I started Portobello Literary in Spring 2022 and went full time at the end of June 2022. So while I feel approximately 1,000 years old, I’m actually only in my third year of agenting.
There have been ups-and-downs and I have learned SO much from my peers, but I will never regret the jump to agenting. It is such a delight to support authors on their journey to publication. While I initially planned to split my list 50% fiction and 50% non-fiction, it’s now roughly 70% non-fiction and 30% fiction (though a few authors do both). I also did a handful of deals for children’s books but those were non-fiction/poetry commissions for the educational market from existing authors, rather than me venturing in children’s publishing.
The best part of having a few years of agenting under my belt is that some of the books I sold are now published! Check these out:
Non-Fiction
Moving Mountains: Writing Nature Through Illness and Disability, edited by Louise Kenward
Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better by Polly Atkin (UK) Some of Us Just Fall (US) — Some Of Us Just Fall won the 2024 Cumbria Lakeland Book Award and was longlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Nature Writing Prize.
This Allotment anthology, edited by Sarah Rigby featuring essays from JC Niala and Jenny Chamarette
The Ghost Lake: A Memoir of Grief, Nature and Ancestry in Rural Yorkshire by Wendy Pratt
The Language of Trees by Katie Holten
The Company of Owls by Polly Atkin
Poetry
Them! by Harry Josephine Giles — Highly Commended in The Forward Prizes for Poetry
My Granny is a Crocodile! (Collins Big Cat) by Sarah Forbes, illustrated by Elissambura
My City and Me anthology, including poems by Russell Jones
Fiction
Ruby Hastings Writes Her Own Story (Collins Big Cat) by Rachel Charlton-Dailey, illustrated by Betsy Falco
How We Named The Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica — Named One of the 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2024 by The Observer and A Barnes and Noble Discover pick for February 2024
There are plenty more books coming up next year so I’ll tell you more about them next week!
Thank you so much for joining me in my first few months of Substack, and to my amazing authors on here who have been so helpful!
Hope you all have a gorgeous Hogmanay and wishing you all the very best for 2025!
Until next time, keep reading!
Caro
And what a fabulous group of books you've agented! A gorgeous collection.
Hurrah for year three of agenting!
May Porty go from strength to strength in 2025!