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120 Saskia Leach | Literary Agent
592 Plays2 years ago
Agent's assistant, Saskia Leach is on this week talking about her experiences in publishing, building a list of her own at Kate Nash Literary Agency and how she tackles submissions.
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Transcript
Introduction and Secret to Getting Published
00:00:00
Speaker
So our podcast is called Right and Wrong.
00:00:01
Speaker
Are these your notes?
00:00:03
Speaker
Are these your notes about what we're going to say?
00:00:06
Speaker
Anything is a short answer.
00:00:08
Speaker
So how many novels did you not finish?
00:00:10
Speaker
Oh my God, so many.
00:00:13
Speaker
It was perfect.
00:00:14
Speaker
What are you talking about?
00:00:15
Speaker
This is not a difficult one.
00:00:18
Speaker
A spicy question.
00:00:19
Speaker
I love it.
00:00:21
Speaker
This is it, guys.
00:00:21
Speaker
The big secret to getting published is you have to write a good book.
00:00:25
Speaker
You had it here first.
Meet Saskia Leach and Her Role
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast.
00:00:32
Speaker
This week I'm here with Saskia Leach from the Kate Nash Literary Agency.
00:00:38
Speaker
Hi Saskia, welcome to the podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker
Hi Jamie, thanks so much for having me.
00:00:42
Speaker
It's great to be here.
00:00:44
Speaker
Oh, well, thank you for coming on.
00:00:45
Speaker
It's actually been a little while since we've had an agent on.
00:00:50
Speaker
So let's start with your role at Kate Nash Literary.
00:00:55
Speaker
Your title is agent's assistant, but that's not to say that you're not building a list of your own.
00:01:02
Speaker
Where's the distinction sort of there?
00:01:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm in that kind of weird in-betweener stage at the moment where I'm an assistant with clients.
00:01:10
Speaker
So normally in literary agenting,
00:01:14
Speaker
you'll assist an agent or a couple of agents at the agency for a while.
00:01:19
Speaker
And then once you've been doing that for a bit, you're allowed to take on clients of your own.
00:01:24
Speaker
And then I presume each agency has their own kind of threshold for when the assistant becomes a junior agent.
00:01:30
Speaker
But sometimes it's after you've hit a certain number of clients, or sometimes it's after you've hit a certain number of deals.
00:01:37
Speaker
And then you
00:01:38
Speaker
get to wear your junior agents hats rather than the agents assistant hats.
00:01:42
Speaker
But that's where I am at the moment.
00:01:43
Speaker
I'm the,
Multitasking in Literary Agenting
00:01:44
Speaker
the in-betweener assistant with clients.
00:01:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:48
Speaker
From, from what I've, uh, the agents I've spoken to and just what I know about the industry, it is pretty par for the course to be for the position you're in where you're kind of straddling two roles at the same time.
00:01:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:01:59
Speaker
And it's, um,
00:02:01
Speaker
It's something that I think some people find a bit of a minefield at first because like you said, you are essentially doing two jobs where you're assisting your senior colleagues with their clients, but also looking for clients of your own.
00:02:12
Speaker
And then once you've got those clients, you're then taking care of those clients and working on them with their projects.
00:02:17
Speaker
And I think a good skill to have as an agent or an agent's assistant is multitasking.
00:02:23
Speaker
And you have a lot of plates spinning at once, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Unique Entry During COVID-19
00:02:28
Speaker
Well, that's good.
00:02:29
Speaker
I'm glad you're enjoying it.
00:02:30
Speaker
Let's start by, let's sort of try and break those two things apart.
00:02:34
Speaker
So when you first started at the agency, you were agent's assistant, but you hadn't started building your list yet.
00:02:42
Speaker
What's the kind of day-to-day role from just the agent's assistant?
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'll cycle a bit further back actually because I had a bit of an unusual pathway into the world of literary agenting in that I started as an agency trainee as opposed to an agent's assistant.
00:03:01
Speaker
I was one of the, I guess, unlucky people to finish university in that chapter of my life during COVID, during lockdown where stuff like work experience opportunities had just completely dried up and I knew I wanted to go into literary agenting but...
00:03:17
Speaker
I had absolutely
Traineeship Experience and Success
00:03:18
Speaker
zero experience or even work experience.
