Robin Jones – Editor

I'm a former international literary scout for publishers and film companies in twelve countries. Major excitements that kept me very busy were the arrivals of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali, Kate Mosse and JK Rowling among myriad others.
I then became a literary agent and worked for four other agencies before setting up Robin Jones Literary Agency in 2007 where I mainly deal with adult fiction and non-fiction, especially the latter.
In 2010, I co-founded the Unthank Books group which comprises an independent publishing house of literary fiction, a creative writing school and literary festivals. As publisher of Unthank, I've edited ten anthologies of shorter fiction, numerous novels and non-fiction as well as handling the businessy stuff with my co-founder.
I've been a literary consultant for TLC and others for sixteen years, on adult fiction and non-fiction with a leaning towards crime and thrillers and SFF.
My route into publishing was a Russian and Philosophy degree followed by Advance Russian Translation and East-West Trade Studies. I translated the Ukrainian State Judicial Inquiry into Chernobyl for Piers Paul Read's book ABLAZE - The Story of Chernobyl as well as most of a book of poetry about Stalinism. After studio management at Pentagram design and a start-up computer firm, I volunteered at Index on Censorship's Russian desk before becoming Subscriptions Manager there and then Co-ordinator of International PEN's Writers in Prison Committee in 53 countries. As a freelancer throughout my life I've edited PhDs, hosted workshops and panels, taught undergraduates, mentored first-timers, ghostwritten three books and recently co-wrote half an environmental book with Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.
I adore the process of finding the right words, and once found somehow making them even better. Ah, the alchemy!