The International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD) returns with a dynamic programme featuring discussions, performances, and cross-cultural conversations taking place in the iconic Merrion Square Park over ten days from May 16th to May 25th. The square becomes a quasi library of discussions and discourse, and, with a focus on diverse literary themes, the festival offers engaging events for all ages, celebrating global voices and creative insights.
Storytelling and the archiving of these stories are an inherent part of our DNA and in a city where books are treasured, this festival has become Ireland’s leading literary event. Operating since 1998, the organisers have promised and brought some of the world’s finest writers together to enthral, engage and excite audiences at events for readers of all ages and interests, including an out-of-the-box Fringe programme, events for Kids & Family, and professional development to help advance your skills.
The event is also a place where aspiring writers network, a vital realm where dreams are realised or dashed. Making connections with agents and publishing houses is daunting for new writers so with this firmly in mind Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin – founder of Europe’s biggest writing resources website – Writing.ie, as well as the Writers Ink online writing group, and Murder One, Ireland’s international crime writing festival – took the bull by horns and curated the Date With An Agent event within the Festival programme.
At Date With An Agent, taking place on Saturday, May 17th and Friday May 24th, ten emerging writers will have the opportunity to meet one-to-one to get tailored advice from top literary and screen agents from across all genres of publishing, from thriller and fantasy to romantic, historical and science fiction, ensuring that successful applicants meet their match made in literary heaven. This years line up includes Nicola Barr (literary fiction and book club, The Bent Agency), Molly Ker Hawn (speculative fiction, science fiction, romance and fantasy, The Bent Agency), Nicky Lovick (crime and thriller, WGM Atlantic), Faith O’Grady (memoir and historical fiction, the Lisa Richards Agency), Sallyanne Sweeney (women’s fiction, MMB Creative), Helen Boyle (picture books and early readers, Pickled Ink), Lydia Silver (children/pre-teen, Darley Anderson), Sam Copeland (teen/young adult, RCW Literary Agency), a powerhouse panel of the publishing world.
Through her bestselling crime novels published under the pseudonym “Sam Blake”, the Wicklow-based author Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin has enjoyed immense success. However, like any budding writer, Vanessa faced uncertainty and rejection before success. Wanting to get it right, she began reading books as much for didacticism as for pleasure.
“As a debut author, I was always reading debut novels before I was published,” Vanessa remembers when talking to Totally Dublin. “I read every debut novel that was ever published because I wanted to see what it was that those people had that I didn’t have. What trick was I missing that got them over the line, and where did I fall down?”
Focusing on others’ maiden works was Vanessa’s means of making realistic expectations and comparisons, as she states, “If you compare yourself to somebody’s magnum opus, you’re always going to be disappointed, and they might have ten or fifteen books down. It does get easier! I can safely say that now, twelve books in! ”
Even after achieving success with highly-read and discussed novels, Vanessa never forgot the challenges of securing her first book deal. “One of the big hurdles is understanding when to submit because, when you’re writing, you can’t see the woods from the trees, honestly, and you think the thing you’ve written is the most amazing thing ever, and I did. Back in the day, the first book I wrote was going to be a bestseller. I was completely convinced of it. It was genius,” she says of what trips most burgeoning authors up.
“[Her agent] sent it out around the world, and it was rejected around the world. So, I think it’s understanding when something is ready to go that’s key, and that’s really important and one thing that people tend to fall down on, but then understanding how the business works and being able to network into that business is really, really important.”
Wanting to pay the information she learnt forward to new writers, Vanessa began The Inkwell Group, a publishing consultancy firm, in 2006, and the writers’ resource website Writing.ie in 2010, to serve as a conduit between those outside the literary business and those within. “It was about providing information because, at that stage, I didn’t know anything about the industry, either,” Vanessa says of their formations.
“So, when I first started sending out my manuscript… – Well, I knew I was writing crime, so I had to find a crime agent. So I approached them, but you are sending things out into the void. So, the whole idea of Inkwell and Writing.ie is about information and it’s about trying to provide that information and enabling writers to hone what they’re doing, so their submissions are a bit more targeted. It sounds a bit daunting and [like] a lost cause and you’re never going to get published if you send it out to the slush pile, but you do. These agents are actively looking for the next shiny thing. They need the next big thing, and they know it might be on their slush pile. So, they are looking to find that thing. So, it is down to sending it.”
For Vanessa, literary festivals are some of the most vital places for writers to learn the craft and gain industry information. She says, “I think a festival for a writer is absolutely invaluable because I interview lots of people – like, lots of people – across the spectrum of skills, [and] every single time I interview someone, I learn something new. Every single time. They’ll say something, and I’ll go, ‘Hmmm…that’s really interesting,’ and then I can absolve that into the way I do things or the way that I’m thinking about something.
“So, particularly for new writers, getting to every single event, even events that are outside of your genre, there will be a nugget of gold in that interview that will inform you and help you shape your practice. It might be that it makes you think, ‘OK, I’m less mad because this person, who’s a Booker Prize winner, thinks like that, too!’”
It is with this in mind that Vanessa established the Date with an Agent event at the International Literary Festival Dublin. “This is in, I think, its eleventh year. I just had an idea that I wanted to make it easier for authors to meet agents, and there’s a lot of these types of events happening in the UK, but we hadn’t been doing them here, I don’t think,” Vanessa says of Date with an Agent. “What I wanted to do was for authors to be able to meet agents because it’s a very specific path.
“In Ireland, you can submit to publishers – all the Irish publishers take direct submissions – but it’s really vital that you get advice on that contract. So, if you do get a contract, brilliant, but get advice from the Irish Writers Union or The Society of Authors, because you don’t understand publishing contracts and your local solicitor isn’t going to understand a publishing contract because it’s a very specific thing. So, I just wanted to open up those opportunities.
“I was running the Getting Published workshops through Inkwell, so I had met loads of editors and agents, and I was understanding the business and could see the barriers and how information is key to everything, so I wanted to make that process easier and open it as wide as possible. You can sit down and listen to them and find out what it is about your work and what can be improved. It’s absolutely invaluable. Getting fifteen minutes with anybody at this level is just like gold.”
The Date with an Agent event will feature representatives from various literary agencies across a plethora of genres and styles, and, for the first time, at this year’s festival, there will be a second event specialising in children’s literature with experienced representatives in that field. This variety in genre-focused specialities was essential to Vanessa.
“I think that genre specification now is a good thing because it means that those agents and specialists in that area, they know exactly what’s happening in the market, and they know who is looking for those books, so they’ve built relationships with the editors,” Vanessa explains.
“From an author’s perspective, you’re finding somebody who is more likely to love your work because they understand what you’re writing because they understand your genre, and if you’re trying to do something a bit different or whatever, they’re going to appreciate that. But it’s important for writers to understand what they’re writing and what that genre is, so they approach the right people.”
Words: Aaron Kavanagh
The International Literary Festival Dublin runs from May 16th – 25th, with the Date with an Agent events on May 17th and 23rd.
For more details, visit ilfdublin.com
