Eve started EVE WHITE LITERARY AGENCY in 2003. Her company has grown to represent everything from prize-winning literary fiction to bestselling picture books worldwide whilst maintaining the caring, family feel of a boutique agency. Eve’s goal from the start was for massive success for each of a small stable of authors.

She is very happy to say that she has achieved that aim with Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writers on her list and many book-to-film deals signed. Throughout it all she has continued to work with each individual closely – both editorially and to help to shape their career.

Eve says, “The best part of my job is calling a debut author to tell them they have a publisher. When that client goes on to sell millions of copies in the UK and signs deals in dozens of territories worldwide, it is thrilling for me as well as the author.” One such debut was longlisted for The Man Booker Prize, another became the best selling debut novel published in 2014, and three were selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club.

Eve was shortlisted for The British Book Awards, Literary Agent of the Year in 2015, and was shortlisted again in 2017.

Eve White talks to Tom Tivnan of The Bookseller about going from treading the boards to brokering deals.

“It’s a submissions inbox,” Eve White corrects me. “Not a slush pile.” The agent has every right to be particular about the branding of how she gets unsolicited material as it has led to impressive results. It was how she discovered some of her most important clients, including Mr Gum author Andy Stanton and Yvvette Edwards, the début novelist who is Man Booker Prize longlisted for A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld).

When it arrived in the, er, submissions inbox in 2009, Edwards’ book stood out immediately. “I came away feeling I had been warmed by this gorgeous West Indian spicy soup,” says White, who offered it “to the usual round” of bigger publishers. There was a lot of positive feedback but no real offers until Oxford indie Oneworld, new to the fiction game, came calling.

White says: “A lot of the 2011 longlisted books would have been out on submission in 2009 and many of the bigger publishers were too scared to take risks. This is why eight of the 13 Booker longlist titles are from independents. It wasn’t because the judges wanted to celebrate indie publishing, it was that big publishers weren’t buying new talent.”

White set up her eponymous agency in 2003 after working as an actress for 20 years. Fans of “Hollyoaks” might recognise her; her last acting gig was four years on the soap as Sue Morgan, head of the Morgan family. When the Morgans were written out of the show, White decided to ditch acting to spend more time with her children. “I didn’t set out to be a literary agent,” she says. “But I always wanted to run my own business, I wanted an intellectual challenge and something creative.”

The impetus to start the agency came when her son’s deputy headmaster asked her to read his manuscript which he was going to self-publish. She did, and when she came back with suggestions, he asked her to represent him with sales and marketing. White arranged a meeting with the Waterstone’s children’s buyer, got the book included in a three-for-two offer and decided to become an agent. “That initial experience helped a lot because it gave me a good grounding in how the bookselling side of the business works,” she says. “Setting up an agency from scratch takes a while because it is about meeting people. But publishers, and other agents, were helpful from the start.”

Her big break came just a year after starting when unpublished children’s author Stanton, after being knocked back by the first five agents at the front of the Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, turned to the back and found the Eve White agency. He phoned her, they had a great conversation and she told him to send a sample. White says: “When I read his first three chapters, I immediately said: ‘Send me the rest—and don’t talk to any other agents.’” White eventually signed Stanton with Egmont and since 2006 his Mr Gum books have had sales of more than £3.7m through Nielsen BookScan. Children’s authors such as Stanton make up about 60% of her list. “I don’t want to specialise, I like variety and I’m aiming to get it closer to a 50/50 adult and children’s ratio. But I just go with books I like. I started out with kids – you soon make a name for yourself.”

Eve White (centre), Agent and Managing Director Ludo Cinelli (left), her client Saskia Sarginson, Sara Sarre and Emma Haynes of the Blue Pencil Agency, and Blue Pencil Competition Winners Carolyn Milner and Neil McLennan on the Agency’s rooftop terrace. Photo credit: Alexander James, 2017

Family Affair

Though her roster of clients has increased steadily, White has kept the business small and nimble – for the first seven years the company consisted of just herself and a roster of freelances, readers and interns. However, she has since hired a full-time assistant. The office is in her Pimlico flat and while White, her assistant and two readers are undoubtedly busy, there is a laidback, homey feel – though the laidback part may be because it is a Friday morning and the agency hosted a team of Egmont editors the previous evening for what seems to have been a lively knees-up. She is unfazed about competing against the bigger agencies. “One person has the capacity to represent a certain number of writers… the authors need someone they can relate to and get on well with. Someone who is determined, skilled and motivated who can give them support with their writing and help them to earn a good living from it.”