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240 Laura Heathfield | Literary Agent
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Literary agent and co-founder of Greenstone Literary Agency, Laura Heathfield joins us to chat about moving from aviation to publishing, how she tackles the challenges of being an agent and starting a literary agency with Tanera Simons.
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Transcript
The Role of Writing in Storytelling
00:00:00
Speaker
Ooh, a spicy question. I love it. Because the writing is sort everything, right? Like you can fix plot holes, but if the writer... So some readers love that and some readers are like, but I wanted more of this. So it's kind of, it's kind of a gamble.
Introduction to Laura Heathfield
00:00:14
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast. On today's episode is agent, co-founder and director of Greenstone Literary Agency, Laura Heathfield.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello. Hi. a Thanks for joining me today. This is very exciting. I'm always um fascinated to see new literary agencies starting up. It's always exciting. It feels like there's movement within publishing.
00:00:41
Speaker
um But I'd love to start with a bit about you and your path into
Laura's Unconventional Career Path
00:00:48
Speaker
publishing. Am I right in thinking that you finished university and then worked in an entirely different industry for some time before you got into publishing?
00:00:58
Speaker
Yes. um I have had um a slightly unconventional journey into publishing. um you've um yeah You've done your homework. I i did i studied law at university um and graduated and then decided had every intention of becoming a barrister and and doing my going to bar school and doing my bar vacational course and then actually just needed some time off from studying. And so applied to be cabin crew. And so I spent a long time in aviation, which is completely different to publishing.
00:01:35
Speaker
um And I flew as crew, um but I was also lucky to get experience in lots of other different departments within the airline, which was Virgin Atlantic. And most importantly, the press office there was was um was brilliant and was able to watch how really kind of small, hardworking team in the press office there kind of pulled off incredible of, you know, building really positive relationships with members of the press, which is kind of similar in the way that agents do with editors now. um
00:02:10
Speaker
So, yeah, I spent um nearly 20 years in in aviation and just wow loved it. loved the people that I worked with. um And then um took a bit of a detour in 2017. I had um a medical incident, which meant I was unable to fly, i couldn't drive and I couldn't work for an extended period of time.
A Pivotal Medical Incident
00:02:33
Speaker
And then um lockdown and homeschooling and meant that I kind of took a big step back and thought out what I really wanted to do and I'd always been a really avid reader, um loved books as a child, and you know, some classic boomer parenting in the 80s. My mum used to leave me on the shore of our floor of our village bookshop while she went and did a weekly shop. I don't think that would happen today.
00:03:01
Speaker
not sure the bookshop owner was particularly thrilled with me, just camped out on the floor or either. But yeah, then um I think after my, I had surgery and after that, I just read more than I had in years and um and fell back in love with books. Kind of when my children were really young, I wasn't able to prioritise reading and i had that time to just realise that it was something I was so passionate about and I really wanted to pursue and it was time for like a real pivot in
Entering the Publishing World
00:03:30
Speaker
my career. and
00:03:31
Speaker
Publishing was always a bit of a vague dream I didn't really know a huge amount about and so started following publishers, authors and agencies on on social media that was kind of the first thing that I did to kind of and get more of an insight into the industry and how it worked and what different roles were.
00:03:52
Speaker
um And ah the acknowledgement sections of some of my favourite books are really great place to start. um And I still say that now to writers who are looking for representation. You know, if you if you read a book that you think, oh, I think mine might be similar to this, always study the acknowledgement section of a book because that's where authors...
00:04:12
Speaker
always kindly credit the people that kind of been involved in their in their journey and in their process and of publishing and there's lots of trade secrets in there if you're prepared to kind of dig um and then I saw advert on Instagram actually and for an internship at Darley Anderson and it was the first time I'd seen anything where there was an advert that said in big bold letters that no experience was necessary and I'd always felt a bit intimidated by publishing and just thought that if I was ever to send my CV off with no publishing experience on it whatsoever, that it would almost get laughed at and I'd never be able to sort of i get that that foot on the ladder, which I think is is really hard to do, um especially kind of maybe later in life where you worked in completely different industry.
