Books are my business: literary agent Brian Langan

The Co Meath-based agent worked with various publishers in-house between 1997 and 2017 before setting up Storyline Editorial Services and Storyline Literary Agency

Brian Langan says he always wanted to work with books, even before he got into publishing.

Brian Langan spent two decades working as an in-house editor for Irish and international book publishers, before setting up Storyline Editorial Services and Storyline Literary Agency. He is based in Co Meath.

How did you get into publishing?

I always wanted to work with books — before I got into publishing, I worked in the campus bookshop in UCD as a student. 

I did a degree in economics and that helped me get my first job with Oaktree Press, which was a business publisher.

I then worked with various publishers in-house between 1997 and 2017. My most recent in-house role was with Transworld Ireland, part of Penguin, where I worked from 2010 to 2017.

What does your role involve?

It is quite a broad role. The freelance side is somewhat different than in-house. With in-house, there is a certain amount of commissioning involved, trying to identify manuscripts with strong potential and so on. 

An author who really took off for us in Transworld was Donal Ryan, who I have worked with throughout his career.

There is also a lot of administrative work and you are the main point of contact, when you are in-house, between the publisher and the author. My role is more limited in my freelance editing work. 

I am employed to do a very specific job of editing a manuscript — I generally don’t have much engagement with the author beyond that.

I mostly work on developmental and structural editing. My greatest love lies in storytelling and getting a story right. 

While I do a certain amount of copy editing as well, most of my work involves looking at characters, plots, and the structure of a novel — how the writer tells the story.

What do you like most about your job?

I like getting engaged with the story and being drawn into a fictional world — recognising that a writer has got something really special. What I love doing is helping them to make their work as good as it can be — helping to get the best possible version of the story down on the page.

On the agency side, discovering a new writer who will have the potential to break through and have a long career is something I am keen to do as well.

What do you like least?

I suppose not selling a book. As an editor, I will typically do editing work on a book before I submit it and — for the most part — I don’t get paid for that.

I might end up putting several weeks of work into a manuscript that ultimately doesn’t sell.

There is a balance to be struck, and I am still trying to get that right. I also find it heartbreaking to turn down some really brilliant writers whose manuscripts are really strong, but maybe I don’t have a clear vision about how I would find a publisher for them.

I like stories with strong character development, where the character is really brought to life — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a strong dramatic storyline.

Sometimes publishers are looking for something snappier.

Publishers have become a lot more cautious about what they are taking on, which can mean that it can be difficult to place writers with brilliant skills and a very original approach to fiction.

Career highlights?

One novel that I hope becomes a career highlight is coming out in May from Atlantic Books.

It is called Lightborne and is written by Hesse Phillips. It is a queer reimagining of the last month in the life of the playwright Christopher Marlowe.

It was one of the winners at the Irish Novel Fair two years ago and I think it is a superb, really immersive piece of historical fiction.

I am hoping it is a great success for them.

Three desert island books?

That’s a struggle as I would have different books on different days.

I will opt for David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See, and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life.

If I had a fourth option I’d go for CJ Sansom’s Dissolution, or any of the Shardlake series.