Inside My Summer at Hellebore Literary Agency: A Cover is Only the Beginning

First, I want to thank the team at Hellebore for welcoming me so warmly and guiding me throughout my summer internship. Their support made the experience both meaningful and memorable, and it opened my eyes to an entirely different side of the book world.

Literary agencies generally work off of both submissions and scouted work. Since Hellebore specializes in helping self-published authors acquire translation rights, my role was to read through a previously compiled list of self-published manuscripts across a variety of online platforms such as Wattpad and KDP.  These were all manuscripts originally flagged by our Client Coordinator, Rebecca Moss, for their potential to succeed in overseas markets. After reading each manuscript, I produced a reader report for her to review. 

The reports had two main components: a summary and an evaluation. The summary consisted of boiling the plot down to its key moments, while the evaluation involved placing the manuscript within its genre and assessing whether it was suitable for translation. Contextualizing the work within the genre meant identifying tropes and archetypes in the work. For instance, a manuscript might be Narnia-esque with a contemporary teen romance twist. This not only highlighted its genre but also what made it unique from other works in that genre. Suitability for translation meant evaluating how tied the manuscript was to its place of origin and whether it could be enjoyed by an audience outside of its original context. This part was often tricky—a manuscript could be very good but still not the best candidate for translation. 

Writing reader reports was an entirely new experience for me, but I never felt alone in the learning process. Each week, Rebecca met with me to review my work and check in on my progress. Before I even began, she provided sample reports and clear instructions, then had me practice by writing a few on books I had personally recently read. Those exercises gave me the confidence I needed for the weeks ahead, and her steady guidance throughout the summer was something I deeply appreciated.

After reviewing my reports, Rebecca would decide which ones to share with the rest of the team. If the team agreed a manuscript was worth pursuing, each member would read the entire work before contacting the author. It’s a lot of effort before reaching out, but it’s important, as agents, to find works that they feel confident backing. 

I came to truly admire this process. The team not only looks for works they can fully support, but they also take chances by not limiting themselves to any specific genre. The manuscripts I read were in various genres and had varying levels of popularity, yet Hellebore was willing to give each one a fair shot. By sticking with the process and reading works outside my preferred genres, I relearned one of the most rudimentary lessons: don’t judge a book by its cover.

This lesson impacted me personally. Many manuscripts I read this summer were in genres that I would not usually choose, yet I found great joy in them. This internship gave me an amazing chance to face my own book prejudices. I hadn’t realized how much of a literary bubble I was in until it burst. 

I am truly grateful for this experience, and I look forward to watching Hellebore continue to blossom. ✿