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This month I'1000 starting a new interview series with people from the publishing industry. I'll be asking them exactly what their jobs entail, what they similar about them, and what they don't. I'll exist interviewing editors, agents, designers, publicists, sales people and many others. To kick off, today I'm posting an interview with Susannah Godman, the person who reads all the manuscript submissions received past Lutyens & Rubinstein, a literary agency based in London.

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Claire: What exactly is it you lot do as a reader for a literary agency?
Susannah: I piece of work at domicile then all our unsolicited submissions come up into an email address.  I log them onto paper for my records (which I type up for the role grid), have a quick look, call anything promising in, highlight annihilation else that is promising to read start, reject anything completely unsuitable and and so they go read and considered in turn.

C: Roughly how many submissions does Lutyens & Rubinstein [L&R] get in a month, say?
South: I've never counted them, but well over iii hundred…

C: And so you phone call in the full manuscript from those you similar? How many is that? How much of them practise you read before you decide whether it's a yes or a no? What percentage of them go through?
South: Whole manuscripts I've called in?  No more than 10 a month probably.  I endeavor and cease as soon as it is a no, sometimes carry on.  Oh, as well tiny a percentage to measure I'1000 agape.

C: It sounds like a perfect chore: to exist paid to read. How did yous get to practice this for a living?
South: I went to work at L&R virtually xx years ago as office assistant (I was a Waterstone'due south Bookseller in Charing Cantankerous Road before that), when I was their only full fourth dimension employee. With their assist I worked my style up to being the Foreign Rights person, and eventually had a few clients of my own too.  All that time I also read the submissions pile, which was a proper tower of paper and so, so am quite good at knowing what every amanuensis at L&R would like.

C: What'south your boilerplate 24-hour interval similar?
S: Sitting at a laptop in the dining room.  I'k office time cocky-employed at present, and then try not to spend all twenty-four hour period on it, although I do more than than my designated hours considering I love information technology and sitting down is nicer than housework.

C: About things are nicer than firm work. Do you lot actually telephone call the unsolicited manuscripts you get sent a slush pile?
South: I might do…

C: What kind of person do y'all retrieve you lot need to be to exist a reader?
S: I'yard non sure I could read for anyone else, but am well attuned to what the agents at L&R would love.  Unremarkably.

C: What about your own preferences for books you like to read? Practice y'all endeavour to quash them?
S: I don't really demand to.  I like all sorts of things.

C: Practice you likewise run across the roofing letters and synopsis?
S: Yes, If they've sent them in. I effort not to look at the synopsis until I've read the chapters, only a good letter does make one prick up ane's ears.

C: Interesting. What makes a good letter for you?
Due south: The sort that makes you quite want to meet its writer:  warmth, lack of bumptiousness, unforced humour if advisable, near the writer as a person rather than a grade letter (I don't hateful screes and screes: all this can come across in a couple of sentences).  Some messages are brilliant only then the volume isn't, which is always a huge disappointment and i just wants to say, gently, Simply Be You.  Oh and DO find out who to accost your submission to, if you tin can.

C: What do you lot love about what y'all do and what's not so skilful?
S: I love reading, and there is such multifariousness coming in, I love it when I find something wonderful and pass information technology on to the office, and I try to make my rejections bland but kind.  A cross rejectee once responded with 'Lick my boots, bitch' but that is mercifully rare, and she apologised a YEAR later, claiming to have been hacked…

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The agency is in the basement of Lutyens & Rubinstein bookshop in London

C: Hah! Sounds unlikely. What almost the craziest submission you've received?
Southward: Oh, guided by the spirit of Lady Di, or the actual crazy stuff from people who conspicuously have mental health problems, which actually is the worst thing about this job considering it does make one worry virtually them.

C: Are there things that put you off a manuscript?
South: Sometimes y'all can just tell the author is a wrong'un (sexist, racist, that sort of thing).

C: Practise you always manage to read for pleasure now?
S: Of form, merely not every bit much as when I lived in London and commuted for upwards of two hours a 24-hour interval.  I sort of miss that. Unhelpfully, I recently read an old volume about donkeys called People With Long Ears by Robin Borwick, and Miss Mole by E.H Young, and A Big Storm Knocked it Over by Laurie Colwin.

C: Thank you so much Susannah. 1 final question –  what communication would you give to unpublished writers who are submitting their work?
S: Write a nice, human alphabetic character to the right person if you lot can.  Do multiple submissions rather than one at a time (the beauty of computers, no stamps).  Gently nudge if y'all've waited forever.

To submit a manuscript to Lutyens & Rubinstein, visit their website to find out exactly what they're looking for and how they'd like to receive information technology.

Do let me know what you retrieve well-nigh this interview and my plans for the series, in the comments below.

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Read my interview with a literary agent
Read my interview with a Publishing Managing director at Fig Tree / Penguin
Read my interview with an Fine art Director at Can House
Read my interview with a Foreign Rights Agent in a literary agency
Read my interview with an Editor at Tin Firm
Read my interview with a Translator

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Swimming Lessons

My second novel, Pond Lessons, will exist published in January 2017 in the UK, and Canada, and February 2017 in the USA. Click on the country links to pre-gild.