Literary agent Caroline Sheldon tells Lindsay Jennings why she loves discovering new authors and what makes the best would-be novelists stand out.

CAROLINE Sheldon can usually tell straight away when she's made an exciting literary discovery - the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Over the course of a year, literary agent Caroline will see around 2,000 manuscripts land on her desk. That's almost 40 people a week, willing her to pick out their beloved tome as they dream of topping the best seller lists.

But out of those 2,000 or so, only one or two a year will end up being represented by Caroline, who runs the successful Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency.

"Its fantastic when it does happen, but it happens very rarely," she says. "You're always looking for that special book and always optimistic that you will find it, but believe me these are long hours of dreary reading before anything stands out. It's very exciting when you wake up and think gosh, this person can write and really understands what they're doing and has potential for me to sell."

Caroline, 53, who has agreed to represent the winning author of The Northern Echo New Novelist of the Year competition, has been in the industry for more than 35 years. Before starting her literary agency in 1985, she worked in both women's and children's fiction for the Random House Group. The best-selling authors she represents include women's saga author Katie Flynn and former North Yorkshire vicar GP Taylor, who penned Shadowmancer and has agreed to be one of the judges for our competition.

She describes the moment when Graham Taylor's book first came to her attention.

"GP Taylor rang me on a Thursday and sent in Shadowmancer on a Friday. Over the weekend I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise as I was caught up in its spellbinding and sometimes horrific story," she says.

"The urge is to ring somebody on a Sunday morning but I always think that seems a bit unprofessional, so I leave it until first thing on Monday. But I am bursting with excitement."

She had the same feeling of excitement when she read the work of the late historical novelist, Elizabeth Elgin.

"Betty rang me when I first set up my agency to tell me how she wanted to write the story of three girls joining the WRENS at the start of the war, much of it would be based on her own experiences of the WRENS," she explains.

"The way she told the story was electric. She had a brilliant ability to capture emotion. We talked long about the book and when the first draft came in she went back and worked on it at length before I sold it to HarperCollins, where it went on to become a Sunday Times best seller.

"There was just an emotional intensity about the project from the first moment I spoke to her."

But not everyone Caroline represents ends up becoming published in the genres they expect. She recalls the novelist Lilian Harry coming to talk to her about prospective children's books.

"She'd written for Mills and Boon and I felt she had a richness of story-telling that would perhaps be more suited to the adult market," she says. "She had a fabulous idea based on the glass-making industries in the Black Country which I knew would appeal to publishers and it was this that she went on to write. Her books have also been Sunday Times best sellers."

Another author, Margi McAllister, found herself writing the Mistmantle Chronicles, which tells the epic story of the adventures of a group of animals, after Caroline pointed out that she depicted animals brilliantly in her writing.

"The series has now gone on to sell at auction in the UK and children love them," she says.

Caroline loves representing her authors and says she has never been interested in writing her own book.

"I wouldn't have the ability," she laughs. "There is nothing easy about writing a book and the old cliche that everyone has a book in them is deeply untrue."

So what do budding authors need to consider when they're trying to get published?

"The first thing is a good covering letter or email telling me about yourself and your book and saying a little bit about how it fits into the market place," she says. "I like to read the first three chapters and a brief synopsis."

"The manuscript needs to be typed, double spaced and nicely presented. The title of the book needs to be attractive to the readers. I'll then look for storytelling ability, the way the writer can create characters and evoke a place."

Through our competition, Caroline is now keen to find a book in the North-East or North Yorkshire which she can sell to a publisher.

"The north of England is a great place to find talent and I think there's a great tradition of writing in the North-East," she says. "I'm looking forward to seeing what readers of The Northern Echo have to offer."