Louise Buckley

Photo Credit: Clare Hughes Photography

About Louise

Louise Buckley has worked in publishing for fifteen years. She was inspired to enter the publishing industry after completing an MA in Creative Writing and then spent a hugely enjoyable year working as a bookseller for Waterstones, wishing that she could have a hand in publishing books.

After a year working at Dorling Kindersley, she then spent almost five years working in the commercial fiction division at Pan Macmillan, where she published a mix of commercial bestsellers and award-winning authors.

Most recently, she was an Associate Literary Agent at Zeno Agency Ltd. As an agent she represented a roster of commercial and literary fiction, and select non-fiction, including Anne Griffin’s When All is Said, which spent five weeks at number one in Ireland and sold into 17 territories.

She is delighted to be working with Hannah at Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency.

What Louise is looking for:

Adult fiction 

I am currently really enjoying the horror resurgence and would love some more horror for my list. I’m looking for all types of horror from the more literary, suspenseful horror along the lines of Andrew Michael Hurley to the more commercial like Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. I am also a big fan of horror mash-ups, especially body transformation horror such as Nightbitch, and horror mixed with, say, vampires, in the vein of Hungerstone or The Lamb. I would also love to see some dark academia. Think If We Were Villains or In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, and I am a huge fan of gothic horror, so would love to see something that’s a modern-day Shirley Jackson or Rebecca.

I am looking for literary and book-club novels that focus on the underdog, the repressed, the suppressed, especially novels that represent working-class people or children going through difficult circumstances (think Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal or Boys Don’t Cry by FÍona Scarlett). And I’m all for relationship-driven novels that emphasise messy relationships, like Blue Sisters, or mix humour and heart with something a little darker, like The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I would love to see a literary crime novel, too; something very smart.

I love a ‘high-concept’ time-slip/time-travel or parallel universes story, especially if it’s a romance, too. I’d love to see some rom-coms (favourite authors include Emily Henry, Kirsty Greenwood and the inimitable Mhairi McFarlane), cosy romance in the vein of The Pumpkin Spice Café or with a stunning location like The Riviera House Swap by Gillian Harvey or The Start of Something Wonderful by Jessica Redland, and cosy rom-coms with a Christmas slant along the lines of One Christmas Eve by Shari Low or Christmas at the Village Sewing Shop by Helen Rolfe.

I would LOVE to see some cosy fantasy. Think witches, magical bookshops, talking cats. I really enjoyed Legends and Lattes and The House in the Cerulean Sea. I also enjoy novels set in the real world but featuring a hefty dose of magic or the supernatural. They can be commercial or literary, present-day or historical. Think Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Threadneedle by Cari Thomas, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness or The Gifts by Liz Hyder.

I am a huge fan of dystopian fiction and would love to find some that offers a fresh take on a classic trope – something that mixes the compulsiveness of The Hunger Games with the bold and philosophical ideas in The Giver, but for adults.

More generally, I would also love to see novels with a disabled protagonist or someone (like myself) who is living with an invisible disability.

Adult non-fiction

In non-fiction, I would love to see any submissions that focus on motherhood, especially through the lens of a scientific or neurological perspective. I am also interested in books in the following areas: health and well-being, cookery and food writing, human and social behaviour and psychology, climate change, gardening and permaculture and nature writing.

I am NOT currently looking for:

-romantasy

-epic, traditional fantasy

-space opera

-traditional, issues-led ‘women’s fiction’

-children’s books

-Science fantasy

-Short stories or novellas

-Police procedurals

-Memoir

-Books featuring any of the following: war or war veterans, Covid, AI or robots

Find my favourite recent reads here and follow me on Twitter & Instagram.

Please use the submission form to send your work for consideration – but note that we are only open for submissions for the first week of each month.