Foundry Literary + Media Co-Founder Peter McGuigan Launches Ultra Literary
deadline.com – Friday September 25, 2020
Peter McGuigan, who co-created the New York literary agency Foundry Literary + Media with Yfat Reiss Gendell, has launched a new agency dubbed Ultra Literary.
The move comes after the news last week that Gendell exited Foundry to form YRG Partners, taking Foundry agents Tanusri Prasanna, Peter Steinberg and Adriann Ranta Zurhellen and their clients with her. That agency will focus on representing publishing rights for writers and consumer brands.
New Literary Agent Listing: Sarah Bowlin
firstwriter.com – Friday September 25, 2020
Focused on bold, diverse voices in fiction and nonfiction. She’s especially interested in stories of strong or difficult women and unexpected narratives of place, of identity, and of the shifting ways we see ourselves and each other. She’s also interested in food history, wine, and dance.
How to Become a Comedy Writer
backstage.com – Wednesday September 23, 2020
We’ve all seen a hilarious TV scene that’s stuck with us or read a satirical essay that’s made us giggle for weeks. But have you ever wondered what it actually takes to become a comedy writer? There are many different avenues to achieving a career writing comedy, whether you have aspirations of writing a late-night monologue or getting a humorous book published. Some writers like Aidy Bryant begin with a career in comedic performance before using those skills to transition behind the scenes. For others, it can be a more streamlined process of sticking with one format (like comedic playwriting) and simply expanding within that niche over time. Comedy writing is such a broad field full of differing perspectives and paths and there’s no one way to become a comedy writer. As long as you’ve got a passion for comedy and a desire to express it through written work, you can find success as a comedy writer.
New Literary Agent Listing: Silé Edwards
firstwriter.com – Monday September 21, 2020
Looking for books that inform our understanding of the world, society and the ways we live. Interested in a range of Non-Fiction from emotive life writing to topical essay-like writing to projects on cookery and food. She is particularly keen on finding experts in their field who want to write about what they know in a way that everyone can understand, appreciate and enjoy.
Also accepts fiction submissions. She is open to all genres, but especially interested in crime thrillers, romantic comedies, poetry and upmarket fiction.
Foundry Literary + Media Co-Founder Yfat Reiss Gendell Exits To Form YRG Partners
deadline.com – Friday September 18, 2020
Foundry Literary + Media co-founder Yfat Reiss Gendell has left the New York book agency to form YRG Partners. She leaves with agents Tanusri Prasanna, Peter Steinberg and Adriann Ranta Zurhellen to launch an agency that will focus on representing publishing rights for writers and consumer brands.
Gendell said the agency will partner with a series of existing and new private equity firm relationships, each active in intellectual property and consumer brand development, to match-make between clients and the investment community, and to create unconventional opportunities that work alongside or independent of existing publishing models. Gendell has represented clients’ publishing rights, typically along with managers, and often as the agency of record for writers who are also represented