An Interview with Mia Dakin: Building a Literary List, Scouting on Social Media, and the Market for Retellings

Mia Dakin is a literary agent at the Greene & Heaton agency who recently sat down on The Write and Wrong Podcast to discuss her career trajectory in the publishing industry. Graduating in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Dakin pursued a publishing master's degree at UCL when traditional internships were shut down. Through the course, she discovered that the literary agent role was the perfect blend of editorial creativity and administrative puzzles for her. After a one-month internship at Greene & Heaton, Dakin became a full-time agency assistant in 2023 and has since been actively building her own list of authors.

5 Key Takeaways for Writers:

• Agencies use an apprenticeship model: Publishing assistants are actively encouraged to step up and sign their own authors while continuing to support senior agents with administrative duties.   

• Social media is a scouting tool: Dakin found her very first author, Amy Hughes, by searching Instagram and discovering a mood board that captured the exact vibe she wanted to represent.   

• Sagas and mysteries are in demand: There is a strong desire for multi-generational, multi-narrative sagas (similar to The Joy Luck Club), as well as locked-room murder mysteries with genuinely unguessable twists.   

• Retellings need a fresh angle: While Greek mythology and Jane Austen adaptations are highly saturated, agents are eager for retellings of lesser-known works (like Persuasion) or mythologies from underrepresented cultures.   

• Career longevity matters: Agents look beyond the initial manuscript during an offer of representation, aiming to map out a long-term career strategy in case the debut novel fails to sell on submission.

  
  

How Does a Publishing Assistant Become a Literary Agent?

A publishing assistant transitions into a literary agent through a collaborative apprenticeship model, gradually building their own client list while continuing to manage administrative tasks for the wider agency. Dakin spent roughly two and a half years full-time assisting at Greene & Heaton before signing her first author in April 2025. Even as she began sending projects out on submission and securing publishing deals, she maintained her dual role, managing author care, social media, and complex administrative tasks like the Anthropic settlement. This supportive environment allows new agents to ground themselves in the business side of publishing before fully exposing themselves to the daunting process of pitching manuscripts.

How Do Literary Agents Find New Authors to Represent?

Literary agents find new authors through traditional submission inboxes, inheriting clients from departing colleagues, and actively scouting social media platforms like Instagram for compelling book pitches. Before she was officially listed on the agency's website as open to submissions, Dakin proactively searched Instagram and discovered an author's mood board that perfectly aligned with her editorial tastes. After reading the author's pages and running the prospective project up the flagpole with the agency's director, Dakin formally offered representation. Today, her list has grown to around 20 clients, comprising a mix of her own discoveries and authors she inherited from agents who moved on.

What Genres and Tropes Are Literary Agents Currently Looking For?

Agents are currently seeking adult genre fiction—particularly crime, thriller, romance, and fantasy—with a specific appetite for multi-narrative sagas and highly original retellings. Dakin primarily represents adult fiction and select non-fiction (such as memoir and pop culture), though she is currently representing one YA fantasy project. She is specifically hunting for multi-generational stories that feel all-encompassing, as well as locked-room Agatha Christie-style mysteries. When it comes to retellings, she prefers modernised takes where the source material isn't immediately obvious—much like how the film 10 Things I Hate About You updated The Taming of the Shrew. Dakin advises writers to pivot away from saturated markets like Greek mythology in favour of underrepresented cultural myths.

Do Literary Agents Ever Write Their Own Books?

Many literary agents choose not to write their own books because evaluating manuscripts all day makes it exceedingly difficult to switch off their critical editorial brain. While Dakin loved reading enough to build a career in publishing, she admits that being constantly immersed in new stories and developmental editing would make it hard to put words on a page without overthinking them. She prefers to channel her creative energy into plotting and characterisation alongside her authors, rather than writing her own fiction.

What Book Would Mia Dakin Read While Snowed In?

If snowed in at a remote woodland cabin, Mia Dakin would choose Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca due to its highly immersive, gothic, and haunted atmosphere. She views the classic novel as a timeless masterpiece that rewards frequent rereading and successfully converts even reluctant readers into fiction lovers. While she acknowledges that the publishing industry is incredibly attached to the original text, Dakin noted that she would be highly interested in reading a modern retelling of Rebecca, provided it was executed with exceptional skill.