Saturday 3rd October - THREE WEEKS to go! Book your ticket here
Literary Agent 1-2-1s
Get personalised, face-to-face feedback - as well as a chance to pitch your book - to a literary agent or editor in our 1-2-1 sessions.
We know writers spend hours querying once they've finished their manuscript - researching, preparing submission packs, writing that all-important covering letter/email, and then waiting for feedback. Often, responses are generic ("really enjoyed it", "subjective", "not for me", - sound familiar?!), so getting verbal, actionable feedback from agents and editors, and having the opportunity to ask questions, can really steer you in the right direction and propel you forward.
Please research the agents before booking and ensure you submit the items requested before the deadline. Late-comers may not be admitted.
Each 15-minute session costs £70. A volunteer will be in the room for safeguarding and will not listen to your conversations.
All agents and editors require a covering letter, a synopsis and your first three chapters by 12th September, and no member of the Romance Writing Festival team will read your work (we will simply collate and pass on the information). Please see specifically what each agent wants below.
Our Literary Agents
Nicky Lovick
Nicky is an editor turned agent bringing over twenty years of editing experience to her role as an agent with WGM Atlantic Talent and Literary Group. WGM represents actors, authors, and screenwriters.
Nicky worked in-house for the top five before freelancing for publishers and indie authors alike, including Jessa Hastings.
She has now established a books list at WGM. Nicky would love to see high-concept and dystopian romance and is happy considering all subgenres: spicy cottagecore, dark, Why Choose?, sports, cowboy, mafia, biker and billionaire.
She's also keen to see self-publishing authors considering trad, and romantasy. Plus genre mash-ups. She has a soft spot for witches and folklore…
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Nicky, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first 3 chapters in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
Megan Carroll
Three slots left!
Megan graduated from Goldsmiths with a BA in English and American Literature in 2013 and has been at Watson, Little since 2014 – first as an assistant and now as a Literary Agent.
Megan’s list is predominantly commercial, and she is keen to find good quality books that lots of readers will enjoy.
She is always keen to find love stories (both YA and adult), particularly romcoms, sweeping epic love stories, high concept romance, and ‘romantasy’ novels. She’d especially love to see those familiar romance tropes – enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, love triangles, forbidden love etc. – with underrepresented characters and cultures at the centre (think Sara Desai’s The Marriage Game or Jesse Sutanto’s Aunties series) and in romantasy, she loves rich and layered world building with unique magic systems and retellings that are exploring largely untold mythology and folk tales.
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Megan, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first 3 chapters in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
Maddalena Cavaciuti
Just one slot left!
Maddalena studied English Literature at the University of Bristol and joined David Higham Associates in 2017.
Maddalena is an obsessive reader of romance. Give her all your cowboys, mafia dons, shadow daddies, ice hockey captains, campus heartbreakers, bikers and billionaires. If your writing builds on a familiar trope (soft spots include enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating and love triangles) then she would be delighted to see it but she is particularly excited to find projects which surprise with a new spin on these formulas.
She is especially looking for books which marry romance and thriller, darker-edged love stories, romcoms which thrive on chaos and romance with a clever twist of magic like Rebecca Serle’s In Five Years – one of her favourite books of all time.
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Maddalena, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first 3 chapters (up to 10,000 words) in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
Florence Rees
Three slots left!
Florence joined AM Heath in 2016, becoming the first person in the agency’s history to be promoted from assistant to agent.
She’s loved romantic fiction since finding a pink Mills & Boon on her godmother’s bookshelf, far too young. She loves characters that are so real they could step off the page and a propulsive story is important to her. Her author’s books range from the heartbreaking and profound to the inspirational, funny and wise, with almost everything in between.
Florence is looking for all kinds of commercial and upmarket fiction: novels you might take on holiday but you certainly wouldn’t leave there.
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Florence, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first three chapters (or first 5,000 words) in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
AM Heath represents Katie Fforde.
Saskia Leach
SOLD OUT!
Saskia is a Literary Agent at Kate Nash Literary Agency and joined the team in 2021. She was shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year at the 2025 Romance Industry Awards and previously served as Secretary of the Association of Authors' Agents Bridge Committee supporting literary agents in the first ten years of their career.
Saskia represents romance for adults and young adults. She is especially keen to find stories focusing on underrepresented love stories - such as asexuality, polyamory and non-binary romance - cowboy romance, LGBTQIA+ romance, genre-blending romance (eg. romantic thriller and horror-romance), dark romance and anything with sexy vampires or werewolves, but she is open to all subgenres of romance.
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Saskia, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first 3 chapters in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
Juliet Pickering
SOLD OUT!
Juliet joined Blake Friedmann in 2013, becoming Vice Head of the Book Department and a Bookseller ‘Rising Star’ in 2017, and a Director in 2020. In 2021, she won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Agent of the Year Award.
Juliet is looking for intriguing, clever, conversation-starting writers, across both fiction and non-fiction. Most of her authors write contemporary stories, often led by themes of love, identity, and coming-of-age.
Vital qualities to a great story include emotional depth, authenticity, a warm, engaging voice and an irrepressible energy.
Juliet is looking for literary, book club and romantic fiction but not romantasy.
If you book a 1-2-1 session with Juliet, she requires a cover letter, synopsis and the first chapter (up to 3,000 words) in one document which you email to info@RomanceWritingFestival.co.uk by 12th September.
What happens in an agent 1-2-1?
Festival Director Dominic Wong explains in this short video what happens in a 1-2-1 session, tips and guidance and why you should consider speaking to an industry expert to help you get your book on to the bookshelves.