Creative Writing Masterclass – How to Find a Literary Agent with Jemima Forrester

Email h.tarlo@shu.ac.uk for Zoom link to join

Jemima Forrester, literary agent at David Higham Associates, will discuss the role of the agent in an author’s career, from being offered representation and preparing your work for submission, through to finding a publisher, having your first book published and beyond. She will discuss strategies for submission, what agents look for in new authors and how to decide which agent is right for you. Having been both an editor and an agent, she will also talk about the role of the editor and how that relationship differs from the author–agent relationship.

Jemima Forrester joined David Higham Associates in September 2016 having previously been senior commissioning editor at Orion Publishing Group where she worked with authors including Ian Rankin, Joanne Harris and Denise Mina. She is currently building her list as an agent and is looking for commercial and upmarket fiction, including crime and thrillers, psychological suspense, accessible literary fiction, women’s fiction and speculative/high-concept novels. She loves distinctive narrative voices, well-paced, intriguing plots and characters that leap off the page. Her favourite books of recent years include Elizabeth is Missing, Disclaimer, Life After Life, The Night Circus, Me Before You and anything by Jo Nesbø, Margaret Atwood or Curtis Sittenfeld. In non-fiction, she is looking for popular-culture and lifestyle projects, strong feminist voices, unique personal stories and humour.