Hi everyone, and today on the blog I’m delighted to interview literary agent Ludo Cinelli. I asked Ludo some questions about what it’s like to be a literary agent, what he enjoys most about his job and how many submissions the agency receives.
Over to you, Ludo…
1) What is a routine/typical morning for you, when you get to the office?
When I get in, I’ll usually clear my inbox first, either doing tasks as I go along or putting them in my to-do list for later. Then I’ll get started ticking jobs off that list depending on their urgency. The jobs will be varied; I might check a royalty statement, then write some notes for an edit, then write a submission email to a publisher. In a boutique agency like ours, with a very small team, we all share even the most basic admin tasks and we all have input on high-level decisions and strategizing, so my work days tend to be very different from each other.
2) What do you enjoy most about being an agent?
I love the variety of the job. No two clients are the same and no two books are the same, so things never get boring. Plus, the feeling of accomplishment when you see a finished copy of a book, having followed the process from its conception, is priceless.
3) What does your afternoon/weekday evening entail?
At least once a week I’ll try to have a call or meeting scheduled with an editor I haven’t met or haven’t been in touch with in a while, as it’s important to foster those relationships when doing deals. I may have a call with a client to see how they’re getting on with their next book, or continue with tasks and/or reading from the morning.
In the evenings, my wife and I love to cook and try new restaurants. We watch good and bad films and when I’m not too brain-fried from reading for work, I read novels and narrative non-fiction for pleasure.
4) How would you describe being an agent to someone unfamiliar with the industry?
A literary agent handles most of the business side of a writer’s career. Our job is to apply expertise of the publishing industry to the careers of our exceptionally creative and skilled writers. We also have to find those writers, whether that’s from them submitting work to us, or us going to networking events, or reading publications where great unagented writers might be publishing, or scouting people with good platforms on social media. It’s our job to defend our writers’ interests in all dealings with their publisher(s) and to maximise the income they receive from their writing.
5) When is your best time to read submissions? How many do the agency receive on average?
Across fiction, non-fiction and children’s books, we receive over 10,000 submissions a year – usually about 30 a day. We have expert first readers passing on the ones they think are most promising and, most importantly, the best fit for us as an agency.
Once the readers send a submission on, it’ll go in a “to be read” folder and I’ll try to dip into that once or twice a day, interspersing it with other jobs. In general, I’m a much quicker and more efficient reader in the mornings. I don’t like reading lots of submissions in one go as I can get fatigued and my judgment can be clouded. If I love something and request the full manuscript, I’ll usually have to read it on a Friday (which we try to keep as a reading day) or over the weekend.
Thank you for your time today, Ludo. It has been a pleasure to interview you.
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