Margaret is an Agent and Head of Rights at PEW Literary.
She joined the agency in 2018 and now handles its translation rights. She studied English at Oxford and has worked for publishing houses and literary agencies on both sides of the Atlantic, including ICM and Rogers, Coleridge & White. In recent years she has begun to develop her own list of authors, focusing mainly on fiction.
Submissions are accepted by both post and email. How to send: for email, send work to submissions@pewliterary.com. For post, send work to Submissions, PEW Literary, 46 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LP. Do not send a stamped addressed envelope, as manuscripts will be recycled after reading; include an email address so a response can be sent. Formatting: submissions should be in Word or PDF format and 1.5 or double-spaced, accompanied by a cover letter telling a little about the writer. AI policy: submissions that have been written using generative AI are not accepted. Use of AI-powered editing tools is discouraged, except for standard spelling and grammar checks. Writers should disclose where AI has been used for research or for creating additional materials such as images or diagrams. Fiction: submit the opening three chapters (or fifty pages) along with a synopsis giving a clear explanation of the plot from first to final chapter, plus a brief cover letter about the writer. Non-fiction: fully written submissions will be considered, but most non-fiction titles are sold on proposal. A proposal should be approximately thirty pages long and address what the book is about and why it needs to be published, who the writer is and why they are the ideal person to write the book, a summary of the market including similar or competing published books, a sample chapter (usually from an early part of the book, not the introduction), and an outline of chapters (a page per chapter, written in full prose). What not to submit: children's picture books, poetry, books aimed entirely at an academic market, and scripts for film, TV or theatre are not represented, although dramatic rights of writers' work are represented.
They do not accept submissions that have been written using generative AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Doug is an associate agent at PEW Literary. He has worked in the book industry for over three decades, including 17 years as a publishing director at Penguin Random House. He joined PEW in 2019. He is drawn to non-fiction such as history, popular science, politics and memoir, as well as the occasional off-the-wall novel.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Historical Non-Fiction · Literary Fiction · Memoir +3 more
Patrick is a literary agent at PEW Literary. He was born and brought up in Venezuela and studied law at Cambridge before becoming an agent. He co-founded Conville & Walsh in 2000, later selling it to Curtis Brown, before founding PEW Literary in 2016.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Historical Non-Fiction · Literary Fiction +3 more
Rachel is a literary agent at Mushens Entertainment, representing both literary and commercial fiction with a preference for darker stories. She began her publishing career at HarperCollins before working as an editor at Hachette for six years, most recently as a Commissioning Editor at Orion. She joined Mushens Entertainment in 2022 and became a Literary Agent in 2023 after covering Juliet Mushens' maternity leave.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Fantasy · Horror +7 more
Laura is an associate literary agent at the Liverpool Literary Agency. She studied Writing at Liverpool John Moores University, gaining a BA and later an MA, after an early career in teaching that included working with young adults with special needs and in further education. She moved into editing after her teaching career and also works as a freelance writer, having written for a video game and several roleplaying games.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Cosy Mystery · Crime · Fantasy +12 more
Clare heads the Liverpool Literary Agency, which she set up in 2020 to address inequality and underrepresentation in publishing. She has more than 20 years' experience of writing and editing professionally, and has published two novels. She has a background in PR and marketing, and has taught on creative writing programmes, giving her experience in pitching and promoting writers.
Genres:Crime · Historical Fiction · Psychological Suspense · Thriller · Women's Fiction
Karolina is known for launching successful debuts in literary and upmarket commercial fiction, as well as shepherding long-term literary careers. She works across literary fiction, crime and psychological suspense, historical fiction, serious non-fiction and memoir, and remains open to new voices, including traditional storytellers and those challenging form and convention. She has worked with many admired novelists, journalists, academics and public figures, including winners of the Booker Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize. In 2020, she was named Agent of the Year at the British Book Awards.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Contemporary Fiction · Crime · Historical Fiction · Literary Fiction +3 more
Adam heads the books division at PFD and represents a wide range of prize-winning and bestselling authors, among them Sunday Times and New York Times names. He joined the company in 2010, after completing a Masters in English Literature at King's College London. The Bookseller named him its Shooting Star in 2017.
Genres:Commercial Fiction · Crime · Historical Fiction · Historical Non-Fiction · Memoir +5 more
John is a genre-fiction Literary Agent at Peters Fraser + Dunlop, specialising in fantasy, science fiction, horror, and commercial crime and thriller for adult and young adult readers. His authors have won the Future Worlds Prize and the Imagined Futures Prize and been shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, the British Science Fiction Association and British Fantasy awards, the Shirley Jackson Awards and the Bram Stoker Awards, with titles on the Sunday Times and USA Today bestseller charts and work adapted for global cinema by Oscar-winning collaborators.
Genres:Crime · Fantasy · Horror · Science Fiction · Thriller +1 more
