Rowan Lawton

The Soho Agency

Submission status
Open
Submission route
Email
Response time
Not stated
Last checked
14 days ago

About

Rowan joined The Soho Agency in 2019 after almost two decades in the industry.

She started her agenting career at WME and latterly ran Furniss Lawton, the literary division of YMU. Her authors are Sunday Times, Kindle, Apple and Audible number one bestsellers, and have been awarded and shortlisted for prizes including the British Book Awards, the Crime Writers' Association Daggers, the Irish Book Awards, the Sunday Times Sports Book Award and Romantic Novel of the Year. She has judged fiction prizes including Richard & Judy Search for a Bestseller, the Bristol Short Story Prize and the Blue Pencil First Novel Award, and was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2012.

Genres

Commercial FictionContemporary FictionCrimeHistorical FictionLiterary FictionMemoirNarrative Non-FictionRomanceSelf-HelpThriller

Looking for

  • commercial, well-written genre fiction, particularly romantic comedy, crime and thrillers
  • accessible, page-turning literary and reading group novels
  • narrative non-fiction, often but not always written by women
  • moving and inspiring upmarket memoirs
  • narrative personal development
  • a love story, especially one with a twist, the more daring the better, or one sweeping in scope, contemporary or set against a Victorian or twentieth century onwards backdrop
  • high concept contemporary romance and romantic comedy with a strong voice
  • tightly plotted crime novels featuring female leads and compelling plots, regional even better
  • novels that use the crime and thriller genre to explore broader social issues
  • conversation-starting novels that hit on moral or emotional issues
  • emotional family drama
  • single or solo parenthood
  • diverse families
  • multi-generational ensemble novels
  • books that make her cry, or cry laughing

Not looking for

  • poetry
  • textbooks

Agency submission guidelines

Submissions are by email only. General submissions go to sohoagencysubmissions@gmail.com; children's, young adult and artwork to sohoagencychildrenssubmissions@gmail.com. Address your work to the agent you feel is the best fit, or to The Soho Agency Submissions if you are unsure. What to send: the first three chapters or first thirty pages, or the complete text if it is for young children and under 1,000 words, ideally in Word format. Include a synopsis with spoilers and a covering letter that pitches the book. Worth knowing: physical submissions are not accepted. The agency does not represent poetry or textbooks, and champions human creativity only. Given the volume received, it replies only to submissions it wishes to pursue.

Agency AI policy

The agency says it only champions human creativity, representing work shaped by authentic imagination, craft and dedication.

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