00:05:05
Speaker
um But that was kind of the first thing that made me think, oh maybe this is something that the I could you know reasonably apply for.
Mentorship and Experience
00:05:14
Speaker
And and and the ad also mentioned that the the agent that the internship would be working alongside was Tanner Simons. and And that was a name that I was familiar with. um I'd read The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary um when I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, actually. And um it was one of those things where
00:05:36
Speaker
i um I was really tight on what I was allowed to take with me. that you know you Your luggage is weighed and you you have to be really careful about what you take. And my Kindle was kind of my one luxury item. And I downloaded when I had Wi-Fi something that I wanted to be...
00:05:52
Speaker
a really comforting read during what I know knew was going to be a really challenging time, kind of mentally and physically. and And obviously I couldn't have picked a better read for the Flatshare.
00:06:03
Speaker
And Tanner is Beth's agent. So um yeah, that i ah then, so I applied for the internship and at Darley Anderson and that was my my first role in publishing.
00:06:15
Speaker
I know that you became Tanner as assistant at one point. Was that you kind of fulfilled the internship and then kept you on? Yeah. So I did the internship and then and became Tanner as full-time assistant.
00:06:29
Speaker
And I worked alongside her there for three years um and couldn't have asked for a better mentor. as you know my my first role in industry and from the very beginning she was really generous with her knowledge and her experience and within a few weeks of working with her I was sharing meetings with her and editors at London Book Fair and and watching her pitch books and you know and forge relationships and with people in the industry which was just and which was so exciting it was a really you know incredible time for me it's kind of from going from note
00:07:06
Speaker
nowhere and and just being an intern to to that kind of experience with an agent at that level was was really exciting. Okay, wow. and So how long were you working as Tanner's assistant before you started building your own list?
00:07:24
Speaker
So um but for and really early on at Darlene Anderson, Tana gave me the opportunity to um to handle audio submissions on behalf of her clients. That was kind of my first ah chance to kind of dip my toe into agenting. um So every stage of that process from networking with editors, acquiring audio,
00:07:47
Speaker
pitching in person, drafting submission emails, right to, through to negotiating deals and contracts. And, um, my first, uh, my first deal was for an author who's with us now is, um, Natalie Cooper.
00:08:02
Speaker
And, uh, her first book came in on submission to Tanner and I read it and I just said, this is brilliant. i I love this. And, um, Yeah, Tanner has signed her at Dali and she's with us now at Greenstone and um her first few books sold to to Audible, um which was a real moment for me like as an agent and just you know wonderful to be able to to do that for Natalie.
00:08:29
Speaker
Okay.
Negotiating Audio Rights
00:08:30
Speaker
see So when you say like you're handling audio, right, as in like explicitly just the audiobook part of things... Yeah. So, um, often as agents will, um, when we send something out on, on submission, um, we'll send, um, audio submissions separately to audio publishers. Um, most of the kind of the big publishers will want the full set of rights, including audio.
00:08:56
Speaker
um but, um, As agents, we love the opportunity to be able to to carve out the rights to kind of maximise potential for for the authors. and And there are luckily some publishers that have got much more flexibility when it comes to rights. And if we can if we can sell the audio rights separately to something,
00:09:13
Speaker
and then that's always really brilliant. Audio, i'm you know, I'm a massive um audiobook listener and a huge fan of the format. um So it's wonderful to be able to kind of see that experience, which is is quite different to and to print and e-book publishing. and The process of narration and casting and production and being involved in that is and is really interesting.
00:09:38
Speaker
Okay. But I mean, like you mentioned, if we're talking like big five publishers, they almost universally will ask for all rights. Yeah. It's, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's an ongoing conversation with a lot, with a lot of publishers. Um, some of them, is, it is a red line. They say we we can't acquire without audio.
