Finlay Charlesworth

About

Finlay is an Associate Agent at Blake Friedmann, building a list of non-fiction and select fiction.

Finlay joined the agency in 2022 after completing an MA in Publishing at University College London. Finlay works closely with Juliet Pickering and Isobel Dixon, and has worked with the Estates of Gilbert Adair, Tatamkhulu Afrika and K. Sello Duiker.

Genres

Agency submission guidelines

Submissions are accepted by email only; postal submissions are not accepted. Submit to only one agent at a time; agents will pass work to a colleague if it seems better suited. Children's books are not represented. Send an introductory email with a synopsis and writing sample as Microsoft Word (.doc or.docx) attachments (no PDFs, Pages or external links such as Google Docs); include the book title and author's name in the subject line, and a covering letter as the body of the email introducing the book (genre, comparative titles, blurb, relevant experience). For fiction: attach a full synopsis of 250-300 words covering the whole story including the ending, plus the first three chapters or first 10,000 words (not later chapters). For non-fiction: attach an introductory email with a proposal including a synopsis of up to 500 words, a chapter plan for the entire work with a paragraph on each chapter, and two sample chapters (one being the introduction/opening chapter); the total proposal is often around 10,000 words.

Agency AI policy

AI-originated, written or edited material (including cover letters or synopses) is not accepted.

Links

Clients include

• Gianmarco Contino

Other agents at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

• Isobel Dixon

  Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

  Isobel is MD and Head of Books at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, where she represents writers from around the world, including bestsellers and international prize winners. Her clients' work spans contemporary, historical and literary fiction, crime and thrillers, memoir, biography and narrative history. She was born and educated in South Africa and in Edinburgh, where she completed master's degrees in English Literature and Applied Linguistics.

  Genres:Biography · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction +3 more

  Open

  Last checked 10 days ago

• Julian Friedmann

  Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

  Julian represents script writers and book writers across a broad range of genres and formats. He started as an editor for two academic publishers in the early 1970s before setting up his own publishing company. He set up a literary agency in 1976, later merging with Carole Blake to form Blake Friedmann. He has lectured worldwide on the business of scriptwriting and published two books on the subject.

  Genres:Crime · Thriller

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  Last checked 4 days ago

• Juliet Pickering

  Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

  Juliet is a director at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, representing fiction and non-fiction writers. She worked at Waterstones before joining A P Watt in 2003, then moved to Blake Friedmann in 2013, becoming Vice Head of the Book Department in 2017 and a Director in 2020. In 2021 she won the Romantic Novelists' Association Agent of the Year Award.

  Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Food & Drink · Literary Fiction · Narrative Non-Fiction

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• Kate Burke

  Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

  Kate is a literary agent at Blake Friedmann representing crime, thriller and women's fiction writers. She was previously an editor for ten years, publishing fiction at Penguin, HarperCollins and Random House. Over the past ten years as an agent, she has built up a wide-ranging list of prize-winning and bestselling crime and thriller writers, and authors of contemporary and historical women's fiction. Her editorial background gives her a hands-on approach, editing and developing authors' work with a view to building long-term writing careers.

  Genres:Crime · Historical Fiction · Thriller · Women's Fiction

  Open

  Last checked 10 days ago

• Siân Ellis-Martin

  Blake Friedmann Literary Agency

  Siân represents authors across a range of fiction and non-fiction, from commercial to the accessible end of the literary spectrum, at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency. She is keen to hear from authors whose voices are underrepresented in publishing. It matters to her to work with authors from a wide variety of backgrounds.

  Genres:Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Food & Drink · Historical Fiction · Narrative Non-Fiction +4 more

  Open

  Last checked 10 days ago