00:03:22
Speaker
But I was really lucky that at Kate Nash Literary Agency, they were starting up a traineeship program where I was taken on with absolutely no experience.
00:03:31
Speaker
And I had six months where I could learn about what's the role of assistant and then what the role of agents would entail.
00:03:40
Speaker
I was able to familiarize myself with the authors already at the agency and their books.
00:03:46
Speaker
And I was able to be trained on all of the things that I didn't know about, like the market and trends or get more knowledge on areas of the market that I was less familiar with.
00:03:57
Speaker
So with me, I wasn't as familiar with sagas and that part of the market.
00:04:01
Speaker
And also I was able to attend conferences and courses on things like editing and shadow my colleagues on meetings with authors and meetings with editors and see how those kinds of things are conducted.
00:04:14
Speaker
And I'm really grateful that I had that valuable time to learn the ropes and get to grips with the industry without having the responsibilities of assisting yet.
00:04:25
Speaker
And then at the end of that six months, I then became an assistant and ended up doing all of those things for real.
00:04:32
Speaker
Oh, right.
00:04:32
Speaker
So it sounds like it was a sort of, um, here's six months, take the initiative and sort of follow us or go to as much stuff as you want and just absorb all of the things that you want.
00:04:42
Speaker
And then we'll see where you're at when that's over.
00:04:45
Speaker
Exactly, yeah.
00:04:46
Speaker
And I was the first person they'd done that with.
00:04:48
Speaker
So I was kind of the guinea pig for their traineeship.
00:04:52
Speaker
But we've had two people after me also go through that same process, including Beth Ferguson, who is now an assistant and is taking on her first client.
00:05:02
Speaker
So it's something that, from our perspective at least, has worked really well.
00:05:06
Speaker
And
00:05:07
Speaker
It's something we've been very grateful for.
Building a Client List
00:05:09
Speaker
And it gave us a really nice introduction into that role of agents assistant that we then both ended up taking on.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, no, it sounds, it sounds great.
00:05:18
Speaker
It sounds like, because I think with, and this is true of so many jobs where kind of almost regardless of what your previous qualifications are, you'll spend the, spend the first six months just learning how to fit into the new kind of workspace anyway.
00:05:31
Speaker
So giving that opportunity to people who are kind of fresh and young and ready to learn sounds, sounds like, sounds like it's working out really well.
00:05:38
Speaker
Absolutely, and something that I think a lot of people who are job hunting in publishing will agree is really infuriating is when you see entry level roles advertised, but they're asking for something like two years experience.
00:05:51
Speaker
And it's that whole vicious cycle of how am I going to get experience if everywhere wants you to have experience?
00:05:57
Speaker
So it was really lovely that Kate Nash was offering this opportunity for people with no experience to get that coveted valuable experience that everyone seems to want.
00:06:08
Speaker
So does that mean that the agency is expanding then?
00:06:11
Speaker
It's growing because you're obviously taking on new people, but not really losing people.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's fair to say that we are expanding.
00:06:21
Speaker
I mean, we have also had agents in the past who have moved on to other ventures.
00:06:28
Speaker
So it's not as if we've been dramatically expanding.
00:06:32
Speaker
But no, I think it's fair to say that the agency is growing at the moment.
00:06:36
Speaker
And it's a really exciting time with
00:06:38
Speaker
me building a client list and also my colleague Beth starting to take on her first clients.
00:06:44
Speaker
And we've got a lot of new authors coming into the agency and a lot of new projects on the horizon.
00:06:49
Speaker
So it's a really exciting time to be working there at the moment.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, sounds great.
00:06:54
Speaker
So speaking of you building your list, how, so how long were you working as an, as, as the agency assistant before you started taking on your own list?
00:07:05
Speaker
I'd, I'd been working at the agency for slightly over a year, uh, when I was able to take on clients and I found my first client relatively quickly.
00:07:14
Speaker
Um, she's called Anna Britton and her book's coming out this October, funnily enough.
00:07:18
Speaker
But, um, I, yeah, I'd been there and just over a year, um,
00:07:23
Speaker
yeah that was when i was able to take on clients for the first time okay we i mean it must have been a little bit nerve-wracking because obviously you've been there a year you've been kind of like you know how it works but there's a difference between sort of watching someone else do it and and actually kind of doing it yourself yeah definitely and you can do all the shadowing and you know all of the training and have all the conversations but
00:07:48
Speaker
There's kind of no substitute for experience and for doing it yourself.
