The Agency
About
Founded in 1963, Greene & Heaton Ltd is a literary and media agency with a diverse range of clients. These include novelists, travel writers, scientists, biographers, historians, ghost writers and children’s writers and illustrators, each of them prominent in their field, and also TV presenters, production companies, and food/restaurant and other brands.
We handle all manner of activities for our clients from straightforward book representation and contract negotiation, to film and TV adaptations, journalism, personal appearances, corporate speaking engagements, and television presenter agreements; in short we help with whatever our client is called upon or wants to do. As literary agents we work closely with our clients, where necessary or desired, to help polish their proposals, to edit their texts, and to give advice about positioning in the fast-changing publishing landscape.
Writers such as Michael Frayn and P.D. James have been clients of the agency since the early days, while a broad range of contemporary writers and rising stars have joined their ranks since – Laura Barnett, Mark Barrowcliffe, Helen Callaghan, Suzannah Dunn, Jeremy Duns, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Andrea Gillies, Keo Films, Leon Restaurants, Ian McGuire, Thomasina Miers (Wahaca Restaurants), the Royal Society, C.J. Sansom, Marcus du Sautoy and Sarah Waters, to name just a few.
Our clients have either won or been shortlisted for all the major literary prizes: the Booker, the Orange, the Samuel Johnson, the Wellcome Trust and the Aventis for science writing, the Costa (and Whitbread), the Orwell Prize for political writing, many of the Guild of Food Writers Awards and the Glenfiddichs, and many of the Crime Writers Association “Daggers”.
Philosophy
At Greene & Heaton Ltd:
- We listen carefully to our clients, their needs, hopes and ambitions, and aim to do everything in our power to help them achieve their goals
- For our writers, we give editorial advice and help where wanted
- We work closely with our clients on strategy, negotiation tactics etc, keeping them informed all along the way
- We keep ourselves informed about the market for our clients’ work and we liaise with a global network of co-agents to offer specific expertise where needed
- We track all aspects of the commercial exploitation of our clients’ projects, be it book publication, film, tv or other use
- We collect payments promptly and pass them on quickly
- We chase overdue accounting, and check statements, including royalty statements, for errors
- We revert rights where the licensee is no longer exploiting them
- And at every step of the way, we offer advice to enable our clients to make the best decisions for themselves and their work, and to help them develop to their maximum potential
Greene & Heaton Ltd is defined by the people we represent, and by the care and attention we devote to them.
Internships
We are pleased to announce that Greene & Heaton Ltd is opening its internship programme once again. Applicants should be passionate about books and associated media, have an excellent standard of written English and attention to detail, and be happy to get involved with all aspects of assisting the agents at our busy literary and media agency. Previous experience in the industry is not required but experience in an admin-based role would be preferred.
We are keen to attract applications from candidates from under-represented backgrounds in our shared aim to make publishing a more diverse and fully representative industry. Our office is based in Somerset House (Strand, London, WC2R 1LA), and working hours will be 9:30am-5:30pm (including one hour for lunch), five days a week. Please note this is a full-time, office-based role. This will be a 3-month fixed-term position. London Living Wage.
Applications should be made to jobs@greeneheaton.co.uk and include a cover letter and CV. So that we can get a sense of your current reading, please also include a paragraph telling us your thoughts about a book that you have read recently, ideally a Sunday Times Bestseller from the past twelve months (can be fiction or non-fiction). No AI please!
Deadline for applications: Friday 22nd May
The role will include the following:
- Assisting our Rights Director with translation rights contracts, including using DocuSign; entering contracts data on our database BP; and with scheduling appointments for the Frankfurt Book Fair
- Handling agency agreement letters for new clients
- Running the agency social media accounts and sharing news of prizes/nominations/events/reviews for our authors and their books
- Maintaining and updating information, reviews, news stories on our website about our books and authors
- Updating information about editors/publishers and organising visits to meet editors/publishers
- Updating our publication calendar and circulating upcoming publication dates
- Photocopying and scanning and filing within our online system
- Collecting and distributing the incoming post (including posting foreign copies, mailing tax exemptions, forwarding on author mail); taking outgoing post to the post office
- Welcoming visitors who come to meet our agents in the office
- Running errands (such as buying milk/tea/coffee and other office supplies) and other similar admin tasks, as and when needed
