Susan Mears from Susan Mears Literary & Film Agency will be judging our 2020 Writing Award. Susan studied English and French Literature at Southampton University and the Sorbonne University, Paris and graduated with honours.
She went into publishing as a Trainee Editor for Random House (Hutchinson division). Her mentor was Oliver Caldecott, ex head of general non-fiction at Penguin.
Susan was promoted to Editor at Hutchinson and then was appointed Managing Editor at Piatkus Books part of Little and Brown where she built up their hugely successful Health list and Mind Body and Spirit List.
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 multi million 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 has become the leading UK and USA agency for cutting edge thrillers, quality literary fiction, memoirs and titles covering religion, health and spirituality.
Amongst the agency’s stable of high profile authors are Peter LeMesurier, million bestselling author of THE GREAT PYRAMID DECODED, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, authors of THE JESUS MYSTERIES, Adrian Gilbert bestselling author of THE MAYAN PROPHECIES which has sold in excess and Martin Palmer, world authority on religion and conservation and advisor to the UN secretary General and to HRH Prince Philip on world faiths and the environment. Martin is chief translator of the Chinese classics for Penguin and his translation of the TAO TE CHING (with Jay Ramsay) sold over 3 million copies. 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 as she has many friends and business contacts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman. The agency has a particular interest in promoting authors and film makers 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 in book and film world to the incredibly talented writers and film makers out there.
