently bought her book on the women in Oscar Wilde’s life.
It’s said that we live our lives in seven-year cycles. The physiological basis for this is the seven-year process by which we regenerate almost every cell in our bodies, becoming new in the process. A widely held belief that we also undergo fundamental spiritual and emotional changes at this interval grants us licence to shrug off our past and set out in a new direction.
I have a habit of reinventing myself. Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I veered away to write features and opinion pieces for newspapers and magazines. A passion for history sent me back to university. I had this notion to write a book about some of the women who have been overlooked. My involvement with Andrew turned this notion into a publishing deal.
I honestly didn’t know where to start but I had the good sense to send Andrew an unformed outline and a sample of my work. He responded that same day with vital words of encouragement and a template that transformed my notion into a commercially viable proposition. The feedback from him and from his readers was invaluable: professional, forthright and constructive. I felt reassured that anything sent to a publisher with my name on it would be scrutinized first. Andrew knows exactly what publishers want because he asks them.
Andrew responds promptly to every email I send, even the daft, angst-ridden ones. He encouraged me to enter for prestigious prizes, one of which I won. He opened doors that would have remained firmly locked had I knocked timidly on them. He secured a deal for me, scrutinized the contract, negotiated changes in my favour, and had the advance in my account in time for me to pay my spiraling research bill. I simply couldn’t do this without him.
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Duncan Falconer - How We Work Together
18 Jun 2014
Duncan Falconer is a former member of the Special Boat Service now writing best sellng thrillers in the tradition of Andy McNab.
I have written one auto-biography and nine novels. When I first decided to write a book it was without knowledge of any single part of the process. In Andrew, this was all resolved. He guided and supported me through each and every step. I was not a book businessman, nor did I particularly want to be. I had no interest in the process that followed the actual piecing together of words. It was a whole new world with so much mystery attached. Andrew secured me the publisher and the price for my work. He managed my expectations and helped me realise my value. He kept me informed of any opportunities related to my writing, including such things as a lecture tour on a cruise ship or appearing at appropriate book fairs.
My books have been published internationally thanks to his efforts and he continues to offer moral support and guidance on all things related to the promotion and exposure of my work. He also played a significant role in the selling of the film rights to my books. As a result, I’ve dropped off the book writing for a few years while I write movies, and Andrew is still there for me, keeping me informed, encouraging me, and letting me know just how wide the door remains open for when I’m ready to get back to books. To misquote the proverbial cliche, in the world of books, ‘I wouldn’t go anywhere without him’.
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Unravelled in Daily Mail
18 Jun 2014
An interview with Vikie Shanks - a double page spread in the Daily Mail today and the top story on Mail online - ties in to her memoir Unravelled published today.
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Piu Eatwell - How We Work Together
17 Jun 2014
Piu Eatwell’s first non-fiction book , an examination of myths about the French entitled They Eat Horses, Don’t They? The Truth About The French, was awarded the 2014 Next Generation Indie Book Award (category: multi-cultural nonfiction). Her next book, The Dead Duke, his Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse, is a historical true crime and mystery thriller, published by Head of Zeus in September 2014.
I discovered Andrew completely by chance. Knowing nobody in the publishing industry and with the vaguest idea for a book, I simply emailed the list of agents in the ‘Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook’, working through it alphabetically until I got bored at the letter ‘m.’ Thank goodness I didn’t give up at the letter ‘k’! Otherwise, the course of history….at least, my small personal corner of history….would have been irrevocably, and no doubt depressingly, different.
As it was, I was thrilled when an email bounced back almost immediately from Andrew, responding to my book idea with enthusiasm and a raft of helpful suggestions. The reply was so quick that – coupled with the fact of it being a late hour on a Saturday – I felt sure this must be a new agent, desperate for work. I was absolutely stunned on checking Andrew’s credentials, to find that he is in fact the leading agent for non-fiction. Over the subsequent years, I have come to expect – but never fail to appreciate – this phenomenal rapidity in response.
I am now two books down the line from that initial book, and find that my professional relationship with Andrew has developed apace. Of course, he ticks all the boxes that a top literary agent should: he checks all contracts with minute attention to detail, and immediately highlights any areas of concern in the small print; he chases unpaid bills; he reviews all book proposals and makes incisive comments, before they are sent out.
However, Andrew is much more than all of this. He is my first sounding board for any new book idea. Whatever the subject, he is bound to have read every single competing book in the field, know if anything else like it will be coming out in the future, and – on at least two occasions so far – has even acted as agent for the author who wrote the previous leading work on the subject.
He also has an unfailing nose for the latest ‘new thing’ in any given genre, an instinctive feel for the market and for what publishers are looking for. If Andrew predicts that, say, murders with a European wartime backdrop are the next ‘big thing’ in historical true crime, then he will invariably be correct. Most of all, you know that if Andrew believes in your book, he will fight to the death to make it a success in the market. Which means that you, the writer, can make yourself a cup of tea, switch off the mobile phone, and do what you always wanted to do…..write books.
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Jeremy Dronfield - How We Work Together
16 Jun 2014
Jeremy Dronfield is the author of four novels and has ghosted four biographies.
I’m a ghost writer, biographer and book-doctor. It sometimes happens that the author of a biography, a history, or any other kind of non-fiction, having done the research and sketched out the book, struggles to bring out the qualities that would make it commercially viable. With a biography, for example, there may be a failure to capture the narrative drama of the subject’s life or the complexities of their character in a way that will captivate publishers and readers.
If Andrew believes that there is potential for a commercial book, but it’s just not coming through, no matter how many revisions the author does, he brings me in. If all parties agree, and if I believe passionately in the book, I come on board.
Sometimes it’s just the writing that’s lacking. In that case my job is simply to ghost or doctor it for finesse and readability. But more often the project evolves into full co-authorship; I go deep into the primary material, helping with the direction of the story and the analysis of the subject, and pursuing fresh lines of research. This is when the job is most satisfying – when I bring together my dual backgrounds in fiction and academic research. With me involved, a book gets the imaginative, vivid writing you’d expect from fiction, combined with the rigour of scholarship.
My recent books include the story of Robert Trimble, a WW2 pilot who undertook a secret mission to rescue POWs on the Eastern Front; a biography of Moura Budberg, the Russian spy who fell in love with a British agent during the Revolution and was haunted for the rest of her life by the shattering betrayal she suffered; the life of Peter Watson, millionaire art patron and doyen of the gay scene of pre-war Paris, who was murdered in his bath by his jealous lover; and the incredibly moving life of James Barry, a Victorian surgeon who was revealed after death to have been a woman, forced to disguise herself in order to pursue a career in medicine.
I always develop a close bond with my co-authors, but Andrew remains a crucial presence throughout, from inception to placing with a publisher, right up to delivery and beyond, as linchpin between me, my co-author(s) and publisher.
