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88 Lydia Silver | Literary Agent
728 Plays3 years ago
Children's literary agent Lydia Silver joins us, to talk all about Darley Anderson, her career in publishing and how she tackles submissions. Hear all about the things she's looking to add to her list and the book that she would take with her to the desert island.
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The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi guys, quick one before we get into the episode.
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Zencaster, which is the production suite that I've used from the very beginning of this podcast.
00:00:06
Speaker
And if you're interested in starting your own podcast, hang around at the end of the episode for our 30% discount referral code.
00:00:12
Speaker
Thanks.
Podcast Background
00:00:13
Speaker
So our podcast is called Right and Wrong.
00:00:14
Speaker
Are these your notes?
00:00:16
Speaker
Are these your notes about what we're going to say?
00:00:19
Speaker
Anything.
00:00:19
Speaker
It's a short answer.
00:00:21
Speaker
So how many novels did you not finish?
00:00:24
Speaker
Oh my God, so many.
00:00:26
Speaker
It was perfect.
00:00:27
Speaker
What's she talking about?
00:00:28
Speaker
This is not a difference.
00:00:30
Speaker
Ooh, a spicy question.
00:00:32
Speaker
I love it.
00:00:33
Speaker
This is it, guys.
00:00:34
Speaker
The big secret to getting published is you have to write a good book.
00:00:38
Speaker
You heard it here first.
Guest Introduction: Lydia Silver
00:00:42
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
00:00:45
Speaker
Today I'm joined by another literary agent from the Darley Anderson Agency.
00:00:50
Speaker
It's the lovely Lydia Silver.
00:00:52
Speaker
Hi Lydia.
00:00:53
Speaker
Hi, it's lovely to be here.
The Busy Life of a Literary Agent
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, welcome to the show.
00:00:55
Speaker
It's really great to have you.
00:00:57
Speaker
Let's start by saying, I spoke to your colleague recently, Chloe Davis.
00:01:03
Speaker
So I know that September is a busy time for agents, as that's what she said.
00:01:09
Speaker
It is.
00:01:11
Speaker
And then I was thinking, is there ever not a busy time for literary agents?
00:01:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:18
Speaker
I mean, I suppose Christmas.
00:01:22
Speaker
Publishing kind of shuts down from December and I wouldn't be sending anything out.
00:01:26
Speaker
But having said that, last year I spent the whole of December getting a manuscript ready to go out on submission in January.
00:01:31
Speaker
So it maybe wasn't quite as quiet as I thought.
00:01:34
Speaker
And the other time that everyone says is more quiet is the summer.
00:01:36
Speaker
But again, I've actually sold a couple of things this summer.
00:01:41
Speaker
So I can't guarantee that that's the case either.
00:01:46
Speaker
I mean, I think there's any really, really downtime.
00:01:48
Speaker
It's the sort of thing where there's always something nagging at you like, oh, I should be reading this or I should be considering this.
00:01:55
Speaker
If you're not reading, you feel a little bit guilty about it.
00:01:58
Speaker
But you kind of balance your own time though.
00:02:01
Speaker
So it all works out.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:03
Speaker
And it's one of those jobs that doesn't really stay within the set times of the premise.
00:02:08
Speaker
Like all throughout the year, you're always receiving submissions.
00:02:11
Speaker
So like that never slows or stops.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's very much, it's a job that kind of can expand to fill whatever time you allow it and you get submissions whenever.
00:02:21
Speaker
And we don't shut to submissions.
00:02:23
Speaker
I think some agencies do, but we stay open because it's more kind of, if we have the time, we'll go and read them.
00:02:29
Speaker
And also I can't stand the thought of missing out on something great that didn't get sent to me.
00:02:34
Speaker
So I have it open anyway.
00:02:36
Speaker
But it very much is that we kind of look at our own time, try and work it out that way.
00:02:40
Speaker
And if I'm really slammed for a few weeks,
00:02:43
Speaker
My submissions will just have to wait.
00:02:45
Speaker
It's sort of that sort of calculations.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:48
Speaker
And I think anyone who's sort of looked under the hood a little bit understands that that will always be the way for the other agents I've spoken to.
00:02:56
Speaker
The priority is always with your pre-existing clients.
00:02:59
Speaker
They have to come first.
00:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're the people that we actually have an ongoing relationship, that people we have a duty for.
00:03:07
Speaker
I feel really protective of them and I really care about their careers and I never want them to feel like they're not a priority.
00:03:14
Speaker
They are completely our priority.
00:03:17
Speaker
I love discovering new books.
00:03:19
Speaker
It's one of the most exciting things, but I wouldn't be a good agent if I wasn't putting my existing clients first.
00:03:25
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:03:26
Speaker
And from a writer's perspective, why would they want you to be an agent if you weren't putting your clients first?
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to be someone's client, you want to be the priority and you would be.
00:03:39
Speaker
So let's dial it back a bit before we get into the nitty gritty and the details.
Lydia's Journey into Publishing
00:03:45
Speaker
Where did you get your start in publishing?
00:03:48
Speaker
It was a slightly weird route.
00:03:50
Speaker
So I...
00:03:52
Speaker
don't think I knew that publishing even really existed beyond the fact that books lived on shelves until the end of uni and everyone that I lived with and all of my friends were applying for grad courses and had careers planned out and I just panicked, thought about what I actually liked and what I was good at and it wasn't a very long list but books came quite high up on that.
