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.