Hi there, I have just been looking at your site, I saw your name on a writer’s tip website, and thought I’d just say thanks for the tips I’m going to work hard and you never know maybe one day I’ll be sending my manuscript to your for your honest opinion.
As an actress turned writer, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Simon’s background and, in some ways, could relate. Boston-born, I lived abroad for nearly 25 years, acting/writing (as Susan Kramer/Gracie Luck) in London, Sydney, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Dublin. The pivot came very quickly. I was rehearsing for a TV show, had to take the train to a draughty church hall with my lunch in a brown paper sack…the same week, I was meeting with a producer about my screenplay, “You’re Never Alone With Schizophrenia” and I was taken to lunch in a chauffeur driven white Rolls Royce. That, plus the producer’s words: “We can get 2000 actresses to play a role, if you can write, we bow down to you” determined my next steps. “I’ll stick to writing”….Performed, published, now looking for an agent - my 2 agents are now dead - maybe this time… Simon Trewin??????
Hello Simon ,
I found a link to your website through http://www.bloomsbury.com.
I’m in the process of writing a fiction and I must say that your advices and the link to Julia McCutchen’s website were really useful.
Thanks.
Hi Simon, I was given your website address by a fellow writer (who I ‘met’ on a writing forum) who has seen some excerpts from my book. She said that YOU are the person to contact.
I would be so bold as to do that shortly. I will send you a website sumbission, but I will also post you one if you don’t mind.
I went to a ‘write your own novel’ workshop (quite an expensive one, mind) and one of the things they said was that agents prefer paper in their hands, as most manuscripts’ reading is done away from the office.
I’m going to follow this advice (why pay for it, and not heed it right?).
Another thing they said was to keep all correspndence short, so maybe I’ve already gone over my quota. Now I won’t ever convince you to read my work.
I wanted just to thank you for writing about Kate Jones. She was my agent and my dear friend and she was, without doubt, the most wonderful person. She was kind, warm and funny and I will miss her desperately.
Hello Simon,
Interesting website with lots of sound advice. Thanks. It does us good to hear of success stories even if the novel I have written never sees the light of day! When I see how many people are ‘at it’ and how difficult it is get lucky it kinda puts me off sending it anywhere. I enjoyed writing it though, and have even begun another one. Cheers x
I found your website while researching The Winchester Writers Festival. I enjoyed your comments about your negative review for Shopping While Drunk. Now we can read on and made up our own minds. Of course there is the chance we will go and find your book to see what the fuss is about. Either way its nice to be able to make up our own minds. I like being treated like an adult not a unit to be sold books to. Cheers Simon.
Hi Simon,
I thought I would email and say how much I enjoyed reading your comments on my book review from the Nottingham Evening Post EG guide. As an ambitious young writer, all comments are gratefully received. I hope my review allows for many book sales for you from intrigued readers!
Kind regards,
Lisa Norman
P.S. Don’t forget me if I need my first book publishing. x
Came here on a breeze straight from reading your article on Bloomsbury. People like you making life easier for poor lost souls like us writers seriously ought to be sainted. So thank you for your support!
Like all the other hopefuls, I’m preparing a submission for your advice. Hyvästi.
Congratulations on your website – it reads like a breath of fresh air! You - and United Agents - convey excitement and enthusiasm, disappointingly lacking elsewhere. It’s actually difficult to find an agent/agency that, if it doesn’t discourage, actively attracts and encourages manuscript submission. Thank you Simon.
Good to know you have moved on.I read your articles and once submitted a sample to you which you gracefully turned down(it was bad!) but you were very encouraging.
Hello Simon the Soother - Yes, it is true. Your advises are truly ’soothers’ to the burning desire of un-published authors for getting their work published, somehow. The labour and time (years to be exact) which an author consumes in writing a novel propels the author to take an action which you have rightly dissuaded him to do. It, naturally is a step which the author frustatingly takes(after not getting a response from publishers).
Thanks for the guidelines, which I am sure will help all the authors who are in such a situation - like me. I would appreciate the use of your expertise for my work too.
You would hear from me soon. Thanks.