00:04:15
Speaker
So I
00:04:17
Speaker
Emailed a few people just out of the blue, had a couple of conversations with people and was lucky enough to get a couple of weeks of work experience at Random House.
00:04:27
Speaker
Turns out it was very weird timing because it was when it was merging to Penguin.
00:04:31
Speaker
I was having a lovely week.
00:04:32
Speaker
I had the best time.
00:04:34
Speaker
Everyone else looked a bit stressed and I didn't quite work out why until afterwards that it was literally like the two weeks of the merger.
00:04:40
Speaker
But I loved it.
00:04:41
Speaker
I was working in the children's editorial team.
00:04:44
Speaker
And because it's publishing and it was only work experience, so it was unpaid, I was sneaking a sleeping bag into the office, hiding it under the desk and then going to various friends' sofas and things like that.
00:04:56
Speaker
But I just loved being around so many books and being around children's books.
00:05:01
Speaker
I think I hadn't thought about them in the same way before.
00:05:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:05
Speaker
So I then, when that was, that was like kind of Easter time.
00:05:08
Speaker
And then in the summer, I applied for the Penguin Summer Internship Scheme.
00:05:14
Speaker
Sorry, Internship Scheme.
00:05:16
Speaker
I haven't spoken that much today.
00:05:17
Speaker
That's the one.
00:05:19
Speaker
Thank you.
00:05:20
Speaker
So the Internship Scheme, which was...
00:05:23
Speaker
brilliant that was paid and it was partly in marketing and partly in editorial for Michael Joseph who do kind of really big commercial stuff and it was it was great fun it was surprisingly glamorous I became the go-to person for sourcing personalized biscuits and
00:05:40
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:42
Speaker
Honestly, basically 90% of my job.
00:05:44
Speaker
I found biscuits that looked exactly like one of Sue Perkins' dogs and other biscuits that were like mock-up penguin covers, but with various celebrity names on it.
00:05:54
Speaker
Weirdly was a huge part of my job.
00:05:56
Speaker
I enjoyed it.
00:05:57
Speaker
Well, I was going to ask what you did, but they... Biscuits apparently.
00:06:00
Speaker
Biscuits and I do remember one day spray painting 1000 Dummies Gold because someone was doing a book kind of about the, I think, whoever the first royal baby was had just been born.
00:06:12
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:06:14
Speaker
So the marketing team, it was a very interesting place to be and lots of very weird but fun job aspects of it.
00:06:22
Speaker
But I missed children's and I missed that kind of burst of creativity.
00:06:26
Speaker
So someone got in touch offering a role at Egmont in the editorial team.
Commissioning and Agenting Experience
00:06:32
Speaker
And when I interviewed for it, I was shocked to find that I got it.
00:06:37
Speaker
And I think, again, it was honestly down to I worked in some very weird eco theme park.
00:06:43
Speaker
during the summers at uni and one of the editors had been there and I honestly think that's what got me the job.
00:06:49
Speaker
We just talked about that, didn't talk about books or any of my actual skills.
00:06:53
Speaker
I loved it there.
00:06:54
Speaker
It was great and I did a bit of commissioning.
00:07:00
Speaker
I actually only ever really commissioned one book which was The Poet X and I loved that experience.
00:07:06
Speaker
I loved working really closely with authors and
00:07:08
Speaker
and realized that actually what I was good at was that early commissioning part.
00:07:12
Speaker
Like I loved, I put together a whole pitch about like exactly who would buy this book and what music they were listening to and what films they were watching and all sorts of things.
00:07:21
Speaker
And it's that sort of thing I really enjoyed.
00:07:23
Speaker
And I realized that kind of agenting maybe is a better fit.
00:07:25
Speaker
That's a bigger part of the job there.
00:07:27
Speaker
So, and then I was lucky enough that Claire Wallace asked me to cover her maternity leave.
00:07:33
Speaker
And then I just stayed.
00:07:35
Speaker
And I never left.
00:07:36
Speaker
Never left.
00:07:37
Speaker
So they were like, would you theoretically like to say, yes, please, I'm never leaving.
00:07:40
Speaker
Just kind of force myself in there.
00:07:43
Speaker
Was it a hard transition going from working for a publisher and editorial to becoming an agent?
00:07:50
Speaker
Um, yes.
00:07:52
Speaker
Well, yes and no.
00:07:53
Speaker
I was really lucky in that I had a whole list to cover.
00:07:58
Speaker
I didn't have to build my list from scratch at the start.
00:08:01
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, because I think that's one of the hardest parts of starting agenting is building your list and build, you know, you have to build a sort of...
00:08:09
Speaker
You have to be reasonably well known enough for people to want to work with you.
00:08:12
Speaker
It's sort of a self-perfectuation once it starts going, but it's hard to get started.
00:08:16
Speaker
But I was lucky enough that for the first year, I was running someone else's list.
00:08:22
Speaker
So every problem that came up, I had a chance to kind of practice.
00:08:27
Speaker
Practice is the wrong word.
00:08:27
Speaker
It was an actual job.
00:08:28
Speaker
I was doing stuff, but I...
00:08:31
Speaker
But I kind of experienced what it looked like to have a full list before I then went and built my own.
00:08:36
Speaker
So although the transition was hard, I had all of that background.