00:09:59
Speaker
Um, and, um, but then there are brilliant, there are brilliant audio specialists. um And that is their, you know, their only format that they publish in. um And so it's wonderful to be able to kind of, to give the audio rights to an expert in in audio.
00:10:16
Speaker
and And particularly, so you know, right and Audible have been a brilliant team to work with. They're so ambitious with their, with their narrators. And, um you know, Natalie's had, her first book was narrated by Jenna Coleman and her latest book, You Again, is narrated by,
00:10:33
Speaker
Ella McLean, who is kind of the breakout star of of Disney Plus Rivals and has just done an absolutely brilliant job with narration. So it's really exciting to um to have. It's a very different experience to kind of going into a bookshop and seeing your book, physical book on on a bookshelf. But and equally yeah exciting to to have to have that kind of experience of of someone of that calibre narrating your book.
00:10:58
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So, so in terms of your list, you started building your list after huge kind of cut your teeth on the audio stuff. Yeah.
Founding Greenstone Literary Agency
00:11:08
Speaker
So then, um, we founded Greenstone in, um, in May last year and um, I've started building my list at at Greenstone. Um, prior to, to leaving, we, um, there's a couple of, uh, Tanner's clients who work bit more of a natural fit for me um and so one in particular is um is ali zetterberg and ali um is a brilliant writer and so we actually dual represent her so tana represents the kind of uplit book club side to her writing and then recently she has written a thriller it has been announced it's going to be published by berkeley in um by penguin random house in the us next year
00:11:54
Speaker
And it's called The Dating Game. And it's very different to Ali's previous writing. um It's kind of a really voice-led female serial killer with the set in Monaco and the lead character is a board game designer.
00:12:12
Speaker
And yeah, so i when when we were kind of, when we were setting up Greenstone, we kind of decided that it made sense ah because I was going to be kind of building a list more in the kind of crime thriller genre for me to represent that side of Ali's writing. And then Tanner still very much represents her her book club, Uplit Writing. And she's got her second book coming out um later this month, published by HarperCollins in the US called The Second Chance Bus Stop.
00:12:42
Speaker
um So it's really brilliant that we still get, Tanner and I both get to be collaborative and and feed into both sides of Ali's writing. And then, yeah yes, I've started to to kind of slowly organically build my list at Greenstone, which has been really exciting.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah, I can imagine as an agent, the the sort of, obviously it's always going to be exciting and interesting. Other agents I've spoken to who have, you know, have been doing this for for a long time and have a quite built out list.
00:13:15
Speaker
They say, you know, the the bigger your list is, the more kind of conflicts and more kind of reasons to against picking up something new are there. Like whether that's just, whether it competes with something else in your list or whatever it might be.
00:13:28
Speaker
it must be very exciting having a sort of fresh, all this room where you're like, I can pick up, I'm excited to like be picking up a bunch of new things. Yeah, exactly. And I think what's really nice is that as a reader, I have really broad taste um and I read cross genre.
00:13:46
Speaker
and I normally have like at least one or two books on the go at the same time for very different reasons. And what I love at ah the we're being that I'm able to do now is that i can i can my my reading tastes can feed into what I'm what i'm signing Greenstone. So um i don't have to kind of pigeonhole myself into a particular genre. And if I love something and fall in love with it, um it doesn't really matter what genre it is. I've got the ability to to move forward with it. and The first author that I signed at Greenstone was um April Howells.
00:14:26
Speaker
And she submitted to me in summer last year. and And I read, ah remember vividly reading, and her pitch letter and i was like, oh my gosh, this sounds brilliant. Um, but I'm not sure if this kind of fits more with what Tanner, what Tanner's taste is and what what she's doing.
00:14:46
Speaker
And, um, we have this and amazing system, um, in our submissions that someone far cleverer than me, um, has built for us. And, um, I'm able to tag Tanara in the submission. And I said to her, I tagged her in the submission and I said, um I absolutely love this, and but I feel like it would also be a really good fit for you. And Tanara is generous as always. it's like, well, if you love it and she submitted to you then absolutely, you know, then then that should fall and under you.
