Literary agent Caroline Montgomery of Rupert Crew Ltd reminds us that writing is a craft to be worked at
Caroline Montgomery
Caroline Montgomery is a literary agent at Rupert Crew Ltd, a company started early on in the 20th century by F. Rupert Crew. Originally, the company was run by Rupert and his wife, Kathleen. Caroline’s mother Doreen Montgomery later joined the agency as Rupert’s assistant, and subsequently took over the running of the agency along with Kathleen’s assistant Shirley Russell. Caroline joined the company in 1993, focusing on the field of fiction. Caroline offers us some tips on getting past the slush piles.
What inspired you to become a literary agent?
You could say that publishing is in my blood although I didn’t realise that as a child. Literary agenting was just something my mother did (she was then MD at Rupert Crew) and I didn’t think too hard about it one way or the other.
I harboured dreams of being an international show-jumper or maybe an antiques’ expert (I watched endless episodes of the Antiques Roadshow). By the time I came to graduate I hadn’t got a clue what I wanted to do - until a close friend told me that I really wasn’t fit for anything but publishing!
What’s your professional background?
I was lucky - I secured a job working as an editorial assistant at Arrow Paperbacks within six weeks of graduation. I hadn’t gone the conventional English degree route opting, instead, for Classical Studies and History of Art, but I’d worked at Rupert Crew during the holidays, so I had some experience of office practice.
I was there for almost two years and learned so much working with wonderful people like Jane Wood, Maria Rejt, Deborah Beale and Oliver Johnson. But I knew that being an editor wasn’t for me and started to look around for something else.
Paul Sidey at Hutchinson happened to mention that the Elaine Greene agency (now Greene and Heaton) was looking for a new assistant. I applied and that was when my career in agency started. The late Elaine Greene and her partner, Carol Heaton, were incredible mentors and I was privileged to be able to work with an enviable stable of authors - PD James, Colin Forbes, William Shawcross, Bill Bryson to name but few.
But three years down the line I wanted to gain experience in different fields - TV, Translation and so on, and started to put out feelers in those directions.
How did you come to return to Rupert Crew Ltd?
Fate took a hand in a very unpleasant way. Doreen’s partner at the agency, Shirley Russell, had battled breast cancer successfully some three or four years earlier but she suddenly started to experience symptoms which sadly proved to be a recurrence of the disease.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, my father collapsed at the same time and we were told he probably only had six months to live. Amazingly, he pulled through although he suffered from degenerative illness for the next ten years, which meant my mother and I had to be active carers. It was a terrible time but it was clearly the right time for me to make the move “home” and I joined RCL in May 1993. Shirley died in September 1994.
What makes Rupert Crew different to other literary agencies?
Well, it’s very much a family firm - founded in 1927 by the late Rupert Crew, he and his wife ran the agency for many years with Rupert focusing on non-fiction projects and his wife, Kathleen, handling the fiction. We’ve always prided ourselves on being a small, hands-on agency - boutique if you like - and we aim to establish long-term relationships with our authors - not flit from project to project.
We want to be there for our authors through good times and bad. Of course, some relationships do founder, but most have stood the test of time.
What kind of books do you take on?
You only have to look at our website to see that ours is a very catholic list representing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction.
I love crime, psychological thrillers, good women’s fiction, historical fiction and quirky non-fiction. I don’t handle any SF, Fantasy or picture books - I simply don’t have a feel for them.
In recent years I’ve been increasingly active in the children’s market - Sue Bentley’s highly successful Magic Kitten series at the younger end of the spectrum and Mark Barratt (Joe Rat) and Echo Freer (Magenta Orange) catering for the tween/teen readership.
On the non-fiction front, we have biography, history, natural history - our big Autumn title is Mark Carwardine’s very fabulous Last Chance to See (as seen on TV!) - personal development, health, craft and cookery.
But we have a variety of other titles which will be appearing for the Christmas market including Max Décharné’s Straight From the Fridge, Dad - A Dictionary of Hipster Slang, which is now in its third edition, a new novel from Cathi Unsworth called Bad Penny Blues and the paperback of Rebecca Jenkins’ historical mystery The Duke’s Agent.
And, of course, we spend a lot of time caring for our backlist luminaries like Barbara Cartland and Cecil Beaton.
Which publishing houses have you worked with?
The usual suspects - Penguin, Random House, Hodder & Stoughton, HarperCollins, Little, Brown, Orion, Simon & Schuster, Harlequin, Serpent’s Tail, Quercus, Allison & Busby… the list goes on
What happens to a submission once it reaches your office?
As I’ve said, we’re a small, hands-on agency, so we take on very few new writers. The majority of new clients have come via personal recommendation rather than the slush pile. But all submissions are acknowledged, even if it’s just to say that we cannot accommodate them.
What do you look for in a submission?
A succinct and well-crafted covering letter that indicates the author has the right credentials to write about a certain subject-area and has researched the marketplace and the type of material we handle.
You wouldn’t believe the number of approaches we receive from people asking us to consider their poetry, screenplays, SF and Fantasy scripts! And there is no bigger turn-off than receiving sloppily-presented material filled with typos and grammatical inconsistencies.
How can a new author get past the slush pile?
See above but, of course, it also takes talent and a degree of luck - having the right concept at the right time. Publishers are very keen on high-concept projects.
Don’t tell the publisher/agent that you have 25 manuscripts in different genres just waiting for them to be read. Focus on one project/series idea at a time. In that respect, less is definitely more.
Once you have accepted a manuscript for representation, what happens next?
Very few manuscripts are “submission-ready”, so I generally get together with the author to discuss editorial points, suggest revisions, and so on. Once we are both happy with the project, I start to make submissions to relevant editors.
If a topic is time-sensitive or especially “hot” for one reason or another, we offer material on limited multiple submission, setting a deadline and hopefully resulting in an auction situation. But obviously not every project is like that, so the submission process is generally more measured. I keep authors informed all the way along the line.
What is your favourite part of the process?
There’s very little that I don’t love about my job but I guess my favourite part of the process is talking about new ideas and editorial brainstorming. Oh, and telling a client that I’ve sold their book. That’s always special.
What is the most challenging part of it?
The homogenous and celebrity-orientated marketplace. There are plenty of wonderful writers out there who get overlooked because they don’t have that celebrity marketing hook. The other thing which is hugely frustrating is the length of time it takes for some editors to respond.
Whose writing has excited you recently?
Aside from my own authors, Stieg Larsson and CJ Samson are among my current favourites but I don’t get much time to read for pleasure, alas.
What would you say the main challenges are for an aspiring author?
The current marketplace and the assumption that they are going to be able to make a living from it. Very few do.
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
First of all, don’t give up the day job.
Second, it’s a craft like any other which needs to be honed, so don’t expect your first efforts to be snapped up; you have to be realistic.
Research the marketplace, don’t mix up your genres - bookstores will only stock you in one section.
Read widely, join creative writing classes, attend literary festivals and pay attention to what is being published by keeping an eye on the trade press. Above all, enjoy the creative process!
For more information, please visit www.rupertcrew.co.uk
Other literary agencies featured in this series include Annette Green Author’s Agency, the Marsh Agency, the Ampersand Agency and Curtis Brown
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Interesting to read about someone from a publishing family - and great advice about working out your genre from the onset and sticking to it.
Helpful advice, especially about focusing just on selling the one project. I think I may have made that mistake with some publishers I’ve approached … ‘and if you don’t like my gothic horror-style novel about blood running down corridors, perhaps you’d like my comic masterpiece’. Okay, I’m exaggerating, but it was something like that.