LOOKING FOR: YA/NA FANTASY, SFF, HORROR, ADULT FICTION John Baker (he/him) joined the Bell Lomax Moreton agency in 2019, cultivating a list shaped around his passion for science fiction, fantasy, and horror, though has lately also branched out into action/adventure fiction. John focuses on authors writing in the Adult, New Adult, and YA spaces. John leads the wider agency's film & TV desk, is the Secretary of the Association of Author’s Agents, and the co-chair of the AAA’s Bridge Committee. He also serves on the Kingston University MA Publishing Advisory Board. Under the umbrella of speculative fiction, John is looking for fantasy, science fiction, horror, romantasy, or literary speculative fiction. He has built a reputation as a champion of underrepresented voices and stories, be it from creators hailing from the global majority and their diasporas or neurodiverse authors, and naturally gravitates towards this kind of storytelling. In short, if he’s never read a story like yours before, he wants to see it. Adult fantasy: John loves beefy epic fantasy, especially non-Anglo Christian-inspired. Give him an immersive world, a fresh magical or mythic system, and an exciting cast of characters and he’ll be happy. He is a broad church in the genre so loves a political fantasy, swords and sorcery, courtly intrigue, monster hunting and dastardly villains. John is keen to find an urban fantasy that feels fresh and fun and he’s a sucker for a heroic quest narrative. He’s also very open to fantasy that isn’t easily categorised, but it is playing in that world. John is keenly hunting for more historical fantasy, especially inspired by modern history. He’s had fun with mythological retellings in the past, but as ever, let’s make sure it’s shining the spotlight on new stories. He would also love fantasy that centres on types of relationships less celebrated in fantasy, such as established and secure married couples, or siblings. NA/YA fantasy: In this genre, most importantly, John wants to have a good time, whether it’s swoon-worthy kisses in lush ball gowns, or gruesome gore and monsters, so send him pacy, plot-filled adventures. He’d love more books that teenage boys would love: Skullduggery Pleasant forever! Romantasy: The thriving new romantasy genre comes with its own set of challenges, so John wants to know what makes your romantasy different; what will set it out from the (very crowded!) market. Give it completely barmy stakes, cool and unique new settings, or a love story that will make your jaw drop. To be clear, he’s happily sorted for a human person meets a fae creature in the spooky woods. Also, cosmic romance is the genre of the future. Give him romantasy in space. Easy. Horror: John and horror are old friends. He loves horror inspired by myth and folklore, subversive weird horror that leaves your eyebrows in your hairline, historical horror that pulls from ghastly true stories, and anything that you’ll be reading with the light on. He also loves a gothic element and is particularly looking for horror with a strong romantic throughline, fun YA horror, and female & NB horror authors. Science fiction: SF is coming back! And John has been shouting about that. He loves to see an adventurous found-family romp through space or an epic, crunchy space opera. Speculative near-future is fun too, in the vein of Black Mirror’s more uplifting episodes, (e.g. San Junipero). He loves YA science fiction as well; the more creative the better. Literary: John is open to finding more rich magical realism or something character-led yet supernatural and would love a high-concept mystery, in the vein of Stuart Turton. He also loves spec fic that uses the speculative lightly as a way of confronting a deeper truth in society today. Weird stuff: John wants books that will blow people’s minds and defy categorisation. This is hard to describe, but think Gideon The Ninth, The Library At Mount Char, This Is How You Lose The Time War. John loves a pitch that leaves the editors baffled but intrigued. Action/Adventure, Historical Adventure, Espionage: John is branching out into non-speculative adventures, such as John Le Carré, Lee Child, Ian Flemming, and Mick Herron. More as his taste develops, but the hunt is on! Not looking for: military sci-fi or hard SF, or anything with biblical “character wakes up in purgatory/heaven/hell” narratives. The right comedic fantasy has yet to hit his inbox, but please don’t comp Douglas Adams or Sir Terry. John would like you to submit a covering letter, 1-2 page synopsis and the first three chapters (or 5,000 words whichever is longest) of your manuscript in a single word document. (In addition to the paid sessions, John is kindly offering one free session for low income/under-represented 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 15th January 2025
Overview For internal employees who want to understand and expand their roles related to financial reporting, as well as those who simply need a refresher on financial accounting, this course is the ideal way to get up to speed. By exploring concepts that go beyond basic accounting, this course will enable participants to approach financial auditing with renewed confidence. The programme will walk participants through an analysis of an organization's financial statements using case study exercises, where participants will calculate key ratios and analyze trends over time. Engaging in discussions on both historic and current fraud cases, participants will learn how to recognize âred flagsâ in financial statement reporting.