00:15:14
Speaker
So I kind of, April's book, I always kind of describe to people as, ah it's the book I didn't know I was looking for until like until I read her page. um And I can't say too much about it. it hasn't been announced yet, um but it will be um it will be announced soon. And it's a kind of an uplift historical based on fact. And um but it's just this really beautiful, heartwarming intergenerational story of history.
00:15:46
Speaker
that i completely fell in love with. And um so, yeah, it wasn't necessarily anything that I would have specified on my wish list, but I just read it and fell in love with it. And I'm so excited to be representing it.
Exploring Genre Preferences
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. I've heard that a lot from agents where I'll ask like, you know, is there anything you're looking for specifically? And they're like, you know, I'm not sure I'll know it when I see it. It's hard to. That's so frustrating for for people when they're kind of looking for the right agent to submit to. and Yeah. And, but I think that is, you know, the, I always say if, if you think I might like it, then send it to me because um i do have,
00:16:27
Speaker
i I think the way that Tanner and I kind of and Liza now as well, we kind of present ourselves. There are are kind of genres that we sort of would specialise in, I would say. but um And we always, like I say, we have this brilliant system where we can tag each other in submissions and and very much share them between us.
00:16:45
Speaker
And i I would know instantly if something wasn't right for me, but but it was... right up Liza's street or it was right up Tanner's street. So I think, I hope that that's comforting for people when they're looking at kind of who to submit to at Greenstone, that that that we do have this kind of really collaborative approach to submissions. But and if you think something might be for all me, then absolutely, you know, just send it to me because so we do read everything we're sent. um I do have, I have to admit that I have a bit of a backlog with my submissions at the moment and I'm hoping that August is a little bit quieter and that that's going to give me lots of reading time because I am
00:17:21
Speaker
definitely would love to find something. and So um yeah, i i i kind of describe myself as kind of the darker side to Tannera, who is the and the queen of of rom-com and um and romance, and but also kind of dabbles in other areas. And we have we do have a kind of a crossover and in some of our tastes. And ah Eliza is very much kind of the speculative, um high concept, more like fantasy-led genre. She also does kind of nonfiction and and and cookery books.
00:17:53
Speaker
um And i I am just unapologetically commercial. i you know, books that, I love books that you want to talk to somebody about, or you can imagine five different people in your life that you want to buy it for and send it to and you want to go on Amazon and be like, I'm going to order this book for all these different people and I think they're all going to love it and I want them to read it so that then I can talk to them about it. and So that could be a thriller that's got the best twist in it that you never saw coming and I love that feeling as a reader when you think to yourself,
00:18:29
Speaker
I'm so clever. I've got this all figured out and I know exactly what's happening here. And then there's something happens, whether it's a line or a scene, and it just sweeps the rug out from under you, your jaw drops and you just feel completely spun. And those are the kind of books that I recommend to others in kind of the crime thriller genre, because i I want other people to kind of have that feeling too. And I just, you know, there's nothing better than that.
00:18:57
Speaker
um And then there's the kind of i also love, um you know, to cry my eyes out over a book. I love a heartbreaking, like sweeping romance that, again, just breaks your heart and pieces it back together again. um and that's where there might be. kind of some crossover with Tanara. But um ah get that well that I will always kind of instinctively know when I read a submission that, oh, I i want this, or actually yeah this is more suited for Leiser or Tanara. So, yeah, there is... there's some
00:19:27
Speaker
I hope that that's comforting for people when when they look at like who to submit to, because I know that we have the same issue when we're kind of looking at who to send to and in certain publishers, certain editors will acquire across genre. And you're kind of looking at different profiles and what they publish and thinking, oh, gosh, who is who is the best person for this? So I do understand that dilemma.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. in terms of your list, more specifically, for people listening who are thinking about maybe queering things like that, what genres and ages and in a sort of broad sense do you represent?