00:07:51
Speaker
And it is just a case of kind of jumping into the deep end and having those meetings on your own with your authors and picking it up as you go along.
00:07:59
Speaker
But I've worked with a really lovely bunch of authors and the experience can be nicer working with them, having them as my clients as I was doing this for the first time.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah.
Centralized Submission Process
00:08:14
Speaker
And I imagine, so as far as I'm aware, and we had Kate Nash on the podcast a while ago, she kind of explained it to me that the way that submissions work, which is, I think is, it's probably not unique to Kate Nash literary, but it's, but it's, it's not the norm is that all the submissions come into one place when people submit, they don't sort of direct them to all of the agents at the agency.
00:08:38
Speaker
Did that help as someone sort of
00:08:41
Speaker
learning the role and sort of beginning to take on their list.
00:08:44
Speaker
Was it helpful that you kind of all the submissions is such a sort of community?
00:08:47
Speaker
It's like a committee thing where you guys decide which we're going to pick up together as a group.
00:08:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's correct.
00:08:54
Speaker
We've got a centralized inbox at Kate Nash.
00:08:56
Speaker
And like you said, I'm sure we're not the only agency that have this approach, but you do perhaps see a lot of agencies where each agent has got their own inbox and you submit direct to them.
00:09:06
Speaker
But it was really nice because it meant that we didn't get into that scenario where everyone's submitting to the most experienced agent rather than the person that hasn't been doing it for as long or is taking on their first clients.
00:09:20
Speaker
And also we're, as a group, we're really good at knowing each other's interests and each other's areas.
00:09:26
Speaker
And we do have our own areas that are kind of unique to us, but we also have areas of overlap.
00:09:32
Speaker
So for example, all four of us take on clients in crime and thriller, but within this, we're quite good at knowing when a crime story is a Kate story or when a crime story is a Saskia story.
00:09:43
Speaker
And that's something that we know because we know each other and our likes very well.
00:09:47
Speaker
And it's not necessarily something that,
00:09:49
Speaker
someone on the outside would know.
00:09:51
Speaker
So it's really good that we're able to be collaborative in our approach to submissions and have those discussions when a promising book comes in going, okay, out of the four of us, who's going to be in the best position to take this on?
00:10:04
Speaker
Or whose interests does this most uniquely align with?
00:10:09
Speaker
Or...
00:10:09
Speaker
who's got some kind of interest outside of work that taps into this part of the story, so would be the best person to take it on.
Advantages of Newer Agents
00:10:17
Speaker
And I really like having this kind of group approach to submissions and with regards to who then requests the full manuscript and takes a look at things further.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
Well, that, my next question was going to be, how do you guys, you know, if you, if you, you decide as a group, yeah, well, this is a, this is a great submission.
00:10:34
Speaker
Let's take this to the next step.
00:10:36
Speaker
And then beyond that, I was going to say, well, how do you, how do you kind of, do you, do you guys like put forward your points in debate and be like, no, I really want this because of this.
00:10:46
Speaker
And then is there ever a situation where two or more of you are like, no, but I really want to represent this one.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah, we do sometimes have something come in where you've got more than one agent wants it and then we fight to the, we don't really fight to the death.
00:10:59
Speaker
But no, we do, it would then be a discussion over who's going to take a look at it or sometimes it will be a case of, oh, well, this person
00:11:09
Speaker
has got the most time at the moment, and they'll be able to read it the quickest.
00:11:12
Speaker
So they'll take a look at it.
00:11:14
Speaker
But if they decide it's not for them for whatever reason, rather than them rejecting it, they can pass it to this agent that was also interested.
00:11:21
Speaker
So we're quite good at sharing the workload that way and using that to decide things if there is an author that's got agents fighting over them.
00:11:31
Speaker
Yeah, I guess it's also to do with, you can factor in like the space on your list.
00:11:37
Speaker
Obviously, you are going to have more space on your list and kind of more time available than Kate does because Kate already has, you know, a pretty extensive list.
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, and Kate and Justin are both very generous as well with their time and with allowing me and Beth to kind of have that space to build our lists and to say, oh, well, you know, you've got more spaces than we have.
00:12:01
Speaker
So do you want to take a look at this?
