Our Promises to Authors
Before you sign with us:
We will approach your submission with optimism and care.
However, we do reject the capitalist pull to urgency in response. We know that the wait is painful, but we will read your submission at a time when we can give it our full attention and consideration.
We will only offer advice where we think there is a fundamental and fixable issue that would be industry wide – otherwise we are only offering our personal opinion and other agents may feel differently.
If we offer you representation we will give you as much time as you need to make your decision. We want you to explore all of your options and choose the best fit agent for you.
We will always arrange either an in-person meeting where time and location allow, or a zoom call if not, to discuss representation. We strive to be inclusive – and if you need accommodations for this (such as captions on a zoom call, or keeping the camera off, or having a support person with you for conversations about your work) please let us know when we discuss the meeting.
After you sign with us:
To act with honesty and integrity
We will always work in your best interests. We will present you with all the options and offer advice but be led by your decisions. We will always share news, even when it isn’t what you want to hear.
To take time and take care
We understand the instinct to want to get your book out on submission to publishers as soon as possible, but we reject urgency that comes at the expense of the work, the writer or ourselves. We will always take the time to give your manuscript the care and attention it needs to give you the best chance of securing a publishing deal. We will honour both our own, and your, capacity (in terms of health, other responsibilities and head space) and while we will endeavour to do this in a timely fashion, we are often not in full control of our schedules – but we won’t rush through editorial work to meet an arbitrary timeframe when that isn’t in the best interests of the project.
To work collaboratively
Our editorial notes are always a point of discussion not a list of demands. We want you to be proud of your work and we will work with you to help you write the best book you can.
To communicate
We are happy to make ourselves available for conversations about your work in whatever form works best for you – just email us to arrange a time that works for both of us. We will do our best to communicate about delays to edits etc, but never mind you checking in. Not hearing from us is never a sign that there’s an issue (because we act with integrity and would have already told you) – we simply haven’t managed to do what we need to do before coming back to you yet.
When you join our client list you get access to our HS-LA author group on Discord where you’ll find advice about what to expect as you move towards publication and beyond, moral support, a fantastic community of authors to help you find your feet and a forum to ask anything you’re not sure about. We will make ourselves available in the forum regularly.
We also keep a live catalogue of authors open to working to brief which we share regularly with editors who create IP projects and are looking for writers for specific projects and you are welcome to add yourself to that if it’s something you’re interested in.