00:20:00
Speaker
and So yeah I have, I'm trying to think how many authors I have now on my list, I think six or or seven. So it's small and growing, okay um but it's kind of organically alongside the the agency as well. So am definitely looking for ah the kind of the darker, the darker stuff. um I want, I would love to find something that links to a cult or a scam. I'm just, I'm a real true crime addict. um I love true crime documentaries and podcasts.
00:20:35
Speaker
and And some of them that I've listened to or watched that feel like fiction. And I would love fiction that feels like true crime. So something along the lines of, um,
00:20:48
Speaker
like Apple Cider Vinegar on Netflix, which explores the yeah shocking story of Belle Gibson and the you know what what she did and kind of the people that were completely taken in by her and then the aftermath of that.
00:21:02
Speaker
um Similarly to like the Anna Delvey scandal and what Coco Berthman did um as well. I just find them endlessly fascinating. um And I'm always intrigued by anything that involves...
00:21:16
Speaker
cults or secret societies um again i often comp like netflix documentaries or podcasts because um i i just find them so gripping and entertaining and i'd love to see that kind of um same level of of entertainment in in fiction um so um the bbc sounds wild of secrets was brilliant and the recent one i watched on netflix was um the investigation into the fundamentalist branch of the church of latter-day saints um keep sweet to pray and obey which was beyond harrowing but um yeah really just fascinating watching although i would recommend um a trigger warning before you delve into that um but i would yeah i would love to find um fiction that feels like true crime and in in along those kind of lines um
00:22:10
Speaker
And I have a couple of authors on my list now that are that are doing those kind of things and and more. So, and yeah, I would welcome submissions in in those along those kind of lines.
00:22:21
Speaker
and i'd Also, something I don't have on my list but I would love to have is a cosy crime. um And I feel like this is something that a lot of people say. Obviously, there's people that are doing and and incredible things things with cosy crime like Richard Osman has kind of really opened up the door to that genre um but I'd love something that's really original and clever with a really diverse cast or a really unique setting in cosy crime um that feels very different um I would love to have something like that on my list I don't currently don't have anything like that um I also currently don't have a police procedural and I feel like again that's something that agents often say and
00:23:05
Speaker
I have had a lot of submissions in that area, but there's nothing yet that's made me go, oh this is different enough or this is standout enough or this really has pulled me in enough from the outset to to want to move forward with. So I would love to see.
00:23:22
Speaker
and i'd love to have a really brilliant police procedural on my list. That's a tricky, I mean, police procedural, given how prolific that genre has been over like decades, it's, it's a difficult thing to find your like uniqueness with, you know, you need to have something that's really like different.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yeah. I completely agree. And that's what I think why I don't have anything yet because it is really hard and I haven't, I haven't found it yet. So, but yeah, um remain on ah on a quest for that.
Venturing into Nonfiction
00:23:49
Speaker
Okay. Definitely.
00:23:52
Speaker
yeah. And then something I'm doing, I'm also dabbling in, which is really exciting, is nonfiction, which um I've not done before. and It's something that Liza has done really well with. And and I'm really excited for a couple of things that she's got coming up. And and I've just started working with an author called Natalie Englander.
00:24:16
Speaker
And ah she's someone who I've actually followed on my personal social media for a while. And um it was, I actually approached her about, and about her work and whether she would be interesting and in in writing a book because um she's the perfectionism therapist on Instagram.
00:24:34
Speaker
And I just love her reframing of perfectionism and her approach to it. And I think that's kind of what I'm looking for in non-fiction is a kind of a completely different approach to something. um So I think the way you people should have traditionally viewed perfectionism as something that you need to recover from or overcome. And it's such a barrier to progress and it leads to procrastination. And it's something that, you know, is a real, can be a real problem. And actually, Natalie's approach is that it's, um you can lean into your perfectionism and you can have these strategies and to become a healthy person.
00:25:13
Speaker
thriving perfectionist where instead of it being a barrier to your success it can become your greatest asset and as someone who struggles with perfectionism this is really exciting to me and so that's the kind of non-fiction that I'm interested in something that I feel will have universal appeal and is kind of presenting an issue in a completely different light and giving like the tools to to approach it from a completely different perspective Okay, cool.
