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DHH literary agency are holding a pitching event aimed at increasing accesibility for writers outside the southeast! Yay. It’s in York, which honestly, not north. But we take what we can, I guess!
http://www.dhhliteraryagency.com/blog/pitch-dhh-york
The event is on Dec 1st, but you have to submit and then they’ll invite you to pitch. Check the blog for the agents you can pitch to. The submission window is 21st Sept to 25th Oct.
I think they are to be congratulated. They say will choose the writers who can pitch from the submissions they receive.
Thank you for this, Raine, most interesting. I’m not sure if I can get mine to a pitchable standard in time, but I’m tempted to give it a go, perhaps squeezing a late submission as they only want to see the opener. Then, if lucky, I’ll have another 5 weeks to work on the rest. Or does this sound a little too frantic?
Prob worth asking, @jd73. It says not eligible to anyone who’s attended previous pitching sessions, but nothing about previous subs. Maybe pitch to a different agent?
@janette, yeah chuck one in. There’s probably a fairly small chance of actually being selected to pitch, so no harm in trying out.
@Raine they replied saying if the MS had been turned down and not re-worked, then don’t resubmit, but if it has been reworked and the writer feels it could benefit from another look, then repitch. That answers that! I’ll have to check to see what I sent.
I might have a go at this, although none of the agents specifically mentions historical fiction so I guess I’d be limited to the one who says genre fiction. Does anyone know anything about the agency please?
I have had no contact with any agencies so far – am tempted to indie publish as I do for my non-fiction – but I fancy dipping my toe in the water. An agency that is prepared to come north even when it’s only as far as York gets extra brownie points in my view!
@jd73 that’s good news! I guess just make sure the first 3 chapters are different to the old version!
@juliec The agency are a big-ish well established one, with some big name authors and all that jazz. And yeah, any agency actively looking at diversity and accessibility is a good agency, to my mind. 🙂@juliec not really other than what they say on their site and twitter feed. I do know that they tend to be one of these “if you don’t hear back from us, assume it’s a no” which is why I never heard back from them… I queried Hannah Sheppard before (YA), but I think I will go with Harry Illingworth (SFF) this time.
What an astounding event. I can’t imagine any NY or Parisian agents heading two hours north to find new talent.
I wonder what the ambiance will be. Writers waiting in little rooms, or a more open event where they can mingle with one another?
@jd73, I asked that very question during York’s “meet the agents” panel. And they were unanimous in saying that if the manuscripts had been revamped then we could repitch, saying as much.
@Juliec, why NOT give it a go. The worst you can do is lose a little time.Good luck to all!
@giselle, I was wondering about the set up too. Will it be like job interviews? Erk.
And yeah, it’s great that they are doing this. BUt also really sad that it’s so exceptional, and demonstrates just how London-centric the industry is – that two hours north constitutes venturing into exotic territory!!
@juliecordiner: lots of agents are looking for historical fiction at the moment (it’s the latest trend…), so any agents that represent “fiction” will probably be interested. Go for it!
Crikey. I’m quite tempted and I am a solid South-Easterner. But 2 hours on the train is hardly a no-no.
There are quite a few independent presses and publishers in the north, and there’s a great sense of coalition about them all. I’m going to a talk-to-the-publisher with Bluemoose Books (the ones that published the Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers) at a literary fest in town in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they’ll have reviewed my MS by then. I’ll bring along a spare copy just in case they haven’t got to it yet hehe 😉
@jd73 Bluemoose are supposed to be really good aren’t they? One of the big hitter indies. So good luck with them!
@bellam if you are southeast, keep an eye out cos there are loads more of these kinds of things in and around London. Are you on Twitter? They are forever coming up on my TL, and always down south somewhere (sigh).What counts though as historical fiction? Look at Wiki, and you’ll get a variety of answers. My own novel, set in the 1980s and 90s would count as historical by the 25-year definition, while it wouldn’t by the 50-year definition.
If I could pitch it as historical as well as supernatural, it would really open up my options.@juliec – DHH is David Headley’s agency. David is also a bookseller, owning Goldsboro Books, which hosts some big events like Crime in the Court, and he became an agent in 2008. He knows the business from an unusual – but useful – angle. The agency has grown steadily. I met him a few times at York, in the early days of FoW. At that time, I think he was operating solo. He took on a children’s author on my recommendation and also passed another author to me for a critique. I always found him good to work with. Go for it!
Thanks Giselle, Phillipa and Debi for the info and encouragement. Good to hear interest is rising in hist fic – it seems to go with austerity I reckon!
Hi Alan – mine is Victorian so definitely historical.
I need to reconsider my opening, but due to work commitments I’m unlikely to achieve a rewrite of that in time for the submission. But I guess the purpose is more to see your writing style, so I will send it as it is with a new synopsis that addresses the things from my MS assessment that need to be changed. Nothing to lose!@Julie, Probably the most enjoyable novel I’ve read this century is ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’, which is set in Victorian times.
Histfic can definitely have mainstream appeal. Seems as though one of Juliet Mushens’ biggest successes as an agent recently was with The Miniaturist. Though I gather Juliet is interested in history. The blogpost about how that novel was pitched to her is interesting. I think the link was posted somewhere around here. Go for it
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