00:08:39
Speaker
And in some ways coming from editorial really helped.
00:08:42
Speaker
I still feel like I can kind of read between the lines a little bit when editors email or know what they're referring to and understand kind of the time things take.
00:08:52
Speaker
I mean,
00:08:53
Speaker
publishing is, is so slow and knowing what the editors are probably doing in those gaps, it's quite reassuring, especially when your clients, they're like, I've not heard anything for three months.
00:09:02
Speaker
Is anything happening here?
00:09:02
Speaker
I can be like, yes, actually here's the stages it's going through.
00:09:06
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:08
Speaker
So when you, so you, so you came on as maternity leave cover, took on Claire Wallace's list.
00:09:16
Speaker
Did you, did you, I'm guessing you didn't add anything to that list while she was away.
00:09:22
Speaker
Well, I took on a couple of people.
00:09:25
Speaker
I took on Rashmi Sajjpande back then as well, actually, who's still on my list now and a couple of other people.
00:09:32
Speaker
Lisa Richardson, who has a YA coming in the future as well.
00:09:38
Speaker
But I took them on as myself.
00:09:41
Speaker
By the time I was taking them on, I kind of knew I was going to stay because I think lists are really personal.
00:09:47
Speaker
And it would have felt odd to...
00:09:50
Speaker
to add people to Claire's list without her choosing them.
00:09:55
Speaker
I think it's so much about personal taste and personal connection.
00:09:59
Speaker
I wouldn't have felt comfortable being like, oh, I found this great author and now you've got to look after them goodbye.
00:10:04
Speaker
What if they didn't think they were great?
00:10:06
Speaker
So I sort of did a tiny bit of list building of my own while I was covering Claire's list, but really didn't take on much until I had
Agent-Author Relationships
00:10:14
Speaker
my own.
00:10:14
Speaker
I just think
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, as an agency, we're really close.
00:10:18
Speaker
We talk all the time.
00:10:19
Speaker
Chloe might have mentioned, like, we discuss everything.
00:10:23
Speaker
But ultimately, a list is still oddly personal.
00:10:26
Speaker
I think more so than a publisher's list in some ways.
00:10:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:10:31
Speaker
Because the publisher's list is more of a commercial outlook.
00:10:35
Speaker
Whereas yours is more of like, I mean, the relationship between an author and their agent is a very, like, personal business arrangement.
00:10:45
Speaker
Definitely.
00:10:45
Speaker
I mean, there are kind of commercial considerations.
00:10:48
Speaker
I'm taking on things that I hope will sell, but also I have the space to take on things that I'm not sure if they'll sell.
00:10:55
Speaker
I just think they should.
00:10:56
Speaker
You'd never do that as a publisher.
00:10:57
Speaker
You wouldn't be like, I have no idea, but this is great.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:11:01
Speaker
You get to do that as an agent.
00:11:02
Speaker
It's one of the things I love the most being like, I don't know where I'll sell this.
00:11:06
Speaker
I'm not quite sure who the right person is, but I love it.
00:11:08
Speaker
It's that sort of personal thing.
00:11:09
Speaker
And you're right.
00:11:10
Speaker
It's that relationship as well.
00:11:13
Speaker
you do so much as an agent, you know so much about your authors and you're kind of more involved in like their lives in some ways, I think it's, it is a business relationship, but quite a, quite an intense one.
00:11:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:27
Speaker
I think from the agents that I've met or spoken to it and the people, you know, my friends who, who talking about their agents, it's one of those business, business relationships that sort of borders on friendship in a lot of ways.
00:11:42
Speaker
Definitely.
00:11:43
Speaker
I think the boundaries get quite blurred.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:46
Speaker
For better or for worse.
00:11:47
Speaker
For better or worse.
00:11:48
Speaker
I mean, I'm not the best at keeping my boundaries up, but I quite like that.
00:11:53
Speaker
I mean, you don't work in this unless you care about people.
00:11:57
Speaker
That's the other odd thing about agenting because it's very kind of, publishing as an industry can be a little bit introverted, but I think as an agent, you have to be quite extroverted.
00:12:05
Speaker
have to want to talk to all these people.
00:12:06
Speaker
So you get to care about them a lot.
00:12:08
Speaker
And I know kind of lots of details about people's lives and who they are kind of on a deeper level, because that's what comes into their books.
00:12:17
Speaker
And knowing where they come from helps me kind of shape their books in the first place and know where to pitch them.
00:12:21
Speaker
So yeah, it's this very odd, we're working together, but actually it's a much bigger relationship than that kind of situation.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, especially when, and Chloe mentioned that everyone at the agency is very editorial and hands-on with their authors.
00:12:36
Speaker
So especially when you are sort of co-creating in a way, you are like, you know, you're part of the creative vision.
00:12:44
Speaker
You need to have a sort of understanding that goes beyond just the nuts and bolts.
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:12:50
Speaker
And I think especially with...
00:12:52
Speaker
some of my clients and the kind of the way I'm building my list in the books that I want to represent, that becomes extremely important.
00:12:59
Speaker
So I really want to represent people from underrepresented backgrounds, people who don't see themselves in publishing.
00:13:05
Speaker
It's kind of a huge driver of my list, but that often means talking to people who've got an experience that I don't share or a background that I've never experienced before, don't really have much understanding of.
00:13:17
Speaker
So you need to know them and their experiences differently.