In October 2005 you rejected my story called MMXL with a scribbled note telling me “Don’t give up - you’re very good indeed” - so I didn’t give up. I have now re-written and finished that story (76,000 words)and called it something else. I may even send it to you - but first I’m sending you an adventure thriller set in Kenya (topical!).
looking at the site to check out regarding submitting my manuscript for my book about an issue which i am passionate about as my book through local rehabilitation centers has researched to work the book is entitled ‘the Little Book of recovery’ will be sending it in to Simon with proposal letter after the bank holiday
Nine years ago I wrote it as a short story. Made it into a film script. I called agents.They were loaded. I wrote them. No reply. I submitted it to studios, to stars, producers, contests. It came back - unopened.
A British producer’s reader offered to read it. Liked it. But had too much on the back burner. Oh, “and it was a little episodic.”
Some months ago it became a novel. Each day, it grows, or, shrinks in the finishing process.
It’s an old story. Everything that happened 64 years ago in the back alleys of the East End of London, still seems exciting, depressing, uplifting, sad.
Scanning the Web for an agent, calling or writing one, is a test in itself.
You have what you think is a pretty damned good yarn. But trying to nab an agent is like fishing. You bait, you cast, and cast again. Then wait.You try a different locale. A different bait, a different spin(ner).
After a lifetime of writing and pushing news copy, beating deadlines, scripting tv and non- Academy films - shooting them too,finding an agent is more like scaling a flat wall.
How others managed to get their foot over the doorstep continues to amaze me.
But, this is the first web site I’ve seen by an agent, actually encouraging submissions.
Honest!
Thanks so much for the openess with which I can approach you - I sent some texts off and I do hope that you enjoy reading them, all the best from a rather chilly and damp but nonetheless Bonnie, Scotland. Michael Kerins - Storyteller Glasgow
Hello I found your website from a Bloomsbury site. Loved seeing all the photos on the front page. I will be submitting to you after looking at your requirements. Hope to get some encouragement.
Hi Simon, Congratulations on making the break! Since you wrote a complimentary rejection letter a while back, I thought you might be interested to know that my rewritten book about the cop who became a nun has been published - Pain Wears No Mask - and it has a few very favourable reviews on Amazon.co.uk. This success is also attributable to your comments - the character just wouldn’t go away. A sequel (or two) is planned. Best wishes, Nik Morton
Just finished reading “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. A strange and moving book. Noted the author’s mention of his agent in the thanks and acknowledgements and thought Simon Trew might be the agent I have been looking for to publish my novel “The Scrimshaw”. The first three chapters will be winging their way to you shortly. I certainly appreciate your encouraging invitation to new writers, as opposed to the snooty multitudes who will not accept unsolicited manuscripts or approaches from unpublished novelists.
Thanks for all the advice on publishing ive managed to scrape up from you. I never really understood how confusing the whole process is, i just looked out of curiousity and found my head spinning, it will be a while before I manage to finish my novel but looking on these sites gets me all pumped up to work harder!
I’m only sixteen but i am quite good at writing fiction and one of my life goals is to get a book published, what i’m doing at the moment is going to be a really long project but i’m really enjoying myself. But when i’m done i know i’m going to send it your way! Hopefully my work will be salvagable, so thankyou for your site and hopefully if I get my novel finished you will get to read it. Well i want you too, i’m not really at all sure over your enthusiasm.
Sorry for the lenthy note, and thanx again for the clear instuction.
Hi Simon,
thanks for all the great (free) advice. It’s a great website, and it’s great to hear your advice and tips for budding writers. I hope, one day, to send you something and get some feedback.
Laters,
Following some sound advice from both you & Courttia at the ‘evening with’ in Farringdon last week, I have been trying my best to have the courage to let my words speak for themselves without including the “ta da!” ending in every synopsis. A week away from finishing the novel & we shall see how far a little chutzpah takes me, but thank you. Emily.
Hello - thanks for stopping by on this cold day. Do sign the guestbook before you leave. Thanks. xsimon
Hi there, I have just been looking at your site, I saw your name on a writer’s tip website, and thought I’d just say thanks for the tips I’m going to work hard and you never know maybe one day I’ll be sending my manuscript to your for your honest opinion.