00:12:03
Speaker
They're both very generous like that.
00:12:06
Speaker
Okay, okay.
00:12:08
Speaker
So how many authors do you represent now?
00:12:12
Speaker
I've currently got 12 authors that I'm looking after, but ever, ever increasing and hopefully it will be much more very soon.
00:12:22
Speaker
That's a great, I always say to people, people will sometimes message me or DM me and ask for tips on like which agents to submit to or like how to submit to agents and things like that.
00:12:34
Speaker
And I'll say one thing that I have observed is that
00:12:38
Speaker
Um, whilst any agent is always going to be, you know, on the lookout for picking up something, if they think it's absolutely amazing and going to absolutely smash publishing wide open, you will always have a better chance, um, submitting to, uh, someone like, like yourself
Evaluating Submissions: Focus on Quality
00:12:55
Speaker
who is in the process of building a new list, who's kind of new, newer on the scene.
00:13:00
Speaker
because, and it's not necessarily a subjective decision, it's more of a practical decision.
00:13:06
Speaker
If you're submitting to someone like who's been in the industry forever, their lists are so big that them adding someone to that list is such a huge consideration, you know, like they, because they're going to have to give that person the same amount of time as they give all of their other authors.
00:13:22
Speaker
So I always encourage people to
00:13:25
Speaker
I think it's always worth putting a submission in for younger, up and coming agents like yourself.
00:13:33
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:13:33
Speaker
Junior agents and agents assistants with clients are going to be really hungry to find material and build their lists.
00:13:40
Speaker
So I would definitely recommend approaching them.
00:13:43
Speaker
And something else as well that agents, no matter what stage in their career have to factor in, is whether the submission they're looking at, no matter
00:13:52
Speaker
how amazing or promising it is, whether it's too close to something already on their list, because you don't want to end up in a scenario where an opportunity comes up and you don't know which author to put forward for it because you've got two things that are very similar or two things that are even going to be competing against each other for certain things.
00:14:10
Speaker
You always want to be able to give your best service to an author and
00:14:15
Speaker
you know, give them the full 100% rather than, oh, well, it's going to have to be this person this time and that person next time.
00:14:21
Speaker
So whilst you're always going to have, you know, more than one crime author or more than one romance author, in terms of subgenres or really specific areas within that, you don't want to have things that are going to be so close that authors are competing against each other.
00:14:36
Speaker
And because that's just not in the author's best interests.
00:14:38
Speaker
And as an agent, you always want to act in the best interest of every single author you take on.
00:14:44
Speaker
Yes, exactly.
00:14:45
Speaker
Because then you'd have to, you'd have to jump through even more hoops because it'd be like, okay, so we'll have to stagger your releases so that you two don't come out at the same time, which is like inconvenient.
00:14:55
Speaker
And you have to like, yeah, it's, it's a whole situation, but that, yeah, yeah.
00:14:59
Speaker
Very good point.
00:15:00
Speaker
And just the same thing is like, you know, the bigger the list, the more chance there is that your book has a lot of similarities with other books in the list.
00:15:07
Speaker
So junior agents, we're here for you.
00:15:10
Speaker
Let's go.
00:15:10
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:15:13
Speaker
And whilst we're on the topic of submissions, and this is something I ask all the agents that come on, because I think it's really interesting.
00:15:21
Speaker
Literary agents often approach these things in different ways.
00:15:25
Speaker
So I'd love to hear how you do this.
00:15:28
Speaker
When you sit down to go through a submission, you open it up or whatever.
00:15:32
Speaker
And at the agency, it's a cover letter, one page synopsis and the opening chapter.
00:15:39
Speaker
or the proposal and the chapter by chapter for nonfiction.
00:15:44
Speaker
What order do you go through the submission and where do you focus in the most?
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah, every agent will have a completely different approach to submissions.
00:15:53
Speaker
And even within our agency, we have our own personal approaches.
00:15:58
Speaker
For me, I read the query letter first, then I'll look at the writing sample and then I'll look at the synopsis last.
00:16:05
Speaker
But there are a few specific scenarios where I won't actually read the synopsis until I've read the full manuscript.
00:16:13
Speaker
And an example of that would be that, say, if it's a murder mystery or an intricately plotted cozy crime, for example, that's something where I think it's important that I go in blind as any reader would to make sure that the solution is satisfying or that certain things aren't too obvious or aren't too subtle or that red herrings are genuinely red herrings.
