{"id":58,"name":"Sarah Ballard","url":"sarah-ballard","department":{"id":1,"name":"Books","url":"books"},"phone":"+44 (0) 20 7393 4200","email":"sarah.ballard@cwagency.co.uk","summary":"","bio":"

I studied English Language and Literature at Oxford University and Publishing at Oxford Brookes University before starting my publishing career in editorial at Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton. I was In House Editor at PFD from 2000, working across the agency's client list to develop and support every sort of writing, and particularly with the legendary agent Pat Kavanagh. I began working solely as a literary agent in my own right in 2008 with the creation of United Agents, which I helped to establish, and where I worked for 16 years. I have held the position of Treasurer to the Association of Authors' Agents and been shortlisted for the British Book Awards Agent of the Year.<\/span><\/p>

In 2024 I was delighted to be invited to join the team at C&W, and have brought my list of exceptional authors with me. I very much look forward to opening for submissions, once we have all settled in!<\/span><\/p>

I have extremely broad taste in fiction and non-fiction, but the underlying quality of the work that I\u2019m interested in is a sense of urgency, and an attempt to make a change in the world, whether that is fiction with a compelling plot or structure overlaying a set of big ideas; memoir-ish non-fiction flavoured with obsession and unfolding a hidden agenda; or meticulously researched history which changes our world view. I have a particular interest in feminism and feminist approaches - but exploring ideas or angles which are completely new to me is one of the great joys of my job. I prefer to work with writers who are aiming to deliver a book every one or two years, and for whom I can add something to every area of their creative lives.<\/span><\/p>

I\u2019d prefer to consider your work only when a draft is complete rather than reading work-in-progress (since rereading with clarity is complicated). Please send me the whole book, plus a (more or less) page-long synopsis giving me the full arc of the book, in the first instance. Please give me a sense of your experience of writing so far, and tell me why you think we would be a good match for each other, too.<\/span><\/p>

I don't represent YA or children\u2019s books, and I\u2019m probably not the right person for submissions of Sci Fi or Sagas (though I\u2019m prepared to be surprised).<\/span><\/p>

To submit material to me for consideration, please email the full manuscript (for novels) plus a one page synopsis, or a proposal including sample text (for non fiction) to my office (ie for the attention of me and my assistant Liv Bignold) to us at ballardofficesubmissions@cwagency.co.uk.<\/b><\/p>","profile_photo":3289,"show_clients":true,"links":{},"meta_tags":"sarah-ballard-agent,sarah-ballard-cw,sarah-ballard-curtis-brown,sarah-ballard-clients","title":"Agent","has_assistant":true,"assistant":[110]}