Abi
As an actress turned writer, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Simon’s background and, in some ways, could relate. Boston-born, I lived abroad for nearly 25 years, acting/writing (as Susan Kramer/Gracie Luck) in London, Sydney, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Dublin. The pivot came very quickly. I was rehearsing for a TV show, had to take the train to a draughty church hall with my lunch in a brown paper sack…the same week, I was meeting with a producer about my screenplay, “You’re Never Alone With Schizophrenia” and I was taken to lunch in a chauffeur driven white Rolls Royce. That, plus the producer’s words: “We can get 2000 actresses to play a role, if you can write, we bow down to you” determined my next steps. “I’ll stick to writing”….Performed, published, now looking for an agent - my 2 agents are now dead - maybe this time… Simon Trewin??????
Hello Simon ,
I found a link to your website through http://www.bloomsbury.com.
I’m in the process of writing a fiction and I must say that your advices and the link to Julia McCutchen’s website were really useful.
Thanks.
Hi Simon, I was given your website address by a fellow writer (who I ‘met’ on a writing forum) who has seen some excerpts from my book. She said that YOU are the person to contact.
I would be so bold as to do that shortly. I will send you a website sumbission, but I will also post you one if you don’t mind.
I went to a ‘write your own novel’ workshop (quite an expensive one, mind) and one of the things they said was that agents prefer paper in their hands, as most manuscripts’ reading is done away from the office.
I’m going to follow this advice (why pay for it, and not heed it right?).
Another thing they said was to keep all correspndence short, so maybe I’ve already gone over my quota. Now I won’t ever convince you to read my work.
Anne
I have emailed someone about it. Thanks.
Simon,
An interesting biography and you look like an out and out rogue. You’ll go a long way.
Hi Simon,
Thanks for all your advice on how to present manuscripts. im glad I sent mine to you. Thanks again. Take care
Hello Simon,
I think you’re rather fab,
Carlie
(Married. Kids. Large arse… can write a bit though.)
I wanted just to thank you for writing about Kate Jones. She was my agent and my dear friend and she was, without doubt, the most wonderful person. She was kind, warm and funny and I will miss her desperately.
Hello Simon,
Interesting website with lots of sound advice. Thanks. It does us good to hear of success stories even if the novel I have written never sees the light of day! When I see how many people are ‘at it’ and how difficult it is get lucky it kinda puts me off sending it anywhere. I enjoyed writing it though, and have even begun another one. Cheers x
I found your website while researching The Winchester Writers Festival. I enjoyed your comments about your negative review for Shopping While Drunk. Now we can read on and made up our own minds. Of course there is the chance we will go and find your book to see what the fuss is about. Either way its nice to be able to make up our own minds. I like being treated like an adult not a unit to be sold books to. Cheers Simon.
Hi Simon,
I thought I would email and say how much I enjoyed reading your comments on my book review from the Nottingham Evening Post EG guide. As an ambitious young writer, all comments are gratefully received. I hope my review allows for many book sales for you from intrigued readers!
Kind regards,
Lisa Norman
P.S. Don’t forget me if I need my first book publishing. x
Came here on a breeze straight from reading your article on Bloomsbury. People like you making life easier for poor lost souls like us writers seriously ought to be sainted. So thank you for your support!
Like all the other hopefuls, I’m preparing a submission for your advice. Hyvästi.
Congratulations on your website – it reads like a breath of fresh air! You - and United Agents - convey excitement and enthusiasm, disappointingly lacking elsewhere. It’s actually difficult to find an agent/agency that, if it doesn’t discourage, actively attracts and encourages manuscript submission. Thank you Simon.
Good to know you have moved on.I read your articles and once submitted a sample to you which you gracefully turned down(it was bad!) but you were very encouraging.
Hello Simon the Soother - Yes, it is true. Your advises are truly ’soothers’ to the burning desire of un-published authors for getting their work published, somehow. The labour and time (years to be exact) which an author consumes in writing a novel propels the author to take an action which you have rightly dissuaded him to do. It, naturally is a step which the author frustatingly takes(after not getting a response from publishers).
Thanks for the guidelines, which I am sure will help all the authors who are in such a situation - like me. I would appreciate the use of your expertise for my work too.
You would hear from me soon. Thanks.
Simon,
In October 2005 you rejected my story called MMXL with a scribbled note telling me “Don’t give up - you’re very good indeed” - so I didn’t give up. I have now re-written and finished that story (76,000 words)and called it something else. I may even send it to you - but first I’m sending you an adventure thriller set in Kenya (topical!).
Dear Mr. Trewin,
I like your site — I may yet muster the courage and send you my manuscript.
Cheers.
Many thanx for all the advice!!
looking at the site to check out regarding submitting my manuscript for my book about an issue which i am passionate about as my book through local rehabilitation centers has researched to work the book is entitled ‘the Little Book of recovery’ will be sending it in to Simon with proposal letter after the bank holiday
thank you
Came across your site via bloomsbury.com
I was so impressed I decided to submit my work. Here’s hoping you will be just as impressed.
Nine years ago I wrote it as a short story. Made it into a film script. I called agents.They were loaded. I wrote them. No reply. I submitted it to studios, to stars, producers, contests. It came back - unopened.
A British producer’s reader offered to read it. Liked it. But had too much on the back burner. Oh, “and it was a little episodic.”
Some months ago it became a novel. Each day, it grows, or, shrinks in the finishing process.
It’s an old story. Everything that happened 64 years ago in the back alleys of the East End of London, still seems exciting, depressing, uplifting, sad.
Scanning the Web for an agent, calling or writing one, is a test in itself.
You have what you think is a pretty damned good yarn. But trying to nab an agent is like fishing. You bait, you cast, and cast again. Then wait.You try a different locale. A different bait, a different spin(ner).
After a lifetime of writing and pushing news copy, beating deadlines, scripting tv and non- Academy films - shooting them too,finding an agent is more like scaling a flat wall.
How others managed to get their foot over the doorstep continues to amaze me.
But, this is the first web site I’ve seen by an agent, actually encouraging submissions.
Honest!
Success is inevitable when you believe that anything is possible.
Strewin! Thanks for the write up. You are a star (and a really good muse).
Keep up the good works,
LJ
Simon -
Thanks so much for the openess with which I can approach you - I sent some texts off and I do hope that you enjoy reading them, all the best from a rather chilly and damp but nonetheless Bonnie, Scotland. Michael Kerins - Storyteller Glasgow
Hello I found your website from a Bloomsbury site. Loved seeing all the photos on the front page. I will be submitting to you after looking at your requirements. Hope to get some encouragement.
No one has said hello for a while so I thought I would.
Hello and bye
Barbara
Hi Simon, Congratulations on making the break! Since you wrote a complimentary rejection letter a while back, I thought you might be interested to know that my rewritten book about the cop who became a nun has been published - Pain Wears No Mask - and it has a few very favourable reviews on Amazon.co.uk. This success is also attributable to your comments - the character just wouldn’t go away. A sequel (or two) is planned. Best wishes, Nik Morton
Just finished reading “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. A strange and moving book. Noted the author’s mention of his agent in the thanks and acknowledgements and thought Simon Trew might be the agent I have been looking for to publish my novel “The Scrimshaw”. The first three chapters will be winging their way to you shortly. I certainly appreciate your encouraging invitation to new writers, as opposed to the snooty multitudes who will not accept unsolicited manuscripts or approaches from unpublished novelists.
Des Mason
Thanks for all the advice on publishing ive managed to scrape up from you. I never really understood how confusing the whole process is, i just looked out of curiousity and found my head spinning, it will be a while before I manage to finish my novel but looking on these sites gets me all pumped up to work harder!
I’m only sixteen but i am quite good at writing fiction and one of my life goals is to get a book published, what i’m doing at the moment is going to be a really long project but i’m really enjoying myself. But when i’m done i know i’m going to send it your way! Hopefully my work will be salvagable, so thankyou for your site and hopefully if I get my novel finished you will get to read it. Well i want you too, i’m not really at all sure over your enthusiasm.
Sorry for the lenthy note, and thanx again for the clear instuction.
Hi Simon,
thanks for all the great (free) advice. It’s a great website, and it’s great to hear your advice and tips for budding writers. I hope, one day, to send you something and get some feedback.
Laters,
Following some sound advice from both you & Courttia at the ‘evening with’ in Farringdon last week, I have been trying my best to have the courage to let my words speak for themselves without including the “ta da!” ending in every synopsis. A week away from finishing the novel & we shall see how far a little chutzpah takes me, but thank you. Emily.