AMERICA HERE I COME!
Posted by Polly What an exciting day 21.05.18* is for me! Today, I start representing North American authors and selling to publishers there too. We have terrific writers and editors and publishing houses in the UK and Ireland and these have always been my focus and love . . . but it is amazing to […]
A seminar on Rights – #2
It’s all go behind the doors of the Greenhouse, and I have to admit Julia and I are pretty excited as the countdown begins to the Bologna Book Fair. I’m getting there a bit early, so I can acclimate to the time zone and also have a couple of days of relaxation in Bologna and […]
A seminar on Rights – #1
A good time was had by all at Southern Breeze’s Spring Mingle 2011 last weekend. At least, I’m presuming everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did! Southern Breeze is the bit of SCBWI that covers Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, so southern accents and warm hospitality aplenty in what I thought was a brilliantly […]
A peach of an agent
Is this how the agent search makes you feel? Like a rather bruised ‘second’ – a soft fruit just a little past it sell-by date? Maybe you’re even tempted to include a PS in your latest query: ‘Please, please buy me. I won’t cost much, honest!’ Finding an agent for your work must be like […]
The agenting Olympics
Agenting has a lot in common with the Olympics. A sometimes cold and hostile environment, other times boiling heat; a lot of standing around, then you’re off – slaloming your way around poles in the fog or belting round the short track on one skate. There’s the leaping around with shining delight at the foot […]
Packages and presents
What does the word ‘package’ mean to you? A mysterious box, gift-wrapped with pretty paper and tied with an elegant ribbon? Today I’m thinking excitedly about packages – and hoping some might appear later. Sssh, it’s my birthday, and somehow I never get too old to be pleased about that! But publishers have something else […]
Busier than a one-armed paper-hanger!
Yes, that’s what the Greenhouse Husband regularly announces: I’M BUSIER THAN A ONE-ARMED PAPER-HANGER! I know what he means. I have so far exceeded the poor, limb-less paper-hanging guy this week that I’ve not even had time to tell you my exciting news – that last Friday I sold UK and Commonwealth rights in Lindsey […]
Waiting, waiting, waiting . . .
This is not a business for those seeking instant gratification. Much of it is about waiting. And waiting. And waiting … Waiting for the voice that makes me read one paragraph and sit up, punch the air, and hiss YESSSSSS! (Because it’s the greatest temptation as an agent to sign too many authors, or the […]
New York, New York
So it’s a hot and steamy day over here in Virginia. Early this morning the condensation was jungly, and I could practically see pythons draped over the tree branches out in the yard. Well really that’s a total lie – because anything resembling a python within 100 miles of me and I’d have been in […]