00:16:35
Speaker
And
00:16:35
Speaker
it's good for me to go in not already knowing the solution and knowing what the author's intentions are.
00:16:41
Speaker
And then after I've then read the full manuscript, if I've requested the full, to then go to the synopsis and then make that judgment on, okay, they considered this person to be a suspect, but actually I didn't suspect them all that much when reading, but maybe my viewpoint would have been a bit different had I been going into it knowing from the synopsis that that person was meant to be a suspect.
00:17:00
Speaker
So
00:17:01
Speaker
That's an example where I think it is really beneficial to go in blind.
00:17:05
Speaker
But typically, I will read a synopsis before the full manuscript.
00:17:09
Speaker
That's just a quite niche example where I wouldn't.
00:17:13
Speaker
And I definitely put the most weight and the most importance on the writing sample.
00:17:19
Speaker
Because at the end of the day, the query letter is...
00:17:22
Speaker
really only going to be seen by the agent and synopses can be rewritten or plots can be tweaked or restructured but at the end of the day if the if the writing isn't stand out or up there then the submission will fall down and it isn't going to get anywhere and even if it's the best idea in the world if the writing isn't there then it's not going to get picked up by a publisher so the the writing is
00:17:48
Speaker
far and away the most important thing for me, even to the degree that if I'm reading the writing sample or the full manuscripts, and I think that the author's writing is really promising, but maybe the idea needs a bit of work or it needs some restructuring or the plots needs tweaking in certain places, I might even offer the author representation, either subjects to a couple of conditions or with a view to me then working with that author editorially or structurally to get that book submission ready.
Crafting Effective Query Letters
00:18:19
Speaker
Right.
00:18:19
Speaker
Okay.
00:18:20
Speaker
That's really interesting.
00:18:22
Speaker
And obviously, of course, makes sense.
00:18:24
Speaker
The writing's always going to be the front and center most important thing.
00:18:29
Speaker
Interesting that you won't read a synopsis for more specific genre-y stuff, but it makes, yeah, the way you explain it makes a lot of sense, especially when it comes to, you do like a murder mystery,
00:18:40
Speaker
when it comes to red herrings, if you know whodunit as you're reading it, a red herring almost seems like a mistake, just kind of like, why is that there sort of question since you already know the answer.
00:18:55
Speaker
Exactly.
00:18:56
Speaker
In terms of the query letter, what kind of things, because I know I can speak for a lot of authors and aspiring writers who absolutely hate and dread writing the query letter.
00:19:12
Speaker
What kind of things are you sort of like looking for?
00:19:15
Speaker
What kind of catches your eye in a query letter?
00:19:19
Speaker
I think, in all honesty, query letters that aren't too long.
00:19:23
Speaker
I think it's really tempting for an author to kind of write their life story into a query letter when it's really not needed.
00:19:29
Speaker
So I'd say keep the query letter to the bare bones and to just the information that the agent needs.
00:19:37
Speaker
So...
00:19:38
Speaker
introducing yourself, your title of your book, the genre, word counts, and any comparisons to authors, books, film, TV, or it's quite good to describe your book as it's X meets Y.
00:19:53
Speaker
saying whether you've had any interest from other agents, whether that's in the form of a full manuscript request or whether you've had an offer of representation.
00:20:03
Speaker
It's always really good to say that up front in your query letter if you're in that scenario or if that happens afterwards to then follow up on the same email thread with that.
00:20:12
Speaker
So then an agent knows that your submission is now time sensitive.
00:20:16
Speaker
Something else that's really good to include as part of your query letter is an elevator pitch or a one-line hook.
00:20:23
Speaker
Because so often as agents, we're asked by a publisher or by an editor to pitch our author's book in one line or to tell them what the hook is.
00:20:33
Speaker
So if as an author, you can prove that your book has got this quality from the off, then it's going to make your whole journey so much easier.
00:20:42
Speaker
I would then include a short form blurb or synopsis just getting across the essence of your story.
00:20:50
Speaker
And then it's really good just to include a little bit about you as an author, whether you're writing full time, whether you've got a day job and whether you've got any experience that's particularly relevant to what you're writing, whether that be life experience, anecdotal, a job,
00:21:07
Speaker
So for example, if you're a retired police detective that's now writing a crime novel, that's something that's really good to include as well.