00:25:42
Speaker
So quite broad, but generally I'm sensing, ah at least with the fiction side of things, lots of sort of mystery, ah crime, things to be solved.
00:25:53
Speaker
That's the kind of thing that you really seem to be interested in. Yes. Yeah, I'd say that that is kind of primarily and what i what i'm what I'm looking for, definitely. and and But what I love about how we're working is that I'm still...
00:26:10
Speaker
working and reading collaboratively with Tanner and, and Liza as well. We read each other's manuscripts with feed into each other's manuscripts editorially. And so, ah although, yes, I feel like I'm definitely looking to expand my list in, in crime thriller mystery genres.
00:26:27
Speaker
I can still dip my toe into the romance, the fluffy stuff. Okay. Okay. So you're you're open to to more things. Maybe yeah it can quite sometimes be useful for people ah to say, are there any genres that you absolutely do not represent?
00:26:46
Speaker
Yeah, that might be easier, actually. I think um i am I'm not a children's agent. I'm not, um i i you know, that's not an area of special ah speciality to me. There are brilliant children's agents out there. If you've written a children's book um or poetry or middle grade, then um I'm probably not the right agent for you.
Specialization and Preferences
00:27:09
Speaker
Um, and similarly with kind of screenplays and novellas, um, I wouldn't, that's not something that I would feel confident taking on. And I think, um, there are much better agents out there for for those types of work.
00:27:23
Speaker
In terms of genres, are you open to sci-fi fantasy? So i I always say yes, because I do read fantasy. um But i at the moment, the few fantasy submissions that I've had come in I've actually shared with Liza because I feel like she is a real reader of fantasy and she's passionate about that area of the market.
00:27:45
Speaker
um And but at the same time, if something came into me and I absolutely fell in love with it, then um I would I would want to move forward with it. think. i I came quite late to fantasy. I think maybe that's my age.
00:27:59
Speaker
um But I feel like, you know, the likes of kind of Sarah J. Maas and Fourth Wing. And I was always like, oh, I don't know if that's really for me as a reader. It's not something I read when I was younger, um but have completely changed my mind on that and um was persuaded by other people. No, you would love this.
00:28:18
Speaker
And they were right. They were completely right. And I do... um I love that kind of immersive feeling of being swept up in a completely different world and um alongside kind of the drama and romance and spicy scenes that we see now in in fantasy and romanticity is um it's endlessly entertaining, which is is always what I'm looking for.
00:28:43
Speaker
Okay. So potentially on that kind of very pacey romance driven side of fantasy, yes, but maybe not on the sort of epic fantasy, the Brandon Sanderson's or the Joe Abercrombie kind of thing. Yeah. I would say that that's fair.
00:28:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think we've got a good kind of image, rounded image of of kind of what you're looking for
Desert Island Book Choice
00:29:04
Speaker
there. And, um, we are at the point in the episode where I, um, pack you up and ship you off to the middle of nowhere and ask you if you were stranded on a desert island with nothing but a single book, which book do you hope that it would be? This is so mean.
00:29:24
Speaker
i agents must hate they hate this job they do more than more than authors yeah um i've i have thought about it i knew i knew this question was coming and i think obviously you're kind of torn like do i want something really practical that's going to and teach me how to build a fire and and you know skin a fish and things like that um but I did fairly extensive survival training when I was cabin crew. So I kind of feel like those principles are quite ingrained in me protection, location, water, food. So um I think I'm just going to have to go for something that is that is entertaining. I'm going to have a lot of time by yourself. um I think you'd want something that was really distracting.
00:30:08
Speaker
and And, yeah, a book that I'd read for pleasure. I'm not a rereader. That's the thing with any only having one book. um the only One of the only books I think I've ever reread for pleasure is some It's Jane Austen. I never tire of Pride and Prejudice.
