LOOKING FOR: ADULT FICTION Marilia Savvides founded The Plot Agency in 2024. She began her career in publishing at Peters Fraser and Dunlop, where she spent eight years, first as International Rights Agent, and later as Literary Agent, building her own list of authors. In 2019, she joined 42MP, where she worked as Literary Agent for four years, helping to launch and set up the Book Division. She is particularly interested in fiction that is beautifully written and cleverly constructed, but still accessible to a wide readership. She is often drawn to darker tales that weave together excellent characters and an impossible-to-put-down story, from immersive book club novels with a splash of suspense, crime and thrillers, accessible horror, and speculative, genre-bending or dystopian stories. She also adores smart, witty contemporary rom-com in the style of Emily Henry. In the thriller, crime and mystery space she is interested in most areas, except military thrillers and organised crime/ mafia / mob stories. Big hooks and clever set ups are a big bonus! She adores Karin Slaughter (especially her standalone novels) and Gillian Flynn. In the book club / reading group space, she’s particularly drawn to fiction in the vein of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Celeste Ng, and absolutely fell in love with Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, both for the incredible voice, and the exquisite use of structure and time. Complicated family dynamics, empathetic and smart approaches to controversial issues, stand out protagonists (like Elizabeth Zott in Lessons in Chemistry or Bernadette in Where D’You Go Bernadette), long buried secrets, complicity, the road to justice, and impossible decisions, are all themes she finds herself drawn to. In the horror space, she’s a sucker for amazing female-centric stories in the vein of Yellowjackets, and the kind of contemporary, accessible horror that Stephen King always nails. She wants to get lost in a world that feels within reach of ours. In the speculative and dystopian spaces, she’s interested in genius ideas that set up big questions or reflect the most broken (and sometimes hidden) parts of society. She loves Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, and also adored The Leftovers, Station Eleven, Wanderers, and The Power. The what-ifs of life and fiction fascinate her. In the grounded sci-fi space, she’d love to find a smart, immersive, and accessible story like The Martian. She doesn’t represent fantasy or romantasy. In regards to sci-fi, unless it’s very grounded and has crossover potential to a mainstream audience, it’s not for her. In the romance space, she’s particularly drawn to smart, complex and witty characters, where the chemistry is jumping off the page. She loves contemporary settings and all the tropes, though the voice and characters must come first to make the reading experience fully immersive. She wants to be cackling, and rooting for the characters with all her heart. She is very hands-on editorially, and loves working with her authors to shape their manuscripts, and brainstorm ideas. The best part of the job is discovering debut authors, and helping them find a home for their books. Marilia would like you to submit a covering letter, 1 - 2 page synopsis and the first 5,000 words of your manuscript in a single Word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, Marilia is kindly offering one free session for low income/underrepresented writers. Please email agent121@iaminprint.co.uk to apply, outlining your case for this option which is offered at the discretion of I Am In Print). By booking you understand you need to conduct an internet connection test with I Am In Print prior to the event. You also agree to email your material in one document to reach I Am In Print by the stated submission deadline and note that I Am In Print take no responsibility for the advice received during your agent meeting. The submission deadline is: Wednesday 13th August 2025
Overview In this course you will learn to build a financial model by working in Excel and how to perform sensitivity analysis in Excel. You will also learn the formulas, functions and types of financial analysis to be an Excel power user. By attending this course, you will be able to effectively prepare and build financial models. Objectives Harness Excel's tools within a best practice framework Add flexibility to their models through the use of switches and flexible lookups Work efficiently with large data volumes Model debt effectively Approach modelling for tax, debt, pensions and disposals with confidence Build flexible charts and sensitivity analysis to aid the presentation of results Learn and apply Excel tools useful in financial forecasting Understand and design the layout of a flexible model Forecast financial statements of a public or private company Apply scenario analysis to the forecasted financial statements and prepare charts for data presentation
Ideal for those already using Excel but who really want to get to grips with formulas and functions. Course overview Duration: 1 day (6.5 hours) Our Excel Mastering Formulas and Functions course looks at how to confidently use formulas and functions within Excel. It looks at how to correctly construct formulas and explains how to build common formulas such as working with percentages. It investigates a range of built in Excel functions and shows you how to use the formula auditing tools to help when things go wrong. This course is aimed at existing users of Excel who want to further their skills. Participants should be able to confidently create and amend worksheets. Objectives By the end of the course you will be able to: Construct Formulas Use a range of common Functions Work with absolute and relative references in formulas Create percentage calculations Use named ranges in formulas Use the XLOOKUP command Create formulas with date and use date functions Use formulas in conditional formatting Use a range of Count functions Use the formula auditing tools Content Formulas vs Functions Constructing formulas Using functions Common Excel functions Using the function wizard vs the formula bar Formulas in tables Absolute vs relative references in formulas Using absolute references in formulas Using partial absolute referencing Range Naming Naming ranges Using range names in formulas Single and multi-cell ranges Working with percentages Creating formulas with percentages Percentage breakdowns Percentage increases Formatting as a percentage Using Lookups Using XLOOKUP to insert information from other spreadsheets Calculating with dates Calculating with dates Using date functions Using formulas in conditional formatting Using conditional formulas Using functions in conditional formatting Count functions COUNT COUNTA COUNTBLANK Formula auditing Using the auditing facility Tracing how formulas are made up Tracing precedents and dependants Evaluating formulas Error checking Showing formulas on a sheet
Expand your VBA knowledge further and learn some of the more advanced coding features. Course overview Duration: 2 days (13 hours) This course is aimed at experienced VBA users or those who have attended our Part 1 course and have started to use the language. Part 2 expands on the huge array of commands and elements of the data model that can be used and looks at building more complex VBA models Objectives By the end of the course you will be able to: Use comparison operators and system functions Use Arrays Work with ranges Work with the worksheets and workbooks collections and objects Use application objects Use the FileSystemObject Create function procedures Import and save text files Connect to other applications Content Comparison operators Using Comparison operators and functions The LIKE function Wildcards Using SELECT Case System functions The VAL function Case functions Trim functions Text functions Date functions Excel worksheet functions Using Excel functions in VBA Arrays Creating arrays Using arrays Ubound and Lbound Single and multi dimensional arrays Static vs dynamic arrays Working with ranges Creating range objects Passing data between range objects and arrays Using Transpose The Excel object model The object browser Working with collections Collections Creating object variables Setting object variables The For Each . . . Next Loo Sheet collections The worksheets collection The worksheet object The sheets collection Using object Grouping worksheets Using Typename The Workbook collection The workbooks collection Setting workbook variables Application objects Excel default information Display/alerts Screen updating Status bar On Time Using Wait Systems dialog boxes Showing dialog boxes Using dialog boxes Working with files Searching for files and folders The DIR function The FileSystemObject Function procedures Creating functions Adding arguments Calling functions Working with text files Searching for files and folders The DIR function The FileSystemObject Using the FILE and FOLDER collections Sharing data with other applications Early vs Late Binding Setting references to other applications Creating application variables Setting application variables
Expand your Excel knowledge and learn how to structure and analyse large data sets.
This one-day course focuses on issues such as writing formulas and accessing help while writing them, and taking formulas to the next level by nesting one inside another for a powerful formula result. It also looks at ways of analysing data with reports, summarised by varying criteria. A range of time-saving tips and tricks are shared. This course will help participants: Calculate with absolute reference Group worksheets Link to tables Use the function library effectively Get to grips with the logical IF function Use conditional formatting Create pivot table reports Use data validation Master the VLOOKUP function 1 Calculating with absolute reference The difference between a relative and absolute formula Changing a relative formula to an absolute Using $ signs to lock cells when copying formulas 2 Grouping worksheets Grouping sheets together Inputting data into multiple sheets Writing a 3D formula to sum tables across sheets 3 Linking to tables Linking to a source table Using paste link to link a table to another file Using edit links to manage linked tables 4 The function library Benefits of writing formulas in the function library Finding the right formula using insert function Outputting statistics with COUNTA and COUNTBLANK Counting criteria in a list with COUNTIFS 5 Logical IF Function Outputting results from tests Running multiple tests for multiple results The concept of outputting results from numbers 6 Conditional formatting Enabling text and numbers to standout Applying colour to data using rules Managing rules Copying rules with the format painter 7 View side by side Comparing two Excel tables together Comparing two sheets together in the same file 8 Pivot table reports Analysing data with pivot tables Managing a pivot table's layout Outputting statistical reports Controlling number formats Visualising reports with pivot charts Inserting slicers for filtering data 9 Data validation Restricting data input with data validation Speeding up data entry with data validation 10 VLOOKUP function Best practices for writing a VLOOKUP A false type lookup A true type lookup Enhance formula results with IFNA 11 Print options Getting the most from print Printing page titles across pages Scaling content for print