00:13:21
Speaker
really inside out to be able to edit.
00:13:24
Speaker
I don't want to kind of just...
00:13:26
Speaker
shove my own viewpoint across everything and blank out everything that's important to them.
00:13:31
Speaker
And so it does have to be when you're working editorially, much more of a conversation and much more about kind of pinning down what someone is really trying to say.
00:13:41
Speaker
And a few things I've kind of sold on proposal or we've worked together on a synopsis or we've worked together on kind of an outline and maybe a couple of chapters.
00:13:49
Speaker
And again, you have to know what the author is trying to say to do that.
00:13:53
Speaker
because you're the one summarizing it and you're the one kind of laying it out.
00:13:56
Speaker
So it becomes a really deep, quite involved conversation.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yes.
00:14:01
Speaker
And that's also one of the great things I think about reading is that you can experience so much and sort of build so much empathy about experiences that you have no knowledge of or never even come close to in real life.
00:14:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, definitely.
00:14:17
Speaker
It's that kind of windows and doors thing.
00:14:19
Speaker
It's, you know, I think it's windows and mirrors, not windows and doors.
00:14:23
Speaker
It makes more sense.
00:14:25
Speaker
Like you look and look out onto something new or you can see your own experiences reflected back and you need to have both of them.
00:14:31
Speaker
I think they're equally important.
00:14:33
Speaker
Oh yeah, I like that.
00:14:35
Speaker
It's really good.
00:14:35
Speaker
I definitely didn't come up with that.
00:14:37
Speaker
I just can't remember who the person was who did.
00:14:39
Speaker
Not mine.
00:14:40
Speaker
That's great.
00:14:41
Speaker
Okay, so let's...
00:14:43
Speaker
get into the weeds of this stuff then.
00:14:46
Speaker
Let's talk about the thing that I love talking about with agents, submissions.
00:14:53
Speaker
First off, just to sort of get a gauge of where we're at and how busy you are, I guess, on average, and I don't know if it's easier to do this by week or month, how many submissions do you receive?
Submission Review Process
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:09
Speaker
Um, I'm sitting here trying to do the maths in my head.
00:15:13
Speaker
I actually don't get as many as some of the agents at our agency.
00:15:17
Speaker
Claire, I know, gets over 100 a week.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, I know, it's crazy.
00:15:24
Speaker
I don't get as many, I would say I probably get 30 or 40 a week, which is much more manageable, probably, possibly a few more, maybe like 50.
00:15:32
Speaker
But I think
00:15:35
Speaker
I found that because I'm not the main agent in a way at our agency, I'm not the manager, I'm not running it.
00:15:42
Speaker
And I'm not the very first face you see if you click on our about us bit on the website.
00:15:47
Speaker
So the submissions I get tend to be a little bit more targeted, which is really lovely.
00:15:53
Speaker
I tend to find that I don't get quite as many that are just, this isn't even a children's book or this is clearly never going to be for me.
00:16:00
Speaker
Most of the ones I get are things I have to properly consider because,
00:16:03
Speaker
they have been chosen for me and there's a reason for that and they're quite good.
00:16:06
Speaker
Well, that's great.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:08
Speaker
I'm really lucky that way.
00:16:09
Speaker
I get all the good stuff.
00:16:10
Speaker
I don't have to do the first bit of like weeding them out.
00:16:13
Speaker
But I mean, if you're getting 50, that's, so it's, um, for fiction, it's, uh, first three chapters, 20 pages, which I'm imagining is about 10,000 words.
00:16:23
Speaker
So that's 500,000 words a week.
00:16:30
Speaker
It would be if I read all first three chapters of every book, but I don't, I have to be honest.
00:16:37
Speaker
I tend to tackle my submissions in the same, quite a set way.
00:16:41
Speaker
So I'll read the cover letter first, just to kind of check that it's not, you know, this is actually an adult book, or this is a book about something that I would never, ever consider in a million years.
00:16:52
Speaker
Then I go and I read the
00:16:54
Speaker
the first page or even the first few lines just to get a sense of the writing um so I do do that for every submission apart from the ones that are way way off base um but honestly we're talking maybe a paragraph a couple of paragraphs maybe a page if I like that I'll then go and read the synopsis to check that the story holds up to kind of the pitch and the voice and all of that and only then will I go and read the rest of the chapters so I actually don't do that for
00:17:21
Speaker
I probably do that for maybe 10% of what I get.
00:17:24
Speaker
The rest of it I've worked out before then.
00:17:27
Speaker
Actually, this probably isn't quite right for me.
00:17:28
Speaker
I think you know quite quickly.
00:17:30
Speaker
I think it gets quite instinctive after a while.
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:33
Speaker
Whether someone's got a voice that you love or whether you're like, I just can't quite get on board with it.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:39
Speaker
And then obviously from the synopsis, whether the story is going to pan out in a way that you think would work.
00:17:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's why I asked for spoilers and stuff.
00:17:48
Speaker
I want to know all the nuts and bolts.
00:17:49
Speaker
I want to know everything that happens.
00:17:52
Speaker
I know some people absolutely hate that.
00:17:54
Speaker
And I think actually out of everyone at the agency, I spend more time reading the synopsis than anyone else.
00:17:59
Speaker
But I find them so helpful.
00:18:01
Speaker
I love knowing where the plot is taking me.
