Ask the Industry Expert: Abby Saul

Welcome to Helena Fairfax who brings us another in her series of interviews with literary agents. This month Abby Saul of Browne & Miller Literary Associates answers Helena’s questions.

Please tell us a little about Browne & Miller Literary Associates and how you came to join.

Browne & Miller Literary Associates is Chicago's premier literary agency, specializing in full-service representation of a select clientele. Our tastes are broad and eclectic and we value exceptional writing and very fine storytelling above all else. Founded as “Multimedia Product Development, Inc.” in 1971 by the late Jane Jordan Browne, the agency became known as Browne & Miller Literary Associates after Danielle Egan-Miller joined Jane as her partner. Danielle became president and Joanna MacKenzie joined the agency in 2003. The agency currently represents more than 100 authors.

I joined Browne & Miller in 2013 after starting my career on the production and digital publishing side of the industry, first at John Wiley & Sons and then at Sourcebooks. I had interned for the agency in 2007 and stayed in touch with Danielle and Joanna as publishing took me to New York and then back to Chicago. Becoming a part of the agency was the perfect next step for me, a fantastic use of my well-honed publishing and reading skills.

Are you ever approached by British authors for representation? And do you perceive any problems representing an author who lives outside the US, or has it become irrelevant in this digital age?

Yes, we are often approached by British authors for representation—it seems to be happening more and more, which is great! There was a time where we felt there was a problem with representing someone outside the US, but no more. We’ve had an exciting start to 2016 with several new clients, including two British authors (one who lives in Scotland, one who lives in Singapore). Skype and FaceTime and email are wonderful things, and we’re making good use of them.  

Are there any specific plots or themes you’re seeking in women’s fiction/romance?

Browne & Miller is always looking for good stories told well, so we’re open to all sorts of plots and themes in women’s fiction and romance. That being said, we each have our own faves (Danielle loves hot and steamy, Joanna loves firsts—first kiss, first love). I particularly love stories where something from the past influences the present (whether that’s a past mystery, a historical happening, a found letter, etc), as well as projects where setting is practically the third protagonist in the love story. I’m a sucker for a crumbling house, a misty moor, a sun-warmed beach house…

And is there anything you’re tired of seeing in the slush pile?

I’m tired of seeing romance where the main conflict could be solved with a single forthright conversation (ugh!). Does no one speak to one another?

What do you enjoy most about your job? And least?

My job is great! I most enjoy reading fantastic manuscripts and working with amazing authors. It’s the best. There is very little I dislike about my job, but the most heartbreaking, for sure, is that rare instance where I love a project and can’t find a home for it.

Are there any websites/blogs/podcasts you regularly visit that you would recommend?

One of the book websites I regularly visit and always highly recommend is Goodreads. For those of us who are big readers, it’s a great spot to track what we’ve read and find new recommendations from other bookish people. (If you aren’t tracking what you read every year, I encourage you to do so! It’s a lovely form of journaling, and sites like Goodreads make it very easy.)

What’s your favourite romance novel of all time?

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier or I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. (You’ll see from my choices that I’m a total Anglophile—many of my all-time favorite books are by British authors!)

Apart from your own authors, which book have you enjoyed the most in the past twelve months, and why?

Oh my, I’ve read so many wonderful books in the past twelve months! So as to not go on and on, I’m forced to categorize and limit myself to only four: For romance reads, my favorite has probably been Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley. For “I was so completely charmed” reads, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. For big, literary, all-consuming-no-sleep reads, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. For mysterious and stressful reads, The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Read, of course! But also hike, binge the latest Netflix or BBC show, and play games with friends and family.

If you could describe your working day in just three words, what would they be?

Read, problem-solve, repeat.

Thank you Abby and Helena.

Link to Browne & Miller Literary Associates

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Nicola Cornick: The art of suspense

Thank you so much to Nicola Cornick for writing today’s article and giving us much food for thought on how to add suspense into our writing.

I’ve always enjoyed adding a bit of intrigue to my historical romances but when it came to writing a big romantic historical mystery novel I knew I was going to have to weave a whole lot more suspense into the story. For a pantser writer like me, plotting 3 different timelines was a bit of a nightmare in

itself but I knew that the art of writing a suspenseful story needed more than tight plotting. It needed twists and turns, that element of surprise that makes readers think: “I didn’t see that coming” and it needed PTQ, page-turning quality to keep them reading until 4am.

One of the best ways to learn is to study the masters of the particular skill you want to develop and so I turned to my heroes, to Mary Stewart, Daphne Du Maurier and Susanna Kearsley. “I met him in the street called Strait” Mary Stewart writes at the beginning of The Gabriel Hounds, and I’m hooked already by that hint of exoticism and the need to know who “he” is.  Daphne Du Maurier is another author who uses atmosphere for great suspenseful effect, building up the reader’s journey back into time in Frenchman’s Creek until you are there with her characters centuries before.  For me, a sense of atmosphere and place can contribute a great deal to a story as you wait on tenterhooks for something you know is about to happen…

In a podcast on suspense, thriller writer Harlan Coben says that he always knows the ending of his books and the final twist and surprise. Once he knows where he is heading he can lead the reader astray on the way. He uses misdirection and plays with readers’ perceptions so that they think they know how a story is unfolding but then he springs a surprise.

Harlan Coben distinguishes between suspense, which is keeping the reader gripped and turning the pages, and surprise, which happens when the books takes you somewhere you didn’t expect. He suggests that a corpse is useful for creating suspense – readers want to know who committed the crime – but that he finds a missing person more interesting.  Anything that allows for an element of hope raises the stakes in a suspense novel.

Research into suspenseful films, TV programmes and books has suggested that an average of three plot twists is the optimum to use. Too few twists and readers are bored; too many and they are overwhelmed. You need a balance between these two states and it is better that the twists grow organically from the story rather than appearing from left field. Sometimes, though, a great twist can be too much. This happened to me when I got to the end of House of Shadows. I had a wonderful idea for an epilogue, something that added a huge final twist and put an entirely different slant on the end of the story. Alas, this was a twist too far. My editor suggested I take it out – unless I was planning a sequel!

Another way in which to create suspense is to build up the emotional investment the characters have in their home, family, friends, all the things that are important to them. As they wrestle with problems and difficulties you can cut to the people who are really significant to them as a way of emphasising the conflicts they are going through.

As I mentioned, that final twist is very important but at the same time a romantic suspense novel has to do exactly what all other romantic novels do and be a powerful and human story. So when you hit your readers with that final surprise, it not only has to make them gasp with shock but it also has to move them emotionally.

Links:

Amazon

Blog

Thank you, Nicola and good luck with House of Shadows.

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