Roger Crowley - How We Work Together
13 Jun 2014
Roger Crowley’s books include Constantinople: The Last Great Siege (sold in fourteen countries) , Empires of the Sea (sold in fifteen countries) and City of Fortune: How Venice won and lost a naval empire. His next book Lords of the Navigation: How the Portuguese launched the age of discovery and the first global empire will be published next year by Faber in the UK and Random House in the USA.
I have worked with Andrew for over ten years and four history books. Over this period the relationship has evolved in line with my writing career. At the outset, Andrew read my proposal, had his judgement checked with an experienced outside reader and took it on. This involved pitching it to a range of UK and US publishers, taking me on a series of meetings with interested publishers and conducting effective auctions.
Since then I have worked with the same UK publisher (though two different US ones) and the manuscript discussion tends to be direct with the relevant editor. Andrew pitches each new proposal to the publishers and works to improve the deals. He tries to dissuade me from ideas for books which he feels are unlikely to be sufficiently commercial or ones that deviate from the area of history in which I have built some reputation. His overall strategy has been to encourage me to develop a coherent profile (brand?) as a writer of history, though I’m not always inclined to listen. He purses his lips at the mention of writing a novel…
Andrew also works hard with sub-agents to squeeze every last opportunity for the books out of the translation market. It’s a good to see a little more money coming in from Korea or Brazil several years after the book was first published. He handles potential film and TV rights (we live in hope), suggests speaking engagements, passes on contacts and opportunities that are filtered through him and arranges occasional shared meetings with the UK publisher. From time to time I also like to have a face to face catch-up with him specifically to talk about the history and book market generally and potential future writing strategies.
