It's time
for another of our agent interviews, and this month Helena Fairfax talks to
Imogen Howson. Imogen is a member of the RNA - and a well-known face to many of
us! We were delighted to hear of her recent appointment as associate agent with the
Kate Nash Literary Agency.
Congratulations
on your new post, Immi, and welcome to the RNA blog!
Please
tell us a little about the Kate Nash Literary Agency and how you came to join.
The Kate Nash Literary Agency is a boutique
literary agency based near Oxford (close enough to London for meetings with
publishers!).
I met Kate at a few RNA events before she opened
to applications for an associate agent, and I really liked, one, that her
agency is boutique, and, two, that Kate is so author focused. Most of my work history has been with a small
company, and it makes me happy to feel that I have a sense of what’s going on
in all its corners. And although working in publishing is about selling books,
I love working with authors and seeing them develop—and hopefully helping them develop. Of course, all
good agents are interested in working with their authors long-term, not just
for one book, but I feel that Kate is particularly author focused, which is a
great agency ethos and one that I’m adopting!
You
previously worked as acquiring editor at Samhain. How much editorial work do
you envisage doing as an agent? For example, if you came across a novel with a
great story that needed a lot of editing, would you accept it and work on it
with the author?
This is actually something where I need to be
careful to rein myself in! As an editor,
you can plunge into a book elbow-deep and work, paragraph by paragraph, with
the author to improve every tiny little nuance and turn of phrase. But as an editor, you’re working with a very
specific idea of what that particular publisher wants, and the reader market
they’re aiming for—and that kind of in-depth editing is what you’re being paid
to do. As an agent, I would want to be
cautious of over-editing a book. Partly
because it’s pretty exhausting for the poor author to have to go through that
twice, and partly because it can’t help but be a subjective process. I would rather focus on big-picture issues
(characterisation, pace, the balance of different plot threads) that will
definitely make the book stronger, and then let the eventual editor do the
fine-tuning.
What I do tend to do, if I read a book that is
basically great but that needs further work to be really great, is ask the author if they’re willing to make
revisions. If they are, then I send
maybe a page or so of suggestions for them, and offer to read the book again
once the author has revised. This shows
me if they’re capable of revising to a publishable standard, and if they’re
willing to. Which, in turn, shows me
whether we’ll work well together!
Which
specific plots or themes would interest you most in women’s fiction/romance?
I like ‘what if?’ themes: What if my husband had
had a vasectomy and I found out I was pregnant?
What if I accidentally killed someone?
What if I had to go into the witness protection program? What if my best friend died and I had to look
after her children? What if I fell in
love with my best friend’s grieving widower?
What if my other best friend
decided she wanted him and tried to kill me?
I also like big supporting casts: in genre romance and
in women’s fiction. I don’t just want
the hero and heroine and a token best friend who acts as matchmaker (or,
alternatively, tries to split them up and kill the heroine). I want fully rounded, believable
relationships, good and bad: friends, colleagues, exes, parents, siblings,
children. I have a special weakness for
well-drawn sister relationships!
Other things I’d love to see are main characters
who don’t come from my own demographic (which is white, straight, cisgender,
middle-class…), marriages/engagements of convenience, anything wedding-themed,
and stories that touch on issues of mental illness and neurodiversity without
being overwhelmed by them. And
twins. And virgin heroines!
During
your career, have you seen certain trends come and go? (eg paranormal romance,
family sagas, etc) And – the million dollar question :) – what do you think
will be the next big thing?
So far my career has been mostly focused on
American trends, because the publisher I worked for was a US-based one. And yes, absolutely. Paranormal romance was a
huge thing up until three or so years ago.
I don’t think it ever took off in the UK in the same way, but we still
got the benefit of the US imports. Twilight, of course, and the Sookie
Stackhouse series, that got made into the TV series True Blood. I wouldn’t like
to try to sell a vampire romance to a traditional publisher right now. Although
I’m sure they’ll come back around!
Romantic suspense has risen a lot in popularity
recently, after having—at least in my experience—flat sales for a long
time. And I’ve been fascinated to see so
many books with cartoon-type covers in the Amazon bestseller lists, because,
again, up until recently those type of covers didn’t seem to sell at all well.
I can tell you what I’d like to become the next big thing!
I’d like fantasy romance to really take off and catch all the fans of Game of Thrones. And I’d like to see the resurgence of
paranormal romance, but with a fresh new face of some kind, because I’m still
not ready to read about more vampires.
Realistically, suspense/thrillers are doing well
right now, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend continues for a
while—possibly with a new twist. There’s
room for them to get a lot darker, while still keeping the small-world,
domestic landscape that made something like The
Girl on the Train (and Kate Nash Agency client Sue Fortin’s The Girl Who Lied) so believable and
therefore so gripping.
Now Sylvia Day’s series that began with Bared to You has finished, I wonder if
there’s still reader appetite for something similar: a single-couple,
multi-book series with a lot of sex and a lot
of drama. Or if, after that and Fifty Shades of Grey, we’re done for the
moment? I do think readers love that
kind of continuing, soap opera-like story, though, and I know I’d like to find
the next one!
What are
you looking forward to most in your new post?
Besides finding the next big thing? Well, I’m loving reading submissions at the
moment. That moment when you open a new
query knowing it could be something fabulous
is always exciting. I’m also looking
forward to acquiring my own clients. I
have a little mental wish list of the sort of writers I’d like to represent,
and I’m hoping to tick them all off over the next year or so. I’m also very much looking forward to
learning more about publishing contracts.
I have some knowledge of them, but in my previous job I didn’t directly
deal with them, and obviously as an agent you do. Fortunately Kate knows all about them, and
I’m learning as fast as I can!
Besides
working full time, you are also a writer yourself. [Imogen
writes YA fiction. Her sci fi novel Linked
was the winner in the YA category for the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year
2014.] How do
you manage to fit in your writing around a busy work schedule?
With difficulty!
Well, actually, by having a strict routine and keeping to a daily word
count. If you write 1000 words a day
you’ll end with a book, no matter how busy you are. And it doesn’t have to be 1000 words in one
go. Also, to be honest, I have a very
helpful and supportive partner and nearly grown-up children. That helps as well!
What’s
your favourite romance novel of all time?
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer. Hands down, no contest. There are a lot that are close runners up,
though!
Which
book have you enjoyed the most in the past twelve months, and why?
I really enjoyed The Originals by Cat Patrick.
It’s a YA about three identical sisters. But they’re not triplets,
they’re clones, and the outside world thinks they’re all the same person. How intriguing is that as a premise?
What do
you like to do in your spare time?
I like to read, go running, bake, drink coffee and
wine with friends, eat cheese, buy dangly earrings, and collect Chalet School
and Sweet Valley High books.
If you
could describe your working-day in just three words, what would they be?
Coffee. Macbook. Emails.
It was lovely getting to know more about you
through the RNA blog, Immi. Thanks so much for your thoughtful and interesting
replies, and wishing you all the best in your new job!
About
Helena:
Helena Fairfax writes
contemporary romance novels, and sometimes branches out into romantic suspense
when she’s in the mood for danger. Subscribers to Helena’s newsletter receive a
free copy of Palace of Deception, a
contemporary romantic suspense novella set in the mysterious and romantic fictional
country of Montverrier.
If you would like to write for
the RNA blog, please contact Elaine Everest on elaineeverest@aol.com
