Sarah Ballard

C&W Agency

Submission status
Open
Submission route
Email
Response time
Aims to reply within 8 weeks
Last checked
15 days ago

About

Sarah is a literary agent at C&W Agency, representing fiction and non-fiction.

She trained in editorial at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton, and was an in-house editor at PFD before becoming a literary agent in her own right in 2008, co-founding United Agents. She joined C&W in 2024, bringing her list of authors with her.

Looking for

  • fiction and non-fiction
  • fiction with a compelling plot or structure overlaying a set of big ideas
  • memoir-ish non-fiction flavoured with obsession and unfolding a hidden agenda
  • meticulously researched history which changes our world view
  • feminism and feminist approaches

Not looking for

  • young adult
  • children's books
  • Sci Fi
  • sagas

Clients include

  • Camilla Barnes
  • Julian Barnes
  • BOSH! (Henry Firth and Ian Theasby)
  • Jane Borodale
  • Emma Bridgewater
  • Lindsay Clarke
  • Felicity Cloake
  • Bridget Collins
  • Nicci French
  • Nicci Gerrard
  • Ben Goldacre
  • John Higgs
  • Tom Hollander
  • Anna Jefferson
  • Lara Maiklem

Agency submission guidelines

Submissions should be sent by email (in .doc or .docx format) directly to the agent to be considered, with contact details listed under agent profiles. Writers should not write to more than one agent; if a book is promising, it will be passed to the person most likely to want to represent it. Postal submissions are not accepted. For fiction, email the first three chapters (or about 50 pages) and a synopsis. The synopsis should be a simplified explanation of the plot in one or two sides listing the theme, setting and characters, from the first to final chapter, rather than a blurb or cover-style teaser. For children's or young adult projects, send the first three chapters or first fifty pages, and a synopsis of the work. Picture book submissions are not currently being accepted. For non-fiction, most books are sold on proposal so the book need not be already written. A thirty-page proposal should include: what the book is about and why it needs to be written and published now; who the writer is and their credentials for writing the book (in the third person); where the book would sit on the shelves, including similar or competing published books; a chapter of sample text (usually taken from an early part of the book, but not the introduction); and an outline of chapters (a page per chapter, written in full prose). For both fiction and non-fiction, a covering letter should also be included giving an account of the background of the book and details of any writing credentials, noting any referral by a trade or personal contact, any prior correspondence with an agent, and whether the project has been or is being seen by other agents or publishers. Material should be typeset so as to be clearly legible, with the writer's name and a contact number and email address included on the first page of the manuscript. Including the title and the writer's name in the file name of the submission is helpful, as many agents read on kindle or tablet.

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