Welcome to the website of Selwa Anthony Author Management Agency - one of the leading literary agencies in Australia. Here you will find information about Selwa, her authors and the books she has helped get published.

How Selwa became my agent

Anne McCullagh Rennie

After twelve years teaching Suzuki Piano and running multi-piano workshops and concerts in Sydney, culminating in my staging The Suzuki 21 Piano Salute to the Bicentenary, (that included 21 pianos, strings, woodwind, 200 kids and 20 teachers), I needed a change.  Encouraged by my husband to ‘Give it a go’ and follow my dream to write bestsellers, I wrote and published Pain-free Living, a cookbook for arthritis sufferers. I then joined every writing group I could find and started writing my first novel.  One of those groups was the Society of Women Writers. They were desperate for a secretary. “Anne McCullagh Rennie”

Michelle Hamer

Fifteen years ago, I thought I had my first publishing deal all sewn up, but when it came to the nitty gritty I was out of my depth. As a freelance journalist I was accustomed to selling my writing and negotiating payments, but book publishing was a whole new world and I wasn’t coping.

By chance I interviewed another journalist-turned-author at that time and told her of my difficulties.

  “Michelle Hamer”

Gwen Wilson

After years of working on a memoir and finally honing it to her satisfaction, my editor recommended me to Selwa.

I’d been aware of Selwa Anthony for years, but never dreamed I would make the grade to be one of her authors.

Within days of receiving the manuscript Selwa called me! “Gwen Wilson”

Andrew Daddo

Ah, the circuitous route to the place you should have been all along!

It felt like a backdoor entry to a special club – no secret handshake or code word, but certainly the right introduction from the right person.

And from the very beginning it was a matter of working together as opposed to being ‘taken on board’.  Selwa was able to help uncover the possibilities in a writing career that was underway but in need of direction. “Andrew Daddo”

Sam & Jenny Bailey

In 1999, the year we married, our story appeared in The Australian Women’s Weekly. Tucked away at the end of the article was a throw-away line that happened to mention we would like to write a book about our story one day.

A few days later a note arrived in our mailbox from a literary agent called Selwa Anthony – who at that stage we hadn’t heard of. We quickly discovered she was a legend in the publishing industry. We made contact with her and she re-iterated her offer to help if we wanted to write our story. “Sam & Jenny Bailey”

Johanna Nicholls

An author needs a great agent. One who knows the changing climate of the literary world. One who is always at your back, fights for your rights and has the wisdom to know how to give you constructive criticism that helps lead you to successful publication.

Selwa Anthony has been all that and more to me throughout the writing and publication of my first four Australian historical novels: Ironbark, Ghost Gum Valley, The Lace Balcony, and Golden Hope in Australia and overseas, and their Talking Book editions. “Johanna Nicholls”

Frauke Bolton-Boshammer

I met Selwa through friends.

I flew to Sydney from Kununurra to meet her. She was extremely helpful. She picked me up from the hotel to come to her place for afternoon tea. The homemade scones were delicious.

I was very, very impressed by all the books she had helped to be published. “Frauke Bolton-Boshammer”

Joanne van Os

Around 2001, I decided to write an account of my life with the real Crocodile Dundee. Writing the story of how your ex-husband killed a police officer and wounded several other people, and was then shot dead, was not something I wanted to do, but it was necessary.

Before I ventured down that road, I rang an editor friend in Sydney. She said mine was a sensitive and difficult story to write. I needed an agent, and the agent I needed was Selwa Anthony.

“She’s the best person you could get to represent you,” she said. “Joanne van Os”

John Suter Linton

To cut a very long story short, in the mid-90s I found myself with a decommissioned manuscript. That is, the publishing house I was contracted to had decided to let my publisher go and, therefore, cancelled all their commissioned works. How I got the original publishing deal was through a friend of a friend. So now, I had no agent and no idea on what to do with the manuscript.

To distract myself I began editing the manuscript and took up ten-pin bowling. At the time, it was decided bowling would be an exhibition game at the 2000 Olympics. I wasn’t bad at the game and, well, a young bloke can dream.

In one of the many leagues I bowled, I meet an accountant who told me they had a literary agent as a client. “John Suter Linton”

Nadine Williams

Many years ago, when I worked at the Advertiser, I came across a feature in our Broadsheet newspaper about this exciting agent for Australian authors. It was in the 1990s, and for some reason I kept it, taken by the striking woman whose portrait took up half the page.

In 2004, I met a widower, a handsome French-born Australian with a melodic Gallic accent, who took me back to France, wooed me and won my heart. I had been a feisty feminist and forged a career as such at the Advertiser. I once wrote a column about the “romance myth” and here I was, a 50-something middle-aged woman, falling to his charms. “Nadine Williams”

New and up and coming publications:

Your Celestial Compass

Your Celestial Compass

Unlock the power of astrology to understand yourself, your relationships and your soul’s purpose

Award-winning astrologer Natasha Weber (also known as AstroTash) is your guide to unravelling the secrets of your astrological blueprint. With her down-to-earth stellar insights, Natasha unpacks …

Read More »
The Mistress of Dara

The Mistress of Dara

A tropical paradise is her birthright … but will its dark secrets destroy her dreams?

In the 1960s, a tropical island in the Coral Sea hides dark secrets behind its primordial beauty.

Thalia – ‘Tally’ – Ramsey has grown up …

Read More »
When Winter Comes Darkness

When Winter Comes Darkness

A terrible accident burns down a family’s life on the same day a murder is committed. From the ashes of these acts comes revelation, darkness, and the truth. Psychological suspense and profound family drama meet in this heartrending and original …

Read More »
The Wild Date Palm

The Wild Date Palm

During a train journey across Turkey’s Anatolian Plain in 1915 during World War I, Shoshana Adelstein witnesses the slaughter of the Armenians and knows she has just come face to face with her destiny.

Convinced that her Jewish community in …

Read More »
Hope

Hope

After tragedy, how do we find hope? A memoir about what it takes to get through the very worst of times from Rosie Batty – a woman who has experienced tragedy, who had lost all hope, yet now is intent …

Read More »
Happy All Over

Happy All Over

A glorious celebration of happiness from multi-award-winning author-illustrator Emma Quay.

Happy on the inside, inside-out. Happy all over – splash it all about.

From Emma Quay, the award-winning and much-loved creator of Rudie Nudie, comes an irresistible celebration of …

Read More »
The Bookshop by the Loch

The Bookshop by the Loch

Lexie Dunbar is a book lover. And her favourite place in the world is her local bookstore, Book Ends. So when she hears that it’s going to be sold, Lexie decides she needs to do something to help.

Lexie’s plan …

Read More »