I work for Elspeth Cochrane Personal Management and I'm in charge of the 'slush pile'. Yes, I'm afraid I'm the unpopular person who writes all those rejection letters. But before you charge at me waving your pitchforks, I thought I should point out that I am desperately looking for new writers. After months of trawling through material that ranges from unbelievably dreadful, to nearly publishable, and all the shades of grey in-between, I'm starting to despair! I know there are plenty of talented writers out there, but it's tricky for us to find them and even more tricky to find one that matches the agent.
So, however foolhardy it may be, I'm giving an open invitation to submit your work to us.
I'm not sure what this site's directory has to say about the agency, but we've been around for fifty years and Elspeth has earned a much respected standing in the writing community.
So, onto the details. If you're interested, please send
1. A covering letter.
2. A synopsis of your novel.
3. A stamped, addressed, envelope.
4. And please, nothing else, at this stage.
Contact details can be found in the Writer's Handbook and please allow 4-6 weeks for a response.
As to what I'm looking for, it's always so hard to specify. But I can tell you what I don't want. Please, no life stories/memoirs, no children's fiction, no romance; no non-fiction, no self-help.
Historical fiction is acceptable as long as it's not fantasy based.
For fantasy and science fiction themselves, please consider carefully. I'm open to suggestions, but you must be wholly confident that it's nothing like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, and that you've really got something new to say. (Sorry, have to be quite harsh on that one).
As for what I'd like to see and hardly ever do. Well, fiction with a political angle or fiction that responds to current world events; comedy fiction (seriously funny); original chick/bloke lit (but again, please consider carefully and feel sure that you've got a new angle on it); general 'literary/contemporary' fiction.
So there you have it, hope I've given enough detail. I'll check this posting to keep an eye on things and I hope it's ok for me to put this up in the first place. I wasn't sure which forum to use, so apologies if I have inadvertently gone to the wrong place.
Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon.


<Added>

For those of you only just coming to this post, it has been updated. Please see the last page of this thread, or the Update post in the Getting Published forum for the new submission criteria. Thanks.

<Added>

Sorry - better put a date in here - 19.01.2004

<Added>

Yet another update I'm afraid. As of 23.01.2004 our books are closed due to the great response we've had from this posting.
Many thanks to all of you who sent your work in and I'll let you know when we're looking again.

Oh dear! So sorry; disaster posting this, didn't mean to do it more than once but my computer kept going blank! Apologies to all, and if there's any way of erasing the excess, please feel free!

Hello,

I'm so glad someone else does things like downloading/uploading/offloading resulting in three hundred and sixty seven copies of the same item. Elspeth, welcome to the Idiots'Club... well, the others call themselves IT Experts. In my Club we are all IC Experts. Regards Len

Hello Elspeth - it was great to read your forum piece - it felt so positive - I'm sure you will get quite a few people from WW responding - and so I am off now to read a bit more about Elspeth Cochrane Personal Management and the type of work that you might be looking for.

Andrew )

Hi Elspeth, I'll be along to dig you out from under the deluge of brown envelopes later in the week...

The internet. The most advanced communication tool known to man. Typical of all advanced human technologies, it doesn't work properly.

How lovely to see some smiley faces and positive comments (and I'm glad I'm not the only one who's made that computer gaffe!) I can't wait to see what turns up in the post over the next couple of weeks and thanks for the welcome.

Hello Elspeth,
It was very strange to see I'd re-joined ww. I rarely come across other Elspeths (especially in France). I have nothing to send but will spread the word!

Yours
Elspeth

I guess you're not actually Elspeth, since you work for one, though of course you might be...anyway, Elspeth (?) many thanks for alerting WW members to the need for good quality writing. I'm sure people will oblige! I don't have any material which fits within your categories but I do edit the WW Directory. I will transfer an edited version of what you have written to the Elspeth Cochrane entry but please let me know as and when you want things to he changed - the point about the WW Directory is that we do our best to keep it constantly up to date.

I should say, also, to WW members; don't bother to dash to the bookshop to find the contact details for the Elspeth Cochrane agency! - just type 'Elspeth' or 'Cochrane' or both into the Directory search box and the details will be almost instantly revealed.

Wonders of the web.

Richard.

Thank you Richard for updating our entry, and once I'm drowning in a sea of brown envelopes I'll let you know if any alterations should be made. I've already received a couple of submissions, which is great, and thanks for supporting my search!
Oh, and yes, I'm not actually the great Elspeth herself, my name's Katie, but that was already taken as a user name so I had to borrow hers!
By the way, if anyone has any queries about the agency or what they want to submit, just post them up as I'm checking this forum everyday.

Katie - how nice to know your real name x
Andrew )


<Added>

(apologies for kiss have been drinking wine)

Hi.
It's good to see some agents are actually looking for new writers. I've sent my synopsis and sample chapters to a few, but despite the praise I've received, they tend to say they're not looking for new writers - at least, not in the genre in which I'm currently writing.
I usually take this to be a fob off.
Before I send my synopsis, I just wondered if you were interested in reading a contemporary gay thriller? Or does your agency not look at these kinds of works? I thought it'd be good to ask in advance if my envelope is worth the stamp stuck to it - before you tell me my story isn't worth the paper it's printed on
James B.



[Edited by david bruce at 01:03 on 24 October 2003
Reason: duplicate post removed]

I confess - I've written similar letters myself. Sometimes it's true and our books are full and other times it's just the easiest way to reply to twenty enquiries. For most agents they simply don't have the time for detailed responses, but if I read a sample of the book itself I always try to give feedback in the hope of earning the cost of the stamp!

As to your book, I'm not really sure to be honest! We have several thriller writers and I know we've looked at a couple of thrillers that had a gay detective as the main protagonist, so I wouldn't rule it out. My only thought would be an obvious one which I'm sure you've already considered - but there must be some agents who have more experience of publishing books that fall into 'gay literature' as it were. Having said that, I'll gladly have a look at the synopsis and if you're worried about the stamp then e-mail it to me.

Hello Katie / Elspeth,

Great to see you in the Forum, just a query. I see you are emphatic about not reading any life stories or memoirs, does this preclude fiction with a semi autobiographical tone?

For all of you who've been involved in this forum thread, there is an interview with Katie from Elspeth Cochrane on the site now! so check out what she has to say- lots of useful stuff in there.
Anna, writewords.org.uk