Hello & welcome
Q & A with Charlotte and Kay
Photo by Thea Courtney
We’re so excited to launch our agency together – we both have a passion for stories and for making the path to publication as open as possible for as many people as possible. We will be posting articles, interviews and Q & As with industry insiders each month but to kick this off we thought we’d [drum roll…] interview each other! Hopefully this gives you some insight into what books mean to us, our background and what we hope to achieve at Colwill & Peddle.
KP: Charlotte, I’m thrilled we found each other and will be working together to bring new stories out into the world. Before Colwill & Peddle what was your life in books?
CC: It is so exciting, I can’t wait. I did a Master’s in publishing at LCC but then I got a job at Daunt Books and fell in love with bookselling. I was a bookseller for 10 years, finishing at the wonderful Foyles Charing Cross Road running their children’s section. How about you?
KP: I don’t think I knew that you did a Master’s degree in publishing too! I did an MA in international publishing at Oxford Brookes and then went on to work at Vintage – first as a marketing assistant then as an editor at The Bodley Head. I left Vintage to help launch the online human rights Literary magazine Lacuna and then started my own literary agency in 2019. In between all of these career markers I had three children and moved country twice. I’ve had books to steady me along this journey though and am always interested in the books that shape and steady people through life’s challenges and triumphs. What are the books that have shaped you?
CC: Oh I agree, I remember the books that I read to get over certain relationships more than I do the relationships themselves. I re-read East of Eden by John Steinbeck whenever I want to escape into a book and remember what’s important (really good books). Certain books made me want to be an agent – I wish I had discovered Will Storr for brilliant non-fiction and Elys Dolan for hilarious children’s stories. How about you? What drew you to non-fiction in particular?
KP: That’s a good question. I sort of fell into non-fiction. I worked for a wonderful non-fiction publisher who had encouraged me to apply to be his editorial assistant and I almost didn’t apply for that job because I wanted to work on fiction. I did apply for that job and a new world opened up to me – each book I worked on felt like a university degree (in a good way!) From medieval history to political memoir: each book revealed something fascinating about the world we live in. (Related but different point: it also showed me that even experts suffer from imposter syndrome – every author gets the pre-publication jitters.) I need to read East of Eden! The novel that I think about often is Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga – I read this at university and it still resonates with me today. Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller is a memoir about the author’s childhood in Africa shot through with tragedy and humour. What books are you hoping to find next?
CC: I’m really excited about the appetite out there for romance fiction at the moment, because it had previously been quite looked down on, but it can be so many things and so joyous. And I’d love to see romance with an unusual twist or from a different perspective. And in kids’ I would love to find an author/illustrator with a really funny style or a unique world to bring to the market, and also home-grown YA fantasy that is truly new and can appeal to bookish adults too. What are you excited to find for the agency?
KP: I’d love to find an expert in an unusual field who can tell us about their world in an entertaining and illuminating way. I would also love to find a writer who can write about the everyday in a way that offers meaningful resonance to readers – whether that’s about motherhood, work, relationships, cooking or just being human.
CC: I would love to read all of those books! What do you love best about being an agent so far?
KP: I love that it’s such a collaborative job: that, as someone’s agent, you really do stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the writer and feel the same highs and lows. Hopefully many more highs than lows. It’s a creative and strategic job and it an incredibly diverse as on any given day I could be combing through a contract or manuscript or eating delicious food at a photoshoot. I can’t wait to get to work (especially if it means more delicious food)! What’s your favourite part of the job?
CC: That’s all so true. I think the best part is telling an author that they’ve received an offer for their book and they realise they are going to be a published author. Being able to make someone’s dreams come true (cheesy as that sounds) is the best thing.