00:18:04
Speaker
Because you don't get a lot of context, even from a cover letter.
00:18:08
Speaker
It's less context than a book.
00:18:09
Speaker
So you don't have the actual book cover.
00:18:11
Speaker
You don't have where it sits in the bookshop.
00:18:13
Speaker
You don't have quotes.
00:18:15
Speaker
You don't have the blurb.
00:18:15
Speaker
You don't have all the kind of visual clues that when you pick up a book, you get.
00:18:20
Speaker
So I actually find the synopsis really useful just for grounding, not only for the storytelling, but for grounding me within the genre and the area of the market and all of that.
00:18:30
Speaker
I really rely on it.
00:18:31
Speaker
I love them.
00:18:32
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:32
Speaker
Do you look for those kinds of things, you know, in an ideal cover letter?
00:18:37
Speaker
Would there be those kinds of things laid out there?
00:18:40
Speaker
Is that something you like to see?
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, I find it really helpful.
00:18:44
Speaker
I mean, it's your kind of your only clue into it.
00:18:46
Speaker
So yeah, an ideal cover letter, I'd love one that had like a couple of really good comparison titles, really clear, this is exactly what the pitch is and all of that.
00:18:57
Speaker
But I also know that that's a big ask.
00:18:59
Speaker
And
00:19:00
Speaker
I love pitching.
00:19:01
Speaker
It's one of the things I think I'm probably best at out of my job.
00:19:04
Speaker
I adore it.
00:19:05
Speaker
But not every good writer is a good pitcher.
00:19:09
Speaker
They're not necessarily the same thing.
00:19:10
Speaker
So I do cut people a bit of slack and that's why I spend so much time on the synopsis as well.
00:19:15
Speaker
But yeah, ideally, yeah, I'd love it all.
00:19:16
Speaker
Just like in the cover letter to start with, that would make my life so much easier.
00:19:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:21
Speaker
That's the thing that I hear a lot is that you can really help your submission by doing, um, doing some sort of, of your own market research and really finding how this would fit because agents will be able to get on board with it a lot quicker if you, if you lay that out for them.
00:19:36
Speaker
Definitely.
00:19:37
Speaker
And I mean, I think people get quite hung up on the idea of comparison titles and they look for books that are exactly the same or 99% the same.
00:19:44
Speaker
Um,
00:19:46
Speaker
But I literally, when I'm submitting, I use lines like, for fans of, or this would sit on a shelf alongside.
00:19:54
Speaker
And then you can kind of widen it out.
00:19:55
Speaker
It's much more about positioning it literally within a bookshop than for saying this is exactly like this book.
00:20:02
Speaker
But it's so helpful when someone does that.
00:20:04
Speaker
Okay, okay.
00:20:06
Speaker
So when you are getting stuck into submissions, is it the sort of thing that you set time aside to do and just do loads at once or do you dip in and out?
00:20:18
Speaker
It's a bit of both.
00:20:20
Speaker
When they very first come in, I skim them just to see is there something that I should be jumping on and occasionally something in that will just stand out so much that I'm like, I'm going to put everything else I'm doing aside today.
00:20:34
Speaker
I'm going to make a lot of people very annoyed at me and I'm going to just read this submission.
00:20:38
Speaker
But most of the time I will file it to look at in more detail later and
00:20:44
Speaker
Because I think I need a certain amount of uninterrupted time to consider them properly.
00:20:49
Speaker
And I kind of, it sounds really stupid and it's not, but I do think you have to be in a certain mindset to consider them.
00:20:57
Speaker
I have to feel kind of awake and engaged and creative.
00:21:00
Speaker
And so that doesn't happen every day, especially if I know that I've also got 20 emails from pissed off editors and worried authors and things like that.
00:21:10
Speaker
So I do tend to do it in bulk.
00:21:12
Speaker
but I always have a very quick look just in case to start with.
00:21:15
Speaker
So that cursory glance that you were talking about where you kind of look over the cover letter, you read maybe a paragraph or so and then jump to the synopsis, that's your sort of first glance?
00:21:25
Speaker
Oh no, that's more in depth.
00:21:26
Speaker
My first glance is skim read the cover letter just to be like
00:21:36
Speaker
occasionally I have like, you know, I have a couple of things that I specifically am looking for and if it hits that exactly or if it's someone I've actually kind of realised, oh, I've been in conversation with them before, then I'll jump on it.
00:21:46
Speaker
So, for example, um,
00:21:48
Speaker
I recently sold a book called Cosmo, Unfortunate, Stills a Star.
00:21:52
Speaker
And I'd seen an early version of it as part of a mentorship program.
00:21:57
Speaker
So when that came in, I skimmed the cover letter, as I always do, while filing it, realized it was that, and then did nothing else all day and just read it.
00:22:05
Speaker
But mostly it's a very, very quick skim.
00:22:08
Speaker
And then I go back and read it properly, read the opening lines, read the synopsis, probably go back again.
00:22:15
Speaker
That's a much more kind of in-depth way of looking at it for me.
00:22:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:18
Speaker
Okay.
00:22:18
Speaker
Right, right, right.
00:22:19
Speaker
And when you're, when you're, you know, looking at something, are there any red flags, whether in the cover letter, the synopsis or the, or the manuscript itself that give you pause about a submission?
Submission Red Flags
00:22:34
Speaker
I don't think there's anything that's a complete red flag.
