alterean.

Susan Armstrong

C&W Agency

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

About

Susan is a literary agent at Conville & Walsh, representing a broad range of fiction.

She enjoys discovering new and original voices, helping debut writers launch their careers, and working with published novelists who want a change in direction. She looks for strong prose, great storytelling, vivid characters and true originality of vision in the writers she represents.

Genres

Commercial FictionCrimeLiterary FictionPsychological SuspenseThrillerWomen's Fiction

Looking for

  • literary fiction
  • book group/upmarket commercial women's fiction
  • contemporary stories
  • family dramas
  • historical, crime, thrillers and suspense
  • high-quality magical realism
  • speculative fiction i.e. books with an edge of science fiction and fantasy, horror, gothic or 'otherness'
  • romantasy
  • fantasy
  • character-led science-fiction
  • novels that blend genres, are unusual in setting or circumstance, have unexpected twists, have a little darkness, pull at the heart-strings, and/or contain some sort of moral dilemma
  • books that make Susan laugh

Not looking for

  • young adult/children's books
  • memoir
  • non-fiction

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.

Links

Clients include

  • Grace Alexander
  • Claire Anderson-Wheeler
  • Jo Callaghan
  • Joanna Cannon
  • Louisa Carmody
  • Ova Ceren
  • Mary H K Choi
  • Daniel Cole
  • Miranda Cowley Heller
  • Marianne Cronin
  • Grace Flahive
  • Jennifer Galvão
  • Joanna Glen
  • Anne Griffin
  • Katie Gutierrez

Other agents at C&W Agency