00:21:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:15
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:16
Speaker
So short and sweet is the name of the game.
00:21:18
Speaker
Definitely.
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:20
Speaker
Okay.
00:21:21
Speaker
That's it.
00:21:21
Speaker
That's good to know.
00:21:22
Speaker
And I think it'd be very helpful for lots of people who are trying to, to, to put together their submissions and I'm sure they'll be happy to hear that short is good.
00:21:32
Speaker
Are there any, um, are there any red flags, whether it be in the, in the, in the query letter or, or the manuscript itself or the synopsis that immediately kind of put you, put you off a submission?
00:21:46
Speaker
Um,
00:21:47
Speaker
One thing that maybe won't put the agent in the greatest of moods is if the query letter is a very clear, generic, cut and paste job rather than being personalized to the person that you're querying.
00:21:59
Speaker
Or if you're querying in a genre that the agent says on their website or on their Twitter that they don't represent, it just kind of shows that you've not really done your research into who you're querying.
00:22:10
Speaker
So I do think it is worth to take the time to really research who you're querying.
00:22:16
Speaker
what they're looking for.
00:22:18
Speaker
If they've said there's anything they don't represent, then really take heed with that and to take the time to personalize your query letter to the specific agency.
00:22:28
Speaker
It's time consuming having to write several versions of the same query letter for the specific person, but it's something that is definitely worth your while to do.
00:22:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:22:38
Speaker
And what the advice I also hear, um, is when you, when you kind of, obviously you're not going to send, well, I mean, you could, but it's unlikely that someone is going to have their finished manuscript and they're going to submit to like one agent and then wait.
00:22:53
Speaker
The usually I hear people's people suggest submit to maybe five to 10 agents and then wait.
00:23:00
Speaker
And once you get responses back, maybe look at another group of agents.
00:23:04
Speaker
Is that about the ballpark that you would recommend?
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, we know realistically that authors aren't just going to be querying us.
00:23:10
Speaker
We know that they're going to be querying in batches or sending out to a really wide pool
Resilience and Feedback in Submissions
00:23:16
Speaker
of people.
00:23:16
Speaker
So it's definitely good to spread the risk by querying in numbers for sure.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yes, but not so many that you can't research each of the agents and you're just doing a huge carbon bombing situation.
00:23:30
Speaker
Don't do that.
00:23:32
Speaker
So what's on your list?
00:23:35
Speaker
What kind of stuff do you represent and what sort of stories and characters are you looking to add to it?
00:23:41
Speaker
So I represent in commercial fiction and at the moment I'm really looking for a cosy crime, whether that's golden age or historical or contemporary.
00:23:54
Speaker
I'd really like it to be in an unusual or an unconventional setting or location, but cosy crime is something that I'm really after.
00:24:03
Speaker
I'd really also love to have a World War II historical from a kind of women's fiction perspective.
00:24:09
Speaker
So rather than it being a thriller in the trenches with lots of guns in the middle of the war zone, I'd like it to be...
00:24:18
Speaker
from a civilian or female perspective, people, normal people with normal lives who are having their everyday existence completely turned upside down by what's happening.
00:24:30
Speaker
Or even when you have a normal person who's then put into the unusual situation of the war, such as having to spy or being put behind enemy lines or something like that.
00:24:42
Speaker
Normal people having their lives turned upside down by conflict is something that
00:24:46
Speaker
I find really interesting to read about in the vein of Heather Morris.
00:24:50
Speaker
That's probably quite a good comparison for something that I'm really looking for at the moment.
00:24:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:56
Speaker
Well, that's great.
00:24:56
Speaker
That's a two very prescriptive, uh, uh, things that you're after that.
00:25:01
Speaker
I'm sure people listening will, will, uh, will love that and they'll get right involved.
00:25:04
Speaker
Um, before we get to the final question, uh, I would like to ask, so for all the aspiring writers out there, what advice would you give to them?
00:25:14
Speaker
Um,
00:25:16
Speaker
if they're trying to make their submissions stand out from the rest?
00:25:21
Speaker
Well, that's a really difficult question because a lot of the time it just comes down to the idea or there being something that appeals to you personally.
00:25:32
Speaker
The only advice I can really give is write really well and have a really good idea.