00:30:25
Speaker
And I'm sure so many people must pick this one. But um I just every time I read it, um in fact, I think I might need to reread it again soon. The characters, the the the time period, the relationships, the romance, it it ticks all of my boxes. and She packs so much into her pages.
00:30:44
Speaker
and It's really pacey. um and every time i read it i fall in love with it a bit more and i don't even think it was a set text for me at school i know a lot of people like oh i had to read at school and it felt like a chore um we did emma um which i loved and then clueless the film came out and that made me love it even more and i kind of went down and which i've now we re-watched with my children and and they love it which is which is brilliant um and i kind of went down my own jane austen rabbit hole um
00:31:16
Speaker
They're making a new version as well, aren't they? Which is being adopted by Dolly Alderton. Yeah. Yes. And I'm a huge fan of Dolly's writing since everything I know about love and um and her podcast, The Hilo, which I still really miss.
00:31:32
Speaker
and And people have been saying, oh, don't mess with the original version, you know, but. i'm totally here for a new version of it um well we have so maybe prejudice yeah already you so i'm fine for them to do something absolutely yeah definitely um but then a few years ago someone i'm in a book club and someone picked vanity fair and i was like oh yeah always i'm i'm up for that um and um I ordered it on Amazon and when it arrived, the version that I'd ordered, the text was so small and the book was still so thick. I was completely overwhelmed.
00:32:12
Speaker
And I have to admit, I didn't even, I didn't even start it. and, and I hope none of my book club are listening to this. I didn't read it um So maybe on a desert island, I would have the opportunity to read that um because so many people said, oh, if you love Austen and, you know, period, or you know, you would, you would love it.
00:32:32
Speaker
um So maybe I should take Vanity Fair. Yeah, that's a, it would be a good time. Hopefully with a bigger font size.
Impact of Technology on Reading
00:32:40
Speaker
so you have to squint to to look at it yes Yeah.
00:32:45
Speaker
um Yeah, I definitely, I think I'd have enough time on my hands to to tackle the the, I mean, I don't even know how many pages were in the book. I just know it's still, it's still sat on my shelf and I look at it occasionally. I'm just like, no, not not today.
00:32:59
Speaker
Okay. Okay. this is how ah This is how I now know that you're not an epic fantasy reader because the size of a book does not intimidate me anymore.
00:33:09
Speaker
They're too big. ah my My husband, yeah, he he is not a reader and has only recently got into reading and over the last couple of years. And i think the what has made the biggest impact on him is because ah he always was put off by the size of any book. And he would said,
00:33:25
Speaker
He used to flick through and be like, oh, where where's the next like gap? Where's the next bit of dialogue? Or are there are there pictures in it? Or as he said, now on a Kindle, he's like, I can't see how big the book is.
00:33:36
Speaker
And he recently read Putin's People. And I think it's about... a thousand pages and and he was like yep smashed it um because i wasn't put off by how big it was because i couldn't tell on my kindle so think yeah maybe maybe can i take a kindle to a desert island that that might be that might be you could take a kindle with one book downloaded on it oh okay yeah um yeah very mean okay um yeah probably probably vanity fair okay then that's a great choice um i also don't think anyone's picked it yet you're right in thinking a lot of people have picked okay jane austen it's not usually that prejudice yeah it's usually emma and okay yeah i think maybe because that was the set the set the set text for me at school i think if you if you read something because you feel like you have to at school it does it does ruin it but then yeah i always kind of felt a bit different in that sense i remember when
00:34:32
Speaker
my English teacher walked in with the stack of Jane Eyre's and, you know, this was, I think it was a GCSE text in me and he walked in and he's like, yeah, so we're going to, and everyone in the classroom groaned.
00:34:42
Speaker
And i was like, oh no, I've always quite wanted to read that. And I think that's when I knew that I was a bit different when it comes to books.
