🎙 INTERVIEW: In Conversation with Literary Agent and Author Sam Copeland
​** This is a LIVE interview with author and literary agent Sam Copeland about the craft of writing and reality of building a writing career. Attendees will be sent a recording after the interview. **
​Sam Copeland knows the publishing industry from all sides. As an agent, he represents a list of bestselling authors of both literary and commercial fiction spanning many genres. Sam is also an award-winning children’s author whose work has been translated into 27 languages.Â
​Join us for a conversation with Sam as we discuss what agents are really looking for, how he decides which writers to represent, and how his understanding of the publishing landscape informs his own decisions as a writer.Â
​We’ll also explore:
​What he’s looking for in submissions
​How to stand out to agents
​Trends Sam is seeing in the marketplaceÂ
​Sam’s journey to become a children’s author
​His views on self-publishing
​About Sam CopelandÂ
​Sam Copeland was shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year at the 2020 and 2021 British Book Awards and selected for the Bookseller's Most Influential People in Publishing in 2020. He was a bookseller for a number of years, before starting in publishing in 2001. He joined RCW Literary Agency in 2006 and became a director in 2016. He has an extremely diverse list of award-winning and bestselling authors, representing writers of both literary and commercial fiction and all genres (including book group, upmarket fiction, crime and thrillers, speculative fiction and historical fiction - although he isn't looking at SF and fantasy at the moment), children’s and YA, and a smattering of quality non-fiction, and is always open to submissions of the highest standard. He is excited by debuts!
​His writers have won or been shortlisted for over 20 major prizes including the Booker, Costa, National Book Awards, Carnegie, Waterstone’s Book of the Year, Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, Irish Book Awards, CWA Dagger, Dylan Thomas, Theakston’s, Branford Boase, Eisner and Arthur C Clarke and many more.
​He welcomes e-mail submissions and can be contacted on sam@rcwlitagency.com. His associate is honor@rcwlitagency.com. Due to the amount of submissions he receives, please assume if you have not heard within eight weeks, sadly it is a pass.Â
​He is also a children’s author and has had four books published. The Waterstones Children's Book of the Year shortlisted Charlie Changes series (Penguin Random House 2019, 2020) and the Sunday Times Book of the Week Uma and the Answer to Absolutely Everything (Penguin Random House 2021). He has been translated into 27 languages. You can find his author website here – www.sam-copeland.com
​Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
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​Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
​Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
​Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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