I met my literary agent, Selwa Anthony, long before I ever thought of becoming a writer myself.
My mother, Lynne Wilding, was one of Selwa’s first group of authors. I believe they met at a Romance Writers of Australia event (my mother was the president of the organisation at the time) and hit it off instantly. From that time on, Selwa became my mother’s literary agent.
Thirteen international best-sellers followed, all under Selwa’s management, until my mother passed away in 2007.
Besides their business relationship, they formed a very close friendship. Therefore, I knew a lot about Selwa well before I met her.
I met Selwa in person at my mother’s 60th birthday party in 2001. I remember it well because Selwa had her gorgeous little dog, Angel, in a basket and my daughters – very young at the time – fell in love with the dog. We then met again at writers’ functions that I attended with my mother and at her annual ‘sassy’s’ conference.
We kept in touch after my mother passed away, and when I started writing, Selwa looked at my first, very green manuscript, and encouraged me to work on it. “Write because you love it, not to get published,” she told me. For years she continued to support, encourage and mentor me and my writing until she thought my work was ready to be presented to publishers.
In 2012, Selwa negotiated a two-book contract deal with Simon and Schuster Australia. Since then I have published three crime fiction novels – all under Selwa’s management.
Selwa Anthony’s literary agency is unique and not like any other I have ever heard of. It is more of a family and her relationships with her authors and aspiring authors is based on communication, respect and loyalty. Selwa gets to know her clients on a personal level and encourages her authors to support and promote each other’s work. She holds a yearly event “the Sassy’s” for that purpose, and to give credit and recognition to her authors and publishing associates.
I have been told by numerous editors, publishers’, people in the book industry, that Selwa “is the best agent around”. I consider myself very lucky to be a part of her author family.