00:34:51
Speaker
That's good. And Emma had, ah Emma, speaking of recent adaptations, I mean, it's not, it was a few years ago now, but that, the the more modern Emma adaptation, I think was great. I really liked it. Yeah, i I think similarly to Pride and Prejudice, i just I would watch or um read any kind of format of it. and And the fact that it transferred, I think I wrote my A-level English essay about comparing the the themes in modern day to clue and how it transferred into into Clueless, I think is just you know an example of how
00:35:25
Speaker
everlasting those books are and and how relevant they would will still be. and And that's why you know i think that there will always be new versions coming out and however much people kind of stamping their foot saying, don't mess with the 1995 BBC version of it.
00:35:40
Speaker
hope I will definitely watch. you know i watched the I love the Keira Knightley film. Yeah, one's great. Yeah, I'm very excited for for the for the next TV version of it. Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
I mean, yeah I think the fun of it is seeing all the different interpretations of it I don't want to see the same thing over and over again, but I kind of do. You know what I mean? That's the dilemma. i assume it's a dilemma as well as when you're looking for a book, it's like it needs to be enough of the same, but enough new that this can work in the market.
Effective Query Letters
00:36:10
Speaker
i think yeah that is the struggle I think one thing we always say about in a submission letter is to use comp titles and I think it's because obviously for us I take my my job as an agent so seriously because you're you're handling somebody's creative endeavors which is you know it's their art it's their it represents hours and hours of their of their time and their effort and their energy that they've poured into their work and um
00:36:41
Speaker
But we are also in a business and the business of selling that work. And so part of making it saleable is and being able to kind of show editors a vision for it and what it would look like on shelves. And the easiest way to do that is through using comparative titles that have done really well and that hit a certain spot and have a huge readership and appeal.
00:37:08
Speaker
um so I think, like you say, using making making making something the same but different, it's that kind of, yes, its it's got elements of this and it's got elements of this, but actually in a completely unique way. um So it it's kind of it's really hard to describe, but I think comp titles are a really clever way of doing that. um I think a book was recently recommended to me and they said, oh, it's...
00:37:37
Speaker
um it's Love Island meets Lord of the Flies. And I like, Oh, I'm there. What a, what a, what a brilliant pitch for that book. And I think that exactly. And I think, and it can, it doesn't have to be a book. It can be like a TV show. It can be a podcast. And I think that it's, it's making, that it's just a really clever way of condensing down the essence of the book and,
00:38:07
Speaker
showing people that it's something that you'll know and it's got that element of familiarity to it, but actually in a completely different format. Yes. Okay. Yeah, that's cool.
Conclusion and Thanks
00:38:19
Speaker
We are, I'd love to talk bit more about query letters and and all of that fun stuff and go a bit more into the list. um But we're yeah we're about to go into the extended part of the episode, which will be available ah on patreon.com slash right and wrong.
00:38:34
Speaker
Sort of spiraling and self-doubt and ultimately, if your book is, is brilliant, then someone will want to represent it and someone will want to publish it. Yeah, absolutely.
00:38:44
Speaker
And that brings us to the end of the episode. So thank you so much, Laura, for coming on the podcast and chatting with me, telling me all about your career and your experiences within, um publishing and and becoming an agent. It's been really fun and interesting chatting with you.
00:38:59
Speaker
Thank you, Jamie. It was really, it was really great. Um, thank you for having me on. It's such a pleasure. And for anyone wanting to keep up with what Laura is doing, you can follow her on Instagram at laura.heathfield.
00:39:12
Speaker
And if you want to check out greenstro Greenstone Literary, the website is greenstoneliterary.com. You can find them on Twitter at Greenstone Lit and on TikTok and Instagram at Greenstone Literary.
00:39:24
Speaker
To support this podcast, like, follow and subscribe. Join the Patreon for ad-free extended episodes and check out my other podcast, The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes. Thanks again to Laura and thanks to everyone listening. we will catch you on the next episode.
00:39:38
Speaker
Shout out time. One of my amazing patrons, Lee Foxton, is querying their debut novel. It's a family drama, commercial fiction along the lines of Jojo Moyes and David Nichols.
00:39:48
Speaker
Fingers crossed, I am rooting for you. Good luck.