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Ask The Agent — Sarah Hornsley
Simon Whaley chats to Sarah Hornsley of PFD about breaking into the historical fiction market.
This article first appeared in print in the February 2025 issue of Writing Magazine.
After graduating from Durham University with a First Class Honours in History, Sarah Hornley’s publishing career began at the publishers Orion in 2012, before a brief spell working in script development. She became a literary agent in 2015 and appeared on The Bookseller’s Rising Star list in 2019. Sarah joined PFD in 2021, and her client list includes Anstey Harris, Tim Sullivan, Emma Heatherington, Russ Thomas, and Lucy Spraggan.
Hodder & Stoughton will publish Sarah’s debut psychological crime thriller, Bad Blood, in March 2025. Her agent, Juliet Mushens at Mushens Entertainment, has already sold German and Romanian rights, with Penguin securing the German rights following a four-publisher auction involving a six-figure deal.
As an agent, Sarah is particularly interested in adult commercial and book club fiction, twisty thrillers, women’s fiction and romantic fiction. Following this month’s (February 2025) publication of Nephthys, the debut of her client Rachel Louise Driscoll, Sarah is keen to represent more smart, atmospheric female-led historical fiction.