Submission status
Open
Submission route
Email
Response time
Aims to reply within 6 weeks
Last checked
5 days ago

About

Oli is a literary agent at A.M. Heath, representing both fiction and non-fiction authors.

He has a wonderfully varied list, with a particular strength in award-winning, bestselling authors of crime, suspense and thrillers. He has given talks to writers' groups, university courses and international book fairs, and was a Frankfurt Book Fair Fellow in 2010. He is a former committee member of the Association of Authors' Agents.

Looking for

  • commercial fiction that has the Holy Trinity of pace, plot and character
  • books that have a clear pitch, a hook that has him immediately wanting to know more
  • award-winning, bestselling authors of crime, suspense, and thrillers
  • speculative fiction with high concept plots in the vein of Lauren Beukes, Sarah Lotz and Kate Mascarenhas
  • horror, particularly novels which hold a mirror up to society, showing the evils and inequalities lurking beneath the surface
  • commercial fiction with an emotional heart
  • compelling underdog stories with unlikely heroes and heroines
  • sports writing
  • narrative non-fiction exploring contemporary social issues
  • great storytellers who bring an original, often personal, take to a subject
  • existing authors who fancy a bit of reinvention
  • scriptwriters who have turned their work into a novel

Not looking for

  • the type of science fiction or fantasy that would solely be found on the science fiction and fantasy table of a bookshop

Clients include

  • Mari Hannah
  • Nadine Matheson
  • Julia Chapman
  • Terry Deary
  • Stephanie Butland
  • Adharanand Finn
  • Kate Mayfield

Agency submission guidelines

Submissions are accepted online only, via the submission form; paper submissions are no longer accepted. What to send: a covering letter (maximum 500 words), a summary of the work (maximum 1,500 words), and the first 10,000 words of the submission. These can be typed directly into the form or copied and pasted from elsewhere. Rule: Submissions must be the original work of the author and not generated, co-written or edited using artificial intelligence. Covering letter: State the genre and market the book fits into, with a brief sense of the concept and story. Include background about the author, such as interests, job, creative writing courses, prior publishing experience, or prizes won or shortlisted for. Non-fiction submissions should mention any relevant platform or profile. Summary: For fiction, the summary should expand briefly on the covering letter to give a sense of plot and characters and where the story is going, without needing to use the full 1,500-word limit.

Agency AI policy

Submissions must be the original work of the author and not generated or co-written using artificial intelligence.

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