Brendan Durkin – Editor

I’m an editor at Gollancz, the UK's biggest Science Fiction & Fantasy imprint. I have over half a decade's experience working with many bestselling and award-winning authors, as well as debut authors starting their publishing journeys. In 2021, Gollancz was named imprint of the year at the British Book Awards, thanks to our brilliant relationships with our authors and the SFF community, particularly over the pandemic.

My speciality is speculative fiction, and ranges from big secondary-world epic fantasies to literary near-future novels. I love all kinds of SFF, from epic and historical fantasy, to contemporary and urban fantasy. In science fiction, I love character-driven narratives, be they set in space or on earth, from space opera to high-concept science fiction. I’m not your guy for military SF, which is my loss, but you can’t love everything.

I adore books that use tropes readers love and do something surprising with them. I particularly love fantasies that take me to internally-consistent worlds inspired by people and cultures underrepresented in the genre. The books I connect with most have amazing characters, whose relationships feel alive and who make me care for them like real people.

Punchy plot twists, satisfying character arcs, ensuring your mystery has enough breadcrumbs to follow – in my development edits I like nothing more than getting stuck in and figuring out where a book needs pushing to make your work sing. I am rigorous and thoughtful, and always mindful of your intention. As much as try to improve a book, I make sure to let you know what’s working well. I think it’s just as helpful to know which bits are particularly funny, emotional or powerful as it is to know which bits need work.

When it comes to your query letters and book pitch, I have excellent experience of the current book market and know what’s speaking to readers. I attend acquisitions meetings regularly and know how to pitch books to publishers so that they pay attention. I’m a great collaborator and would love to work with you to nail down the best approach for your project.