Emma Shercliff

An agent with Laxfield Literary Associates

About

Emma has over 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She has worked for publishing houses in Paris, Melbourne, Abuja and London, and for the British Council in Nigeria and Iran. Emma was formerly M.D. of Macmillan English Campus, and Head of Export Sales at Hodder Education. She was Sales & Rights Director of Cassava Republic Press UK, an award-winning independent African publishing company, until 2019. Emma was Publishing Director for Ankara Press, an African romance imprint launched in 2014, and conceived and coordinated the acclaimed Valentine’s Day Anthology (2015), which featured contributions in multiple languages from authors and translators across Africa.
Emma sits on Advisory Boards for the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, University of Reading and the MA Publishing, University of Exeter. Emma has written for industry publications including The Bookseller, Publishing Perspectives, Wasafiri and LOGOS, and contributed a book chapter on Black British Publishing to The Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing (published March 2024).
Publishing consultancy work includes a review of the publishing sector in Ukraine for the British Council (2020-2021), and the development of an author diversity report & toolkit for the UK Publishers Association (2021). Emma has spoken on industry panels and at publishing conferences including the Salon du Livre in Geneva, the London Book Fair, the Emirates Literary Festival and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair. She regularly chairs literary events, including at the Primadonna Festival and the National Centre for Writing, and programmes the Low House Litfest.
Emma lives in Suffolk.

Limited Demographic: Submissions are restricted to authors in Norfolk and Suffolk, and writers from under-represented backgrounds.

Country

United Kingdom

AI Policy

Unknown AI policy

4 members set this agent as a Favorite.

Collapse section Fiction Open

We are keen to receive literary and commercial fiction. On the speculative fiction side, I lean towards books with a toehold in the ‘real’ world (e.g. Kindred, Station Eleven or Exit West) and literary fiction with elements of magical realism (Marquez, Allende, Calvino), or the spirit world (e.g. Beloved, The First Woman or Sing, Unburied, Sing).

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Genres:

General Open to all/most Subgenres, including: Magic Realism
Fantasy Open to all/most Subgenres, including: Magic Realism
Science Fiction Open to all/most Subgenres

Lengths:

Novel

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics.

Submissions:

Method: Email.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Collapse section Nonfiction Open

We are also looking for non-fiction, particularly creative non-fiction, travel writing, memoir and nature writing.

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Lengths:

Book

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream, Personal.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics including...
Memoir.
Nature/Environment.
Travel.

Submissions:

Method: Email.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

No recent cover image of a book represented by Emma Shercliff available.

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Emma Shercliff Submission Statistics

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Accuracy

We have received 2 reports from 1 member within the past 12 months. The more responses reported, the more accurate the information.

Other Information

The agent will try to make a decision within 42 days.
Most recent response reported was received on 10 Nov 2025.
Responses have been received for submissions sent as recently as 19 Oct 2025.
Date compiled: 15 Sep 2026 09:44 UTC (less than a minute ago).

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Dates

Last Updated: 06 Sep 2026

We check their guidelines for changes every four weeks, and we audit the listing twice a year.