Books are my business: Publisher Conor Nagle

The Nagle Agency wants to work with authors to craft their voice and also provide them with a longer-term plan

Conor Nagle of the Nagle Agency: 'What I’m really keen on doing is finding new voices.'

Conor Nagle is based in Dublin. He previously worked with the publishing firms Gill and HarperCollins and recently established his own literary agency, the Nagle Agency.

How did you get into publishing?

It was a really circuitous route, I didn’t have any designs on working in publishing until it found me. I was in college for a long time, I was doing a doctorate and hit a wall, it just wasn’t for me. 

I was almost five years in when I left that and I spent about 18 months working as a freelance journalist. That was around 2012. I had a couple of freelance gigs but I was looking around for something a bit more lasting.

I was introduced through a contact of a contact to [the late] Fergal Tobin, who worked at Gill. 

I went to meet him one day at the Residence Club in Dublin where he would hold court, and I was very impressed — I thought it was all very glamorous. 

He encouraged me to get involved in publishing, although his advice to me at the time, which I’ll never forget was ‘obviously not here, go to London’.

I later applied for a commissioning editor position at Gill, at the same time as Deirdre Nolan — they hired the two of us to replace Fergal, who was retiring. I spent seven years there; I had an absolute ball. 

I went to HarperCollins in 2020 and I finished there last year. My first day there was March 16, 2020, so as lockdown was falling into place all around the country, I was on my way to the office. It was quite a surreal experience.

Can you tell me a bit more about your new venture, the Nagle Agency?

It’s something I’ve been working towards for quite a long time. It’s a literary agency, primarily. My role has always been to find new ideas and put projects together.

The brief as an agent now is similar but what I’m really keen on doing is finding new voices.

I will be working with authors to place them with publishers, but I feel like the role of an agent should involve more than that. 

I want to work with authors to craft their voice, but also provide them with a longer-term plan — looking at what they are building towards and making sure that they’re doing everything they can to maximise their longevity, reach the widest possible audience and remain as faithful as possible to what got them into writing in the first place. 

I want to place authors with the people that are going to bring out the absolute best in them and try and sustain those relationships as much as possible.

What do you like most about what you do?

Ideas. The great privilege that we have working in publishing is the variety, particularly working here in Ireland, where the dynamic of the industry is different, and where, by and large, we have a lot more freedom to publish widely, right across the spectrum.

You get up every day and you’re dealing with something completely different. 

Very often the people you’re working with are experts in their field and extremely passionate about what they do — academics, journalists, historians, sports people, and you get to hop between these different worlds. 

And then trying to find the magic in what they do and realise it on the page. It’s a real thrill, and a privilege to have that kind of freedom.

What do you like least about it?

Disappointment, on two levels. First, if for whatever reason it’s not possible to publish someone. So when you know a huge amount has been invested in a book emotionally, and for whatever reason, you’re not in a position to make the dream a reality. 

There are lots of reasons for that, it’s not always a judgment on the work. There are all sorts of external factors that mean very often a project just can’t get off the ground. That’s a terrible feeling.

And similarly, the disappointment that sometimes follows the release of a book that for whatever reason may not have reached the heights that everybody hoped for. 

Again, that’s one of those things that is often down to all sorts of external factors but it’s really difficult to deal with.

Three desert island books

The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald is one that I come back to again and again, it’s an incredible book. 

Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings by Jonathan Raban is a must; it’s one I recommend to authors all the time. I absolutely adore that book. If I was marooned on an island, I think the maritime history feel of the book would sustain me. 

My third one would be a short story collection, The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro. She is such a fabulous writer.