Originally from Dublin, Sallyanne left to do an MPhil in American Literature at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and never looked back. She started her career with Watson, Little Ltd before joining Mulcahy Associates as an agent in 2013. In 2020, Sallyanne became a director of the literary agency leading it to be renamed Mulcahy Sweeney Associates. The agency now comes under the umbrella of MMB Creative, as the book division, but Sallyanne still sees the agency as being boutique with the bonus of being able to crossover and work with clients who might be screenwriters or actors who are writing, and of course, the links with film and TV are there too.
What is fascinating about Sallyanne is that, unlike many other agents, she doesn’t tie herself down to representing a couple of genres. Sallyanne’s list is broad and compromises children’s authors (from picture books to young adult), adult fiction from the literary to the very commercial, memoirs, narrative non-fiction, and food writing. This feels like as good a start as any to begin our interview and I ask Sallyanne how she manages to juggle all of these genres. She tells me that because they’re a small agency they’ve been able to represent whatever interests them. It keeps her fresh and her knowledge of editors is vast. It also keeps things interesting and means she doesn’t have multiple things on submission with the same editor. Also, as the market shifts regularly, it’s good to be agile.
From what Sallyanne has been hearing, the trends at the moment are stories that are uplifting and hopeful in some form. However, she is always wary of trends and authors trying to fit into them as even if a writer gets a book deal now it’s probably going to be 2025 before the book is published. She advises the writer to write a book that only you can write.
The percentage of submissions versus what an agent might request the full manuscript for and then ultimately take on is tiny. But Sallyanne says that if something is good enough, it will rise to the top and get noticed by the right agent. You just need the right person to believe in it. Her top tips for submitting are first and foremost don’t send your work too soon. If you have a niggling feeling that something isn’t quite right with your story then hold on and try and fix it. Even though most agents are editorial, and Sallyanne loves working with authors editorially, they are also time-poor so your work needs to be the best you can make it.
With your cover letter, less is more, make it concise and stand proudly behind your work. You need to show that you are a reader as well as a writer and that you understand the genre you’re writing in and the market for it. When it comes to the pitch, work on it. You’ve put all that hard work into your manuscript so make sure you put the same effort into thinking about your pitch.
Following the guidelines for each agency will put you immediately ahead of about half of the people that submit. The submission process is slightly different than most with Mulcahy Sweeney and they ask for a synopsis of just 200 words. This, Sallyanne tells me, forces the author to think a bit more and it does kind of weed out the people who just want to do a mass mail out to lots of agents, as well as being efficient for the agents considering submissions.
The synopsis is probably the thing that really stresses authors out and for Sallyanne, it’s the least important part of the whole package. She tends to read the cover letter first and then go straight to the writing. If the writing doesn’t grab her, she won’t even look at the synopsis. So don’t worry about it; nobody’s ever been rejected because of a synopsis or taken on because they’ve written an amazing synopsis.
The best part of being an agent for Sallyanne is the mix of the creative and the business. She loves negotiating deals and the details of them. Being there from the beginning of a book, Sallyanne told me, sometimes from the first idea, to the finished book is an absolute privilege. The worst part is the rejections; it’s a rejection for the agent as well. Getting a book deal for an author only for the book not to sell or get a bad review is tough to take too. Things can go wrong along the way, so often an agent’s job is to figure out where to go from there. An agent’s job isn’t just about getting the author a book deal.
Sallyanne finished her interview by telling me how submissions by email have made things so much simpler. Postal submissions were often accompanied by strange things such as chocolate or tea, and one time Sallyanne received an oven glove in a parcel accompanying a submission with a note saying the manuscript was too hot to handle! Thank goodness for email submissions.
Mulcahy Sweeney Associates are open for submissions using their submissions forum. Both Ivan and Sallyanne are from Dublin and are always particularly interested in receiving writing from Ireland. Here is the link: https://mmbcreative.com/literary-submissions/
Keep an eye out for some of Sallyanne’s Irish authors who have books publishing this year, including Sarah Gilmartin, whose novel SERVICE publishes in May (Pushkin Press), Jacqueline O’Mahony whose novel SING, WILD BIRD, SING publishes in May (Lake Union Press) and Sarah Davis-Goff, whose novel SILENT CITY publishes in June (Tinder Press).
(c) Lucy O’Callaghan