00:25:37
Speaker
That's probably not helpful at all to any author that's querying.
00:25:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:45
Speaker
In terms of advice, it's definitely good to have resilience when querying because it is a hard road and there is a lot of rejection.
00:25:55
Speaker
But think of it as every no you get is one step closer to a yes.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:00
Speaker
And it's easy to lose sight of the fact that it is a very subjective thing and a rejection doesn't necessarily mean I hated it.
00:26:07
Speaker
It's terrible.
00:26:08
Speaker
It can also mean I have something on my list that's too close to this.
00:26:12
Speaker
My list is too full.
00:26:13
Speaker
Uh, it's just not the right time.
00:26:15
Speaker
You know, there's so many different variables that go into a rejection.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:19
Speaker
And if it's, um,
00:26:21
Speaker
If it's a submission that we've taken to our submissions meeting where we've discussed it between the four of us, or if it's something that we've liked enough to request a full manuscript for but have decided not to represent for various reasons, we will give the author feedback if their submission is to get to either of those points and give them some feedback on why we ultimately decided not to take it on, whether that be, like you said, it being more of a logistical decision
00:26:48
Speaker
such as it being too close to something on our list already, or whether it comes down to something specific to do with the writing or the plot or how marketable it is, we will try to be as helpful as possible in explaining to an author why we ultimately decided not to go with it.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:06
Speaker
Always a good sign when you're getting feedback about your submission from agents.
00:27:12
Speaker
It's always a good sign that you're getting close because generally there's too many submissions for agents to give feedback on everything.
00:27:19
Speaker
But if they're giving feedback, it means that they have, you've been taken to at least one or two steps of consideration closer than a lot of people.
00:27:27
Speaker
Definitely.
00:27:28
Speaker
If you're getting feedback, then you're doing something right.
Desert Island Book Choice and Farewell
00:27:32
Speaker
Okay, great.
00:27:33
Speaker
So that brings us to the final question, which is, as always, Saskia, if you were stranded on a desert island with a single book, which book would you like to have with you?
00:27:45
Speaker
Now, my gut instinct is that I'd want something to be pretty long as I'm going to be stuck for things to do on a desert island.
00:27:52
Speaker
So the first title that came to my mind is The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.
00:27:57
Speaker
But I'm now thinking that this book is so sad and I'm probably going to be pretty miserable already if I'm stranded on a desert island.
00:28:04
Speaker
So maybe I should be taking something a bit more uplifting.
00:28:07
Speaker
But The Book Thief is one of my favorite books of all time.
00:28:10
Speaker
So I think I've got to stick with that, even though it would just make me cry even more.
00:28:16
Speaker
Well, yeah, you've got to stick to your guns.
00:28:18
Speaker
And I think some people have taken sad, sad books as well.
00:28:22
Speaker
Beautiful books though, at the same time.
00:28:25
Speaker
I think it's a great choice.
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:27
Speaker
A lot of the time I'll say the first thing that comes to mind is usually the best, the best option.
00:28:32
Speaker
So a great choice all around.
00:28:34
Speaker
Thank you so much, Saskia, for coming on the podcast and telling us all about your work and how things are going over at Kate Nash Literary Agency.
00:28:42
Speaker
It's been really interesting and really great chatting with you.
00:28:44
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me.
00:28:45
Speaker
It's been fantastic.
00:28:47
Speaker
And for anyone wanting to keep up with what Saskia is doing, you can follow her on Twitter at Saskia Leach underscore or on Instagram at Saskia dot reads.
00:28:58
Speaker
And if you're thinking about submitting, head over to the Kate Nash Literary Agency website.
00:29:04
Speaker
You'll have all of the instructions and details of what you need to do, how you need to shape and form your submission.
00:29:09
Speaker
And then when you send it in, it'll be to the to the communal website.
00:29:12
Speaker
box.
00:29:13
Speaker
Unfortunately, you can't directly target Saskia, but she will be involved if you send that submission in.
00:29:19
Speaker
And to make sure you don't miss an episode of this podcast, follow along on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
00:29:23
Speaker
You can also support the show over on Patreon.
00:29:26
Speaker
And for more bookish chat, check out my other podcast, The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes.
00:29:30
Speaker
Thanks again to Saskia and thanks to everyone listening.
00:29:32
Speaker
We'll catch you in the next episode.