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Our #CleanProseTalks with Literary Agent Samar Hammam of @rockingbooks starts in 5 minutes! We& #39;ll be live-tweeting in this thread 
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Our host Laura: "Samar, can you talk about your experience as an agent in the current situation? What has changed? What hasn& #39;t changed?"
Samar @rockingbooks "Everyone& #39;s been sent home so lots of people are having to do two jobs at once...Editors aren& #39;t able to work...For independent publishing houses some people are now the whole team...Book sales have fallen off, it& #39;s not being made up for in digital sales."
Samar @rockingbooks "We& #39;re still being told to acquire books as we& #39;re not going to be in lock-down forever and we& #39;re going to need books for 2021 and 2022...Things are evolving..." #CleanProseTalks
Our host Laura: "How do you expect the submissions process to be affected my Covid-19?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "I& #39;m getting a lot more submissions, and a lot more submissions that I think are good, I think people have the time not necessarily to write but to sort their submissions out." #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "Usually an author sends you their work, there& #39;s back and forth...that can take a few months but it can also take a year. There will likely be an editing process with your agent." #CleanProseTalks
A question from one of our Instagram followers, nicola_dawn "Do you think a recession would affect how many clients are taken on/books are published?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "I don& #39;t think it will affect the number of books being taken on by agents, but I think it will affect the number of books being taken on by publishers." #CleanProseTalks
Our host Laura "Are you looking for anything in particular at the moment?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "I work across genres...I like things to be original, but have a twist...all the stuff that I find that I enjoy tends to have something that makes me think & #39;I want to know more about it, I want to work with them [the author]& #39;..." #CleanProseTalks
Our host Laura: "When you read a manuscript do you love something in the first five pages? How long does it take you to decide to keep reading?"
#CleanProseTalks
#CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "When you submit to an agent the first few pages are vital...I look at voice, is this a voice I want to spend 8 hours with? If there& #39;s a good writing voice, you stay, because of course you can& #39;t get the plot immediately..." #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "...You have to make those decisions quickly, and of course it& #39;s very subjective" #CleanProseTalks
Our director @cleanproseshar1 "When working with an author towards a publishing deal, what’s your top piece of advice? I.e, What can authors do to make your job easier?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "The one thing you can do is give me a book that& #39;s amazing. There& #39;s so much I can do with that..Toby, who I used to work with, said & #39;I can probably count the number of amazing books I& #39;ve worked on.& #39;.. We do great books..." #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "...But the ones that are exquisite are rare...so as an agent, part of your job is figuring out how to get the best deal for a very good book...I get great books, my job is to use all the tricks of the toolbox I have to get those voices heard." #CleanProseTalks
Our director @cleanproseshar1 "Do you encourage authors to develop their own online platforms to become more attractive to publishers marketing the book?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "Everyone plays this differently...different editors have different attitudes...I don& #39;t like to massively push with that...there are some genres where that& #39;s more important...with rom coms it really does help if the author is available..." #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "...Most people nowadays are...I& #39;m less interested in social media than my authors." #CleanProseTalks
One of our guests, Shirley "...You mentioned how important first pages are...My first pages are deliberately very fragmented...will agents be put off by such a fragmented start?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "A lot of it is subjective...I don& #39;t think many agents would be put off by that start...but a lot of being an agent is guiding the writers so it depends...I think what counts is if the voice is working and the narrative is working..." #CleanProseTalks
One of our guests Elaine "Do you think there will be a boost for historical fiction and a boost for books with happy endings because of this?" #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "...I think comedy [books] will play a great part...I always think comedy and horror go well together...I& #39;ve not thought about historical fiction, maybe..." #CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "I would expect an enquiry letter to be like the back of a book...I would expect, as an agent, that I would be better than an author at putting an enquiry letter together so I& #39;m quite lenient...+ the publishers can do it better than agents..."
#CleanProseTalks
#CleanProseTalks
Samar @rockingbooks "Non-fiction submissions are different to fiction submissions...you don& #39;t need a whole manuscript, just a chapter to see if the voice is compelling...in terms of subject, I& #39;ll try anything, I& #39;m open..." #CleanProseTalks