00:22:38
Speaker
I would never, ever, you put this and I bin it set up.
00:22:43
Speaker
Other than obviously something you don't represent.
00:22:45
Speaker
Something I literally don't represent.
00:22:46
Speaker
But even then you'd probably get a reply, just me being like, yeah, I don't actually represent this.
00:22:51
Speaker
I suppose things that would make me pause.
00:22:55
Speaker
In the cover letter, I find it really worrying when people say, um,
00:23:00
Speaker
there is nothing good in this area out there, which is why I've written this book.
00:23:03
Speaker
Or, you know, often it can be quite reductive.
00:23:05
Speaker
All YA is just about...
00:23:10
Speaker
girls waiting to be rescued and vampires vampires so i've written something else that just shows that you're a not very engaged with the market but also possibly not gonna be the easiest person to work with um so that would always make me pause i think synopsis is nothing in them unless it's like oh my god this has gone so off the rails i don't know what on earth is going on but synopsis is hard i cut people a lot of slack with synopsis i think that's fine um
00:23:38
Speaker
And then in the writing, again, it's not a complete red flag, but if something opens in a way that I have seen a lot, like if it's someone waking up in their bed,
00:23:50
Speaker
And then they go through the whole day situation that tends to suggest someone's just not quite ready to query that.
00:23:56
Speaker
I think people often have to write their way into books and that chapter is them writing their way into it.
00:24:00
Speaker
But they haven't yet learned to then get rid of that chapter.
00:24:03
Speaker
So it might suggest it's a bit early, but mostly it's anyone being kind of rude or derogatory about the genre or whatever.
00:24:11
Speaker
derogatory about agents we get sometimes which I'm also like why would you want one like don't submit to me if you think I'm gonna be a terrible person that's really the only thing that I'd be like I really need to be careful if I want to represent this um most things I'm open to and I don't think there's any kind of genre-based thing or writing-based thing that I couldn't work with if everything else was amazing
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
It's interesting hearing you talk about when people sort of do anti-comparison, I guess, where they say there's nothing like this.
00:24:43
Speaker
And then even if that was true, then it would be a really hard sell because where does it fit in the bookshop?
Market Positioning with Comparison Titles
00:24:52
Speaker
I want things that are like things.
00:24:55
Speaker
I'm actually about to go on submission with something that I am
00:24:59
Speaker
I mean, there isn't anything like it, but it doesn't mean I can't say, okay, well, there's nothing like it.
00:25:03
Speaker
But actually, if you like reading these authors, you're probably like this.
00:25:06
Speaker
And, you know, you've put it on a shelf alongside this.
00:25:09
Speaker
That's why I should say you don't have to be super specific on comparisons, but saying that there is absolutely nothing like it.
00:25:15
Speaker
Maybe that's for a reason.
00:25:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:25:19
Speaker
Because I mean, I'm trying to think of like, you take a genre like speculative sci-fi, where almost the whole point is that the concept is as unique as it could be.
00:25:31
Speaker
But you could still say, oh, for fans of, you know, X, Y, Z, they're very different.
00:25:37
Speaker
But if you enjoyed that, if you enjoy that kind of brain teasing or whatever it is, you'll probably enjoy this as well.
00:25:44
Speaker
Exactly.
00:25:44
Speaker
You don't have to be like, this is exactly the same book.
00:25:47
Speaker
It's just being like, well, if you like questioning the parameters of society, or if you like imagining what everything would be like if half the world disappeared, or, you know, there's various different ways of doing it.
00:25:59
Speaker
It's just giving it kind of classmates almost, you know, kind of other books that it can hang out with so that I know, all right, well, this is the right editor for it.
00:26:10
Speaker
Yeah, I guess a good way to do it would be to, if you had your own bookshop, imagine where you would put this, like what other books would be around it.
00:26:18
Speaker
And then maybe those could be the comp titles.
00:26:20
Speaker
Exactly.
00:26:21
Speaker
It's almost like, you know, go and make a window in your bookshop that centers your book, but has a few others in it.
00:26:27
Speaker
How would you spotlight it?
00:26:29
Speaker
Who would you recommend this to?
00:26:32
Speaker
What other authors would you say?
00:26:33
Speaker
Oh, if you love them, you'd love this.
00:26:34
Speaker
It's not about saying...
00:26:36
Speaker
it's completely this book, but everything kind of, nothing exists in a creative vacuum anyway.
00:26:41
Speaker
So there will be titles like that.
00:26:43
Speaker
You will have read them or, you know, it doesn't even have to be a book-based title.
00:26:47
Speaker
I quite like things that might compare film or TV or pull from other areas of culture.
00:26:53
Speaker
I like books that feel quite zeitgeisty.
00:26:55
Speaker
And sometimes that means the idea hasn't really had its day in books yet, but maybe it's massive on Netflix.
00:27:01
Speaker
There's other ways of contextualizing.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen a lot of comp titles for new and up and coming books with Squid Games.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I've had a few of those.
00:27:13
Speaker
But exactly, that shows me exactly what you mean, though.
00:27:15
Speaker
If you're saying Squid Games, it's like, okay, so it's violent.
00:27:18
Speaker
It's looking at kind of...
00:27:22
Speaker
you know, our obsession with reality TV and, and, but also there's a kind of societal thing along there.
