Book Broker: an interview with Hattie Grunewald

Agent: Hattie Grunewald, The Blair Partnership

Website: TheBlairPartnership.com

Preferred genres: Women’s fiction, crime and thriller, book club, historical.

Bio: Hattie Grunewald is a literary agent at The Blair Partnership. Before joining The Blair Partnership, she studied English and creative writing at University of East Anglia and then spent 6 years at Blake Friedmann. In 2020 she was a Bookseller Rising Star and the Romantic Novelists' Association Agent of the Year.

1) What stands out in a good submission?

There’s a lot to balance in the opening of a novel—introducing the character, giving a sense of the world, setting up the hook. A good submission will do all of this confidently. And there’s another quality which is hard to nail down—a voice that catches your attention, and a writer that seems to know which details are interesting, and which aren’t.

2) What's a typical warning sign that a manuscript isn't ready for representation?

I can often tell when a writer hasn’t started their story in the right place. Often it takes finishing a novel before you really understand the "hook" or what you were trying to say. Then you need to go back into the manuscript and bring that hook forward. It needs to be there on the very first page. When the opening doesn’t grip me, it’s a sign the author hasn’t put the necessary work in yet.

3) What's at the top of your manuscript wish list right now?

I’m looking for book club and upmarket fiction at the moment, but in that space I’m really keen to find some classic, old-fashioned storytelling. A love story or mystery that feels timeless, and with a good plot. I’m also keen to sign some more crime writers—clever detective fiction, a hooky thriller, or well-written, layered procedural crime.

4) For writers without prior publications, what can they say in their "about me" query paragraph to catch your attention? Does it help to know if the manuscript has gone through workshopping or developmental editing?

Yes, all of these things can help you stand out—it’s a sign you’re serious about your craft and not afraid of putting in the hard graft. So many submissions I get are from writers who have finished a draft and sent it straight off with no editing or thought for the market. Even if you have a lot of talent, it’s hard to build a writing career with someone like that. I also often suggest that writers tell me why they wanted to write this particular book and where the idea came from—that offers a lot of insight into who you are as a writer, and can give me a hint of some PR hooks for down the line.

5) Some people say that "agents hate prologues." Is that true for you? What is the most common reason that a prologue falls flat?

It’s definitely not true for me, as I often make my authors go back in and add prologues! But they need to be used well. A prologue is a great way to bring the hook of your novel forward, as I mentioned earlier, establish genre and buy yourself some time to then go back and do world building and character work before the plot kicks in properly. But a prologue that is vague and character-less or that just postpones the story starting properly is counter-productive.

6) If you could change one thing about the publishing industry, what would it be and why?

I wish publishers would focus more on staff retention and morale, promoting their young talent and paying competitively. The best publishing often comes from a longstanding relationship between an author and their editor and publishing team. An editorial relationship is built on trust which takes a while to develop, and there’s so much more enthusiasm when an editor has been there from the start. That leads to better books and long-term author careers where we nurture talent, rather than throwing an author out if their first book doesn’t sell. We put so much work into a debut—and then we don’t give enough time to see that work pay dividends. Building an author long term just makes more business sense.

7) How important is it for an author to have a strong social media presence when querying?

In some genres this matters more than others—in commercial romance, crime and thriller, and the new trending genres like romantasy—having a strong social following is useful. But it’s a nice-to-have, not an essential, and as social media becomes more disparate and X continues to crumble, I think we’ll find it less and less easy for authors to find their audience that way. It’s fun to have a writing community online, but it’s not necessarily going to help you sell more copies.

8) What red flags in a query letter are enough to cause you to pass on a project without looking at the writer's sample pages? What percentage of submissions would you say die with the query letter?

If I don’t look at a sample, 95% of the time it’s because the query letter tells me this isn’t a genre I’m currently looking for or an idea that interests me. Usually the author hasn’t done their research on my list. I would never have been the right agent for that project, so it’s not really that the book has died based on a bad query letter.

The other 5% of the time, the red flag is that a writer has signalled they’re going to be hard to work with—that their expectations are not managed (“this book is a guaranteed bestseller” or similar), they’ve not taken the care to proofread or write professionally, or even they’re just rude. But the rest of the time, I will usually at least take a look at the sample pages, even if the query hasn’t completely hooked me. I’ve signed some great books that had terrible query letters.

9) What's the best (non-client) book you've read recently, and how did it hook you?

I really enjoyed Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell—for me her characters just completely come to life from the very first page and that carries you through the book. There wasn’t a tonne of plot in this book but the quiet yearning and pitch-perfect dialogue just sold it for me. I’m a sucker for a good slow-burn love story.

10) Can you tell us about an exciting author you're working with at the moment?

I’m incredibly excited about Clare Leslie Hall’s BROKEN COUNTRY that will be publishing in March with John Murray in the UK and Simon & Schuster in North America. It’s a love story with the pulse of a thriller, set in Dorset in the 1960s, about a woman whose first love comes back into her life with deadly consequences. We’ve sold it in 30 languages and film rights have been optioned by Hello Sunshine and 3000 pictures. Everyone I’ve given this book to has loved it—it’s beautiful and heartbreaking and life-affirming.