Donna Greaves

Colwill & Peddle

Submission status
Closed
Submission route
Email
Response time
Assume no reply = no after 12 weeks
Last checked
8 days ago

About

Donna is an agent at Colwill & Peddle, building a list across adult commercial, book club and accessible literary fiction, and non-fiction.

She joined the agency in 2025, having previously spent seven years at Jo Unwin Literary Agency. Before working in publishing, she trained and worked as a speech and language therapist in the NHS.

Looking for

  • voice-led narratives, unconventional settings and people, and humour, as well as rich, immersive storytelling that interweaves cultural, political or historical context
  • stories that can translate across genres and mediums, to reach a wide audience
  • stories that are as captivating in audiobook as they are on the page, and that lend themselves to film and TV adaptation
  • traditional crime series with great atmosphere and page-turning mystery, in the vein of Elly Griffiths and Val McDermid
  • books with off-beat characters, uncommon settings, and subversive and playful storytelling, such as The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley, The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff, The Woman Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo, and The Trees by Percival Everett
  • books that are witchy, or capture the horror and adventure of being human, and books with crossover potential
  • an atmospheric, magical book to get lost in
  • books that use a personal lens through which to explore a culture, identity, community, or period in history, as well as narrative projects about intriguing and unusual lives, jobs and experiences, such as Evie King's Ashes to Admin and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
  • popular science and psychology that is accessible in tone or written from a personal perspective, and similarly with true crime e.g. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara and Raised by a Serial Killer by April Balascio
  • books that connect us to our past and examine the world through popular culture, tradition and history, including books about 'scenes', music or otherwise, in the manner of Jeffrey Boakye and Lloyd Bradley
  • non-fiction that makes knowledge accessible, helps readers feel seen, and/or is good laugh

Agency submission guidelines

The agency represents a broad range of writers but does not represent screenplys, scripts or poetry, and does not accept work written or enhanced by AI. Writers based outside the UK, including the USA, are not accepted. Fiction and children's: only Charlotte represents children's fiction. Submit by email to submissions@colwillandpeddle.com with subject line FAO [agent] [genre] [title] by [author name]. Submit to only one agent at a time. What to send (fiction/children's): a cover letter about the writer and their writing background, a synopsis (preferably no longer than a page of A4), and the first chapter of the work. Non-fiction: most non-fiction books are sold on proposal, so the whole book need not be written yet, though full manuscripts are accepted, especially for memoir. Submit by email to submissions@colwillandpeddle.com with subject line FAO [agent] [genre] [title] by [author name]. Submit to only one agent at a time. What to send (non-fiction): in the body of the email, a brief pitch of around 300 words. Attach a single Word document (.doc/.docx) containing a cover letter and a proposal covering: what the book is about and why it is important and original; a brief biography of the writer and why they are the person to write the book now, including relevant links to previous writing or academic research/publications; competing titles or similar projects; a chapter or sample of the book of at least 10,000 words; and an outline of the book's chapters. After submitting: keep the agency posted on any offer of representation or a wish to withdraw. Do not submit revised proposals unless asked to. The agency cannot give detailed feedback on, or correspond about, rejected proposals.

Agency AI policy

They do not accept work that has been written or enhanced by AI (artificial intelligence).

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