The National Book Council’s Foreign Rights Catalogue is a crucial gateway for local authors and publishers to showcase their work and open doors in international fora. In this focused, hand-on 60-minute workshop, veteran literary agent Simon Trewin cuts through the noise to show you exactly how to position your entry in the catalogue for maximum impact. Drawing on hard-won insights from decades in the trenches, he exposes the Top Ten Pitch Mistakes authors and rights administrators make and how to fix them on the spot. You’ll see real-world examples of pitches that bombed (and why), alongside the streamlined approaches that won major deals. By the end of the session, you’ll have a rights-specific hook that grabs sub-agents and foreign publishers, strategies for anticipating objections and turning them into selling points, and a checklist to ensure your entry in the rights guide never undersells its own potential. Come ready to question every assumption about how rights pitches ‘should’ work, sharpen your own pitch under Simon’s skeptical eye, and walk away with the confidence to get your rights guide noticed – every time.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. 

About Simon Trewin

After thirty years working in some of the biggest agencies in the world, Simon Trewin launched his own boutique agency in 2019 to represent authors, brands and entrepreneurs in the areas of art, culture, digital, literature, and live events. He is partnering with the best agencies worldwide on a case-by-case basis to bring foreign, US and film/tv rights to the very forefront of the narrative. He has a deliberately very small client list as he wants to bring real focus to a scattergun industry. For that reason he rarely adds new clients to the mix BUT on the basis of never-say-never do please be in touch if you want to start a conversation! He is not looking to take on authors writing primarily for the fantasy, children’s or poetry genres but is open to all other approaches – especially non-fiction.