Zeno Literary Agency Ltd.

Here’s a quick snap of John (Thomas Blackthorne) Meaney and Aliette De Bodard at the Forbidden Planet signing last Friday evening (12th Feb). Having signed lord knows how many copies, John is texting his physiotherapist to book a treatment for stressed autographing ligaments, whilst Aliette is in the midst of a video interview with Nick Butler (aka blogger extraordinaire, Loudmouthman).

Signed copies!! Grab them while you can. (And you can, whilst stocks last, by following this link for EDGE and this one for SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD).

John Berlyne will be attending this year’s Writing Industries Conference which takes place on Saturday 6th March 2010 at Loughborough University and is run by the University in association with Writing East Midlands.

The programe is varied and extensive and is designed to ‘bring together writers from across the East Midlands and beyond with professionals from the writing industries to share knowledge, develop skills and make new contacts. The conference is open to anyone with an interest in writing, from unpublished writers who want to learn more to bestselling novelists.’

One of a number of industry professionals in attendance, JB will be conducting a number of 1-2-1 sessions with writers, as well as participating in a panel entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted To Ask An Agent”!

Whilst you’re thinking up any number of fiendish questions, you can find out more about the conference at www.writingindustries.com

Our client Professor Richard Weston, one of whose current projects involves working with images of natural materials and minerals in in the context of fashion and interior design, has sent of news of a recent triumph…

‘Following the Best of British Open Design Call held at Liberty of London on 6 February, which attracted almost 1,000 entrants, I have been chosen to supply a collection of silk scarves. I will also be appearing in a BBC2 series showing products develop from idea to high street shelf, to be presented by Dragons’ Den star Theo Paphitis!‘

For the last five years Richard has been developing a digital database of high-resolution images from natural materials such as minerals and rocks with which to make everything from fashion fabrics to jewellery, architectural glass to rugs and carpets. He comments: ‘I’m delighted at this opportunity because I’ve always seen Liberty as the ideal outlet for much of what I do. But getting into a store of its stature was next to impossible until this radical new approach to finding talent, which was pioneered in New York by Ed Burstell, their new Director of Buying.’

The image above right shows a dress from the “Tectonica” Collection by Sophie Shardelow, made using silk printed with designs from agate.

• Zeno clients Aliette De Bodard and John Meaney (also known as Thomas Blackthorn) will be signing, respectively, SERVANTS OF THE UNDERWORLD and EDGE - their novels published (soon to be published in the case of Mister Meaney / Blackthorn) by Angry Robot. You’ll be able to meet both authors on Friday February 12th at 6pm at the flagship Forbidden Planet megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue.

• And be sure to check out this 5 Star review of Aliette’s novel, posted recently at www.sciencefictionandfantasy.co.uk.

• Prior to the above, John will be one of the participating authors at the SFX Weekender – a two day Sciffy fest taking place on the 5th and 6th of February at Camber Sands – see their web site (link above)  for details. Note that fellow Zeno client Justina Robson will also be in attendance.

• Still with John Meaney, those of you hungrily awaiting the arrival of his brand new space opera ABSORPTION, will, alas, no have to wait a little while long, as publisher Gollancz has had to reschedule the release date – you’ll be able to get hold of it from May 20th.

• And still with John M, he will be attending this year’s Eastercon (over Easter weekend of course) along with other Zeno clients, Susan Boulton, Aliette De Bodard, Michael Cobley, Freda Warrington, Ian R. Macleod and Colin Harvey.  John B will also be there and John P will be there for at least one day. Other clients are still to confirm.

Both Johns will be attending this year’s World Fantasy Convention in San José, California from Oct 29th thru Nov 1st.  Do come and say ‘Hi’.

Man of the moment Lavie Tidhar has been nominated for the Washington Science Fiction Association’s Small Press Award for his story ‘Hard Rain at the Fortean Café‘ which was published in Issue #14 of the now sadly defunct Aeon Speculative Fiction Magazine, edited by Bridget McKenna. Luckily, as this was an online publication, copies are still available for download here.

The award, now in its third year will be presented to the winner at this years Capclave convention, which takes place in Rockville, Maryland, USA from October 16th – 18th.

Our web wizard and tech guru Paul Raven has slipped in a new header jpg above ( be sure refresh this page in your browser folks!) and this reflects our new office address and contact telephone number. Please make a note!

I ran across this (see below next to the bullet point) in my feeds this morning – genre writer John C. Wright (author of nine books and numerous short stories) offers up his…

• 10 Rules on How to be a Writer

… wise, wise words and although perhaps less specific to submitting one’s material to an agent, he’s bang on the button in oh, so many ways.  Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned wordsterlooking for a sale or an agent, take heed!

Thanks to all who sent in their fantasy novel submissions during the recent brief window of opportunity. We opened for a exactly a week and received just under fifty fantasy submissions. Of those fifty I have called for maybe eight samples (which I’m now working through) and so far have only requested one full manuscript. Tough odds, huh?

Interestingly, I was surprised at how few of the submissions we received fell into the area I’m looking for – **and specifically requested**. Not a single submission hit the nail exactly in the head (as outlined in my previous post) – which is worrying. There was also a disproportionately high number (I’d say about 80%!) of stories that centered on angels, or some sort of fight between angels and demons, or a conflict between heaven and hell. This a kickback from the urban fantasy trend which shows no sign of abating – but my feeling is that the market is already saturated with this stuff as it is – and publishers are currently buying up books for publication in 2011 and 2012 when it will be even more saturated. I may be wrong, but at some point the bottom will drop out of the market for this type of fiction and – from what I’ve seen this last week – they’ll be nothing to fill the gap!

Gimme something else, folks! But only when we re-open, please.

From our Submissions Guidlines page…

As of June 10th, we are currently ONLY looking at novels that fit comfortably into the fantasy genre. By this we mean traditional, high, heroic, dark, historical, or urban. Do some research if you don’t know what these subdivisions are.

Carefully note that we’re not looking for anything that attempts to redefine the genre or reinvent the wheel. Nor do we want derivative rehashes of your favourite Sword and Sorcery stories. Be aware that the tale of the great quest to recover the ancient, lost ring of hochty-mochty and thus bring harmony to the warring dwarf kingdoms is extremely unlikely to excite.

In short we want intelligent and commercial fantasy fiction. Need examples? Look at some of the recent market leaders, both in critical and commercial terms… THE FIRST LAW TRILOGY by Joe Abercrombie, Brent Week’s NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY, Patrick Rothfuss’s THE NAME OF THE WIND, Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN sequence, Peter Brett’s THE PAINTED MAN, Steven Erikson’s THE MALAZAN BOOKS OF THE FALLEN  – all of these are excellent examples of what I want to see … and if you’ve not heard of any of these, don’t bother contacting us! Note no mention here of classics like Tolkien, Brooks, Donaldson or even GRRM. We are looking for submissions from folks familiar with the current, cutting edge of market. So, if yours is the next name on this stellar list of fantasy talent, drop us a line.

Yes, we’ve finally got a permanent landline number. It’s 0207 096 0927 (+44 207 096 0927 if you’re calling from abroad!). It’s the same general number for clients, queries, and especially offers. If neither John is available, it’ll go to answerphone and we’ll get back you.