00:27:27
Speaker
It's about kind of extremes and how far you'd go for something.
00:27:30
Speaker
It tells you so much.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:32
Speaker
Or you could be leaning into like the more cultural side.
00:27:34
Speaker
Actually it's kind of career inspired and it,
00:27:38
Speaker
builds on kind of or not even Korean but maybe it's another background but it builds on kind of how media works within that culture and that culture specific societal issues there's so many different ways of using it I just need some context
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.
00:27:56
Speaker
Or with Squid Games, it could just be you're thinking about violent children's games.
00:28:00
Speaker
Exactly.
00:28:01
Speaker
It doesn't have to be that deep either.
00:28:02
Speaker
It could just be this is lethal.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:06
Speaker
Okay, so it is the final week of September
Current Interests in Submissions
00:28:10
Speaker
2022.
00:28:10
Speaker
You are open to submissions.
00:28:13
Speaker
What are you looking out for?
00:28:17
Speaker
What are you hoping to add to your list this year?
00:28:20
Speaker
So I've really been concentrating on building the graphic novel side of my list.
00:28:24
Speaker
I love graphic novels.
00:28:26
Speaker
I think they're awesome.
00:28:27
Speaker
I think they're such an exciting new way, well, not new, new for the UK market way of storytelling.
00:28:34
Speaker
And, you know, Heartstop has done incredibly.
00:28:38
Speaker
It's lovely to see so many people engage with it.
00:28:40
Speaker
I'd love something in that space.
00:28:43
Speaker
Not necessarily...
00:28:45
Speaker
Heartstopper again although like if you're writing that and illustrating that please send it to me I would 100% love a new Heartstopper but anything that's really exploring kind of
00:28:55
Speaker
how illustration and text work together, how you can push the boundaries there, anything graphic novelty, I'm really down for.
00:29:03
Speaker
I would like to find something in the romantic space.
00:29:10
Speaker
It's, you know, when we were talking about kind of the stereotypical YA with swoony vampires, I actually want that.
00:29:16
Speaker
I'd love a sex vampire book.
00:29:17
Speaker
Yeah, please send that.
00:29:18
Speaker
love triangles enemies to lovers only one bed various you know can't stop I'm gonna stab you or kiss you I want that I'd love something like that I actually don't have anything like that on my list um and then kind of in the younger space I once I love really like out there funny chapter books or young readers I mean I loved Grimwood I think that is absolutely genius and I'd love something a bit like that um
00:29:46
Speaker
just something that feels very kind of fresh and funny and silly, but like has a bit of an edge to it.
00:29:53
Speaker
I grew up reading all of the series of Unfortunate Events and that sort of thing.
00:29:56
Speaker
And I think that sort of humor totally still engages kids all over the place.
00:30:00
Speaker
I'd love something like that.
00:30:03
Speaker
I'd love to find in middle grade, I'd really like to find another kind of big cinematic adventure.
00:30:10
Speaker
That's the sort of books I always love reading, but I'd also love to find something that has kind of more queer characters in middle grade.
00:30:15
Speaker
I think there's a lot in YA now.
00:30:18
Speaker
It's really opened up in terms of inclusivity, but not tons in the middle grade space.
00:30:25
Speaker
You know,
00:30:26
Speaker
There are a few books about kind of starting to realise your identity as someone who's LGBTQA, but there's not tons where that's just part of it.
00:30:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:38
Speaker
I'd like to find more like that.
00:30:42
Speaker
But also, I mean, I'm really open.
00:30:44
Speaker
I haven't got my next big thing.
00:30:47
Speaker
I like being kind of taken by surprise by things.
00:30:51
Speaker
I don't think anything that I've sold this year or that's been a big success to me is something that I thought I was looking for.
00:30:58
Speaker
They've just kind of really hit the spot.
00:31:00
Speaker
I mean, I'm always looking for an interesting voice.
00:31:04
Speaker
We're a very commercial agency, so I like things that feel like they could be big and commercial.
00:31:10
Speaker
You know, I don't think commercial is a dirty word.
00:31:11
Speaker
I really like it.
00:31:12
Speaker
I love books that could be on supermarket shelves, that sort of thing.
00:31:17
Speaker
And, you know, I am looking to raise voices who've been previously marginalized.
00:31:21
Speaker
So again, that's something I really want to focus on.
00:31:24
Speaker
But it's a really wide list.
00:31:26
Speaker
That's probably not actually that helpful.
00:31:27
Speaker
I think that was great because you've got enough specifics in there, but then also open to most things.
00:31:33
Speaker
I mean, basically send me every book if you think it's good.
00:31:37
Speaker
Send everything.
00:31:37
Speaker
Literally everything.
00:31:39
Speaker
Children's books only, but everything.
00:31:43
Speaker
Awesome.
00:31:43
Speaker
No, I think that's going to be very helpful, especially to people who are on the hunt for an agent to add to their list of agents to submit to.
00:31:52
Speaker
Okay.
00:31:54
Speaker
And before we get onto the final question, have to ask, have you ever wanted to write yourself?
00:32:03
Speaker
As a kid, definitely.
00:32:06
Speaker
My house was full of like little notebooks where I'd created books or, you know, pulled all the pages out and stuck them back together differently and create a little book.
00:32:14
Speaker
And I used to, yeah, they were great.
00:32:16
Speaker
Although my sister was more of an illustrator, so hers always looked better than me.
00:32:18
Speaker
I was really upset.
00:32:21
Speaker
And I used to get like overly involved in homework and write really long.
00:32:24
Speaker
You know, you had to write a story and mine would be like 20 pages.
00:32:26
Speaker
And I now feel extremely sorry for the teachers.
00:32:30
Speaker
Less so now that I work
00:32:32
Speaker
in publishing i think you know i know how hard it is and i know what i'm good at and i'm i'm a good editor but i don't know where you get the ideas from i did in lockdown i tried to write something and um i wrote four chapters and it was just people walking into rooms i couldn't somehow write the scene they just like arrived at the scenes it was so ridiculous i think that may be kind of uh
00:32:57
Speaker
made a bit of a marker that possibly writing isn't for me much more of an editor much better in the background yeah okay that's fair to be honest i'm pretty sure i've watched movies and television where it's just people walking into rooms and they were great scenes of people walking into rooms but nothing happened in them i realized i couldn't write a conversation so they'd like walk into the room and then i'd be like okay next scene
00:33:18
Speaker
It's not the West Wing style like power conversation as they walk through the corridors.
00:33:23
Speaker
No, it is people just walking through the corridors in silence.
00:33:26
Speaker
Okay, amazing.
00:33:27
Speaker
Amazing.
00:33:28
Speaker
Well, that brings us to the final question, which as always is, if you were stranded on a desert island, which book would you take with you?
00:33:40
Speaker
So the smart-ass part of me wants to say a Desert Island survival guide or any sort of self-help manual.
00:33:47
Speaker
But that's clearly not the answer that these questions are actually for.
00:33:51
Speaker
It can be if that's, you know, what you want to put out there into the world.
00:33:55
Speaker
No, I mean, I think really the real answer is Charmed Life by Dano and Jones.
00:34:02
Speaker
I...
00:34:03
Speaker
I loved that book so much when I was a kid.
00:34:06
Speaker
So much so that I stole it from our school library and then we moved away and I never gave it back.
00:34:11
Speaker
And I felt guilty about it for years, but like in a kind of proud of myself way as well.
00:34:16
Speaker
I just, I was just like, I don't care.
00:34:18
Speaker
I love this so much.
00:34:19
Speaker
I can't possibly not have it.
00:34:21
Speaker
No one else will love it as much as me.
00:34:22
Speaker
So it doesn't matter.
00:34:23
Speaker
It's kind of the way I thought.
00:34:25
Speaker
But I just think I could read that over and over and still love it.
00:34:30
Speaker
It's everything I love in a kid's book.
00:34:33
Speaker
Everything.
00:34:34
Speaker
It really kind of, it has magic.
00:34:37
Speaker
It has humor.
00:34:38
Speaker
It's a really clever way of looking at the world.
00:34:41
Speaker
It's got great characters.
00:34:43
Speaker
It's got the first really nasty female character I ever really came across.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker
the main character's sister is just horrible she's an awful person and I loved that I still really like kind of angry or difficult characters particularly female characters but Gwendolyn in this was she was like an outright awful person and I never almost hadn't known that girls were allowed to be like that so I found it really exciting um and I could just read that book
00:35:14
Speaker
once a month quite happily, you know, like if I was stuck on an island, didn't have any others, I would go back to it all the time.
00:35:21
Speaker
I'd love it.
00:35:21
Speaker
So that's probably the real answer, even if a survival guide would be a much more sensible idea.
00:35:27
Speaker
Boring idea is what it would be.
00:35:28
Speaker
Much more boring.
00:35:29
Speaker
Also like, you know, probably not going to survive anyway.
00:35:31
Speaker
Might as well have a nice time while I'm there.
00:35:32
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
00:35:33
Speaker
Exactly.
00:35:34
Speaker
Well, that's great.
00:35:35
Speaker
It's always great to hear when people give an answer about something that they are so deeply connected with and like from a young age.
Desert Island Book Choice
00:35:44
Speaker
I mean, it's a little embarrassing.
00:35:45
Speaker
And also I should probably say, don't steal from libraries, but I was eight.
00:35:51
Speaker
And do you still have that copy?
00:35:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, I've still got it.
00:35:55
Speaker
You could give it back.
00:35:55
Speaker
I could.
00:35:56
Speaker
I should pretend I don't have it, shouldn't I?
00:36:01
Speaker
Amazing.
00:36:01
Speaker
Well, thank you so much.
00:36:02
Speaker
And thank you for coming on the podcast and telling us all about your career and your work and your experience in publishing.
00:36:10
Speaker
Oh, it's been a pleasure.
00:36:11
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:36:13
Speaker
And for anyone listening, if you want to keep up with what Lydia is doing, you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at Lydia R. Silver.
00:36:21
Speaker
And if you're thinking of submitting, do head over to the Dali Anderson website and find out more about Lydia, her colleagues, and most importantly, the specifications for submissions.
00:36:30
Speaker
You don't want to be getting those wrong.
00:36:33
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss an episode of this podcast, follow us on Twitter at RightAndWrongUK or on Instagram at RightAndWrongPodcast.
00:36:39
Speaker
Thanks again to Lydia and thanks to everyone listening.
00:36:42
Speaker
We'll catch you in the next episode.
00:36:45
Speaker
Thanks again for supporting the show and we'll see you in the next episode.