LOOKING FOR: PICTURE BOOKS, MG, YA, ADULT FICTION Clare Wallace joined the Darley Anderson Agency in January 2011 and is building both the Darley Anderson Children’s Agency and the Darley Anderson Illustration Agency lists as well as taking on adult fiction for debut authors. Clare is particularly looking for funny chapter books for younger readers at the moment, as well as contemporary MG, YA fantasy, romance, and rom coms, especially with underrepresented protagonists. For picture books she has the widest taste, from daft to lyrical, rhyming to prose. As well as being busy with the children’s and illustration agencies, Clare is open to debut adult fiction submissions that could be described as book club, rom-com, romance, saga, reading group, fantasy or historical fiction. She often doesn’t know what she’s looking for until she finds it (although she is not the person for steampunk or space opera). She represents picture books, middle-grade, teenage and YA and debut adult fiction. The clients Clare represents include Perdita & Honor Cargill, Caroline Crowe, Tom Ellen, Martyn Ford, Stewart Foster, Olivia Hope, A M Howell, Polly Ho-Yen, Rachel Ip, Beth Reekles, J.P. Rose, Lindsay Galvin, Dave Rudden, Deirdre Sullivan and Efua Traoré. Whatever the age range, Clare loves a big hook, a lot of heart, and a standout voice. She loves to discover memorable new characters, bold and unique voices, strong concepts and gripping storytelling. This list gives a good indication of Clare's taste but if your submission doesn’t fit a description here, it doesn’t mean Clare doesn’t want to receive it. Clare would like you to send a covering letter, a one page synopsis and the first three chapters (Max 5000 words) of your manuscript. For picture books, please submit a covering letter and up to three completed texts. Please send EITHER picture books OR another genre, not both in one submission. (In addition to the paid sessions, Clare 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: Monday 13th January 2025
Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM): In-House Training Do you want to take Disciplined Agile® to a new level? Are you looking for tools to solve complex problems and enhance your organization's agility? Do you want to learn how to lead your team to excellence? Expand your knowledge and build practical skills around Disciplined Agile®, business agility, leadership, and team development. Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master is a nine-lesson, instructor-led course that shows you how to use the Disciplined Agile tool kit to solve a variety of advanced problems, work with allies within your organization, and optimize how teams work. You will gain knowledge in planning, reporting and metrics, and coordinating activities, as well as how to meet challenges in these areas. And you'll develop the skills you need to foster emotional intelligence, resolve conflicts, and lead high-performance teams at any stage of development. Filled with activities, supplemental reading, and more, this course will prepare you to take the Disciplined Agile Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) exam and, equally important, start using Disciplined Agile immediately within your leadership role. What You Will Learn After the completion of this course, you will be able to: Accelerate your ability to lead high-profile initiatives that are critical to enterprise success Take a deep dive into the Disciplined Agile® tool kit to develop a comprehensive understanding of the hundreds of practices and strategies it contains and the trade-offs of applying them Apply the Disciplined Agile tool kit in hands-on exercises to guide your team in choosing and evolving your best way of working (WoW) in real-life situations Use the tool kit to solve complex challenges commonly encountered in development and operational teams, the value stream, and at the enterprise level Learn how to design and implement metrics that measure your improvements in areas where your teams are struggling Understand how to nurture emotional intelligence Feel confident empowering others on your team(s) Learn how to lead your teams in any situation to improve value delivery for your customers Apply the Disciplined Agile tool kit to guide your team in choosing and evolving the best way of working (WoW) in the situation you face Be prepared to take the Disciplined Agile® Senior Scrum Master (DASSM) exam and earn a valuable, credible certification Roles and responsibilities of DASSM Tuckman Team Development Model Emotional intelligence and why it is essential to team performance Business agility Tactical scaling factors in more complex situations Disciplined DevOps layer 'Test-first' method as it relates to the quality of requirements Scope and purpose of the value stream layer Coordinate activities process goal and why it is important Value creation structure of teams DA™ tool kit to optimize the flow of work and solve challenges related to coordinating and collaborating across teams, or within a larger team of teams Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Resolution Planning Five levels of scope Metrics
Overview Contract Management Principles and Practices provide an overview of all phases of contracting, from requirements development to closeout, and discuss how incentives can be used to improve contract results. Explore these vital issues from the manager's perspective, highlighting key roles and responsibilities to give participants greater influence over how work is performed. Finally, discover specific actions that can be taken to help ensure that contractors or subcontractors perform as required under the contract. This course guide you through all the principles and practices of contract management and preparation.
Overview This course is designed to evaluate the financial statement, budget and making an effective decision. It will help to understand Discounted Cash Flow and its techniques, applications of financial statements and decision-making process. In this programme, you will challenge representatives to learn how to make use of financial statements to assess the strategic or financial performance of an organization. It will help to understand DCF Discounted Cash Flow techniques along with their apps for financial making decisions and making use of ratios in order to identify the major areas of concern. Find out the elements like weaker financial signals, major success factors, and robust financial signals within your own industry. It Projects future performance assuredly through real-world budgeting.
Overview The course helps you attain the skills in managing VIPs and Public Relations. It enables participants to discuss a large diversity of encounters, characters, everyday situations, conversations, and sometimes some rough events as well.
Overview This course will take you through learning how and when a contract is formed, analysing various terms in the contract, identifying various factors that can quash the contract and ways to discharge the contract also ways to protect the company if there is a breach of contract.
Overview The Equality and Diversity, Inclusion training focus on key areas where equality covers areas with people's rights and law covering diversity, handling and eradicating unlawful discrimination with the motive to have an efficient workflow environment. This is very challenging and requires a lot of knowledge, skills and understanding along with interpersonal skills to carry on Equality and Diversity.
Overview This course is designed to give me comprehensive knowledge of the credit control process. This comprehensive and practical course concentrates on the credit control process and effective credit management assessing the risk and the process of credit management. It will enable delegates to get complete pictures and improve their skills at recognizing the warning signs through the use of exercises, discussions, and case studies.