Accepts fiction and non-fiction. No plays or scripts.
Submission Guidelines:
- With your letter, you should send a synopsis/summary, ideally a paragraph, but no longer than one page, plus the first thirty pages of consecutively written sample material (in other words, do not send sample chapters from beginning, middle and end).
- Your typewritten pages should be double-spaced, single-sided, loose-leaf A4, and you should tell us whether you'd like the entire submission to be returned to you (if not suitable) - if you do, you need to include an adequately sized stamped addressed envelope. Otherwise, you can simply send us a stamped addressed envelope for our reply. For fiction, we require that books be completed before submitting.
Permissions:
All requests for permission to use copyright material by any of the clients of Aitken Alexander should contain the following information:
(i) Title and Author of book / material in which extract concerned appears;
(ii) Length (and page reference) of such extract;
(iii) Territories and Languages for which permission sought;
(iv) Title / Publisher / Price / Publication date and estimated first print-run of book / material in which extract will appear;
(v) All other relevant information.
Requests should be submitted to the Permissions Department in writing, by post or fax, or by email to: reception@aitkenalexander.co.uk
Gillon Aitken first founded Gillon Aitken Limited in 1976. In 1998, former Viking and Macmillan Publisher Clare Alexander joined the agency and in 2005 the name of the agency was changed to Aitken Alexander AssociatesAccepts fiction and non-fiction. No plays or scripts.. In 2008, Andrew Kidd, previously Publisher of Picador and Macmillan, joined as a director. From its inception, the agency has placed great emphasis on overseas rights, and Sally Riley heads up Aitken Alexander's highly respected Translation Rights department. In 2009 the agency opened an office in New York, under Anna Stein, and, in 2011, in New Delhi, under Shruti Debi. Both moves reflected Aitken Alexander's strong commitment to the best of international writing. In 2011, Lesley Thorne, who runs the company's Film, Theatre and TV department, was appointed to the board.
The focus of the agency remains on writers and writing and the company represents a wide range of prize-winning and bestselling fiction and non-fiction, including: Clare Allan, Jo Baker, Pat Barker, Jung Chang, Clare Clark, Sarah Dunant, Diana Evans, Sebastian Faulks, Helen Fielding, Rebecca Frayn, Germaine Greer, Julia Gregson, Mark Haddon, Mohammed Hanif, Oliver James, Liz Jensen, Lucy Kellaway, Pankaj Mishra, Thomas Penn, Jonathan Raban, Louise Rennison, Jennie Rooney, Edward St Aubyn, Maria Semple, Rory Stewart, Colin Thubron, Sara Wheeler, Amanda Vickery and Penny Vincenzi.
Additionally, through the acquisition in 1984 of Hughes Massie Limited (among the earliest UK literary agencies and founded in 1905), the company continues to represent the British and Commonwealth rights in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the works of J. D. Salinger as well as the estate of authors such as Paul Gallico, Mary Norton and Slavomir Rawicz. Other literary estates represented by the agency include John Betjeman, Bruce Chatwin, Patrick Leigh Fermor, John Fowles, Ian Hamilton and Shiva Naipaul.