SUSAN MEARS founded the Susan Mears Agency in 1993 and it has grown to become one of the most successful London agencies with a huge reputation for taking authors from the first book to bestseller status. Susan develops and represents a stable of best-selling writers and creatives and places material with publishing houses all over the world. Susan’s expertise is in developing new talent and finding innovative avenues in an ever-changing publishing environment. The Susan Mears Agency also has offices in New York and Dubai.

After studying English and French literature at Sorbonne Paris and Southampton University Susan trained as an editor at Random House (Century Hutchinson division).  She then became Managing Editor at Little Brown (Piatkus division) where she built up their stellar list of fiction and non-fiction.   She later moved on to become Managing Editor at Element Books where she was responsible for commissioning for the highly successful ELEMENTS OF series as well as setting up the bestselling HEALTH ESSENTIALS series and commissioning the multimillion bestselling translation of the TAO TE CHING by Martin Palmer and Jay Ramsay. After her career at Element, she was appointed Editorial Director at NDS Ltd publishing health and lifestyle titles.

In 1993 Susan set up her independent literary agency, The SUSAN MEARS AGENCY. The agency has become the leading UK and USA agency for cutting-edge thrillers, quality literary fiction, memoirs and titles covering religion, health and spirituality.

Since 2017 the agency has diversified into book and film and works closely with key directors and producers in LA and the Gulf, converting the cutting-edge content of the agency books into film, television and theatre. Susan spends much time in the Middle East. The agency has a particular interest in promoting authors and filmmakers from the area of the Gulf and promoting their work to an international audience. She loves this part of the world and it is her mission to get exposure to the incredibly talented writers and filmmakers out there.

Some of the now internationally renowned million bestselling authors who came to her with their first script include Martin Palmer (Penguin Classics author and translator of the major Chinese classics) Adrian Gilbert author of The Mayan Prophecies Jay Ramsay author of the bestselling Tao Te ChingTim Freke and Peter Gandy author of the massive bestseller Jesus mysteries Judy Hall author of massive bestseller The Crystal Bible John Pepper author of award-winning novel Cry Downriver Conor Creighton author of Strange Love and Guardian columnist. Simon Welsh award-winning novelist and screenwriter who won at the NYC Film Festival 2020 for his script Ghastly Fowl.

David Palin was runner-up of the Raydance award for the script adaptation of his novel For Art’s Sake Waffoua Tarnowska winner of Palme d’Or at Cannes and bestselling translator of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Peter LeMesurier author of Great Pyramid Decoded which sold over 3 million copies. These are just some highlights from Susan’s considerable stable of original and fascinating Fiction, Nonfiction and Memoir authors.

The agency has cultivated relationships with leading opinion formers and spoke people for world faith and environmental issues including Martin Palmer world authority on eco issues, wildlife preservation and nature conservation and advisor to the United Nations and HRH Prince Philip and HRH Prince Charles.

Film and Television

It is fascinating to note that hitherto there has not been an agency devoted to the Middle East and the promotion of authors from this part of the world and this has resulted in a massive gap and many excellent authors from UAE simply not getting into the international book and translation market in the way they so richly deserve. 

TRANSLATION OF ARAB LANGUAGE WRITERS FROM ARABIC TO ENGLISH

The agency has on their books experienced award-winning translators Wafa  Tarnowska and Professor  Mohammed Chtatou of Rabat University both of whom translate Arabic to English and French and so, therefore, the highest quality of translation can be assured at source for our authors – this is important since too often English language publishers are guilty of commissioning translators whose work is not always of the highest standard.

How The Susan Mears Agency Can Work  Not Just With Publishing Deals But Also Get Authors Into Lucrative Film And TV/Interactive Games Markets.

Susan Mears agency has partnered with Ted Howard senior advisor to Sony Films LA to pitch directly for film and TV. We are in the process of negotiating a studio base in LA at Sony Lot. Our team in UAE includes Vishal Thalkar and colleagues who were involved with the box office smash hit series FAST AND FURIOUS and our London film consultant is the hugely influential producer Gareth Jones who was behind 30 Box office hits including Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels and Mona Lisa.

There has been a complete revolution in the past few years with the rise of Netflix and similar streaming services the old route of waiting for a book to become a bestseller and then (years down the line) pitching it to film studios has changed significantly.

Studios both for film and TV are all seeking good storylines and concepts and therefore it has become realistic to pitch film and Netflix series film or TV series film and also interactive games and later on merchandising within the same timeframe.

We are ready and waiting to take exciting new novels and concepts from book to film.

Interview: “Soul Publishing” – Susan Mears & Stewart Pearce