Ed Wilson is an agent and director of Johnson & Alcock, representing a vibrant list of fiction and non-fiction, from new voices to established, bestselling and award-winning authors.

In fiction, he looks for anything with originality and style, both literary and commercial: books with an imaginative setting, strong narrative voice, and compelling premise. He has an active SFF list, with mutliple award-winning and nominated authors, and is always on the lookout for new writers. He’s open to all forms of high concept writing, intelligent crime and thrillers, and books that transcend genre. Ed is not currently taking on any new YA or children's authors, and does not represent play or film scripts. 

His non-fiction tastes cover a wide range: from serious politics and sweeping narrative history, to sport, natural history and popular culture. He loves intelligent and original graphic novels and infographics, and anything that tackles well-known subjects in an interesting and quirky way.

Ed also looks after the majority of the agency’s Estates, in conjunction with Andrew Hewson: these include Beryl Bainbridge, Dick Francis, William Trevor and Elizabeth Taylor. Any enquiries about these authors should be sent to him.

Ed can be found giving talks up and down the country, and also online, and runs a regular Guardian Masterclass entitled ‘How to Get Published’. You should be able to find a link to the next course here. To date, many of the attendees have indeed ‘got published’.

If you’re wondering whether you’re ready to submit your novel to him, please find a handy (if not entirely serious) flowchart reproduced alongside… (This was first published in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, which is the best resource for all information about UK publishing.)

You can also follow his ramblings (mainly about cats, gin and cricket) on Twitter at @literarywhore.