The live Zoom events are a friendly chat with a leading literary agent and Jacq Burns. For January we have Clare Coombes.

Clare set up the first Liverpool-based literary agency in 2020 to help address inequality and underrepresentation in the publishing industry.

With more than 15 years’ experience of writing and editing professionally, including the publication of two novels, Definitions (2015) and We Are of Dust (2018 – which has received development funding from the Liverpool Film Office for a TV adaptation), she has developed an in-depth knowledge of what commissioning editors and publishers expect to see from a submitted manuscript. With a background in PR and marketing, alongside teaching on creative writing programmes, Clare also has extensive experience in pitching and promoting writers.

Clare would love to see historical fiction, crime fiction, psychological thrillers and women’s fiction, but as a new agent, she is open to all great writing with a strong hook in any area (excluding non-fiction, children’s and YA).

She actively encourages submissions from writers who have been traditionally under-represented.