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Northbank Talent Management (formerly Diane Banks Associates)

HapiSofi

HapiSofi

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Okay. Go to those links and find her list of authors. It's repeated several times, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it. Check that list against Amazon. See what kind of books they are and who published them. If you don't recognize the names of the publishing houses, drop by a large bookstore and see if you can find books published by those houses on the bookstore shelves. Then come back and tell us what you've found.
 

Carmy

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Okay, been there, done that. Banks says she represents literary fiction but the authors appear to be writers of non-fiction.

Doesn't help much.
 
euclid

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Looks a bit thin

Carmy said:
Okay, been there, done that. Banks says she represents literary fiction but the authors appear to be writers of non-fiction.

Doesn't help much.
Click to expand...

I sent a submission to this lot, then I did some research (Yeah, I know). They list five authors: John Rodgers, Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, Hannah Sandling, Brian Cox and Tacy Culletan.

The only John Rogers I could find was "For the Love of my Mother" by J.P. Rodgers (a memoire, I think).

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips wrote a book about what drugs did to her family (her twin sons, in particular). Another memoire. She is now a drugs counsellor and gives talks (in the UK) about the problem.

Hannah Sandling is a young TV presenter. She has published a book. I assume it's chiclit or autobiog.

Brian Cox may be a physics professor, who writes popular science, or he may be the actor. I haven't found any book by the actor.

I drew a blank with Tacy Culletan. There is an author called Tacy Culleton who has written (I think) three novels and several "how to get published" books.

If the agent cannot spell the name of one of her authors correctly...

I also found an agency called Elizabeth Banks, who seems to have the same authors on her books. She has a web url which leads through an advertisement (Spy fu) to a dead end.

I couldn't identify any of the publishers of these books.
 
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Momento Mori

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The Bookseller has Diane Banks making a sale to Orion in July this year of Tara Moore's RSVP. Diana Banks Associates doesn't have its own website, but the following submission details are in the Writer's And Artist's Year Book:

Commercial fiction and non-fiction (home 15%, overseas 20%). Fiction: women's, crime, thrillers, Irish, literary fiction with a strong storyline. Non-fiction: memoir, real-life stories, celebrity, autobiography, biography, popular history, popular science, self-help, popular psychology, fashion, health & beauty. No poetry, children's, academic books, plays, scripts or short stories. Initial approach by email only. Send brief CV, synopsis and sample chapters as Word or PDF attachments. Aim to give initial response within 2 weeks. No reading fee. Will suggest revision.

Authors include J.P. Rodgers, Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, Alex Higgins, Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), Miss S, Elise Lindsay, Narinder Kaur and Godfrey Barker. Founded 2006.
Click to expand...

MM
 
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euclid

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Helpful

Momento Mori said:
The Bookseller has Diane Banks making a sale to Orion in July this year of Tara Moore's RSVP. Diana Banks Associates doesn't have its own website, but the following submission details are in the Writer's And Artist's Year Book:

MM
Click to expand...

That was helpful. Thanks. Slightly different author list than the one online. I looked up Tara Moore on the web and found a US photographer. No sign of the author. I feel I know the name from somewhere. Is she a celeb?
 

Momento Mori

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euclid:
I looked up Tara Moore on the web and found a US photographer. No sign of the author. I feel I know the name from somewhere. Is she a celeb?
Click to expand...

Absolutely no idea, I'm afraid. :) I see that there are celebities among the client base, so possible but I'm pretty clueless about such matters.

MM
 

Taramo

Re Diane Banks and Tara Moore

Hi there to all of you who were enquiring re the above. I am Tara Moore and definitely not a celebrity (not yet anyway). I am signed with Diane Banks, who is a very reputable agent and who started her career with Hodder. She decided to go it alone a few years ago and is certainly building up her client list. As for me, just like you I plugged away for years churning out book after book and always looking for the big break. I have three books previously published under 2 different names, but I am hoping RSVP with the might of Orion behind it, will be the 'one'. I think it's very easy to get disillusioned. We all know what a cut-throat industry the literary world has become and how sometimes you just feel like giving it all up. If it helps any, all I can say is been there and been on the brink of chucking it all in more times than I care to remember. I'm very glad I didn't and I just want to wish all you other scribes the very best of luck.

Tara Moore
 
euclid

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Hi Tara, I read somewhere that RSVP is a "blockbuster". What does that mean?
When will it be on the shelves?
 

Taramo

Good Question

A blockbuster seems to be the name publishers give to longer books - 130,000 - 150,000 words and upwards (though generally they do not like to go above 150,000 words as the books become very expensive to produce and could end up being unprofitable.

RSVP is not actually due to come out until 2010, but it is already on Amazon and the W H Smith site in order, presumably, to get it out of the Google 'sandbox' so that it is on the first search page when it is released. It seems an eternity away, but they know what they're doing, so I'm happy to leave it in the hands of the experts and more than happy simply to be the writer.

What are you working on and have you had any joy with publishers/agents?

Tara
 
Cel_Fleur

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Equeried Kate Burke: 04/04/14 (huh - I didn't notice the abundance of fours there...)
Form rejection: 12/04/14

Another pretty generic 'we are going to pass'. And, in case people were wondering, it looks like a no from one is a no from all; my r was signed by the agency, rather than Ms. Burke.
On the other hand, just over a week's response is brilliant and I know their bigger deals are on some pretty different stuff from my genre, so I didn't really expect to be eagerly pounced upon. From the letter, the agency sounds polite and professional. I'd definitely head their way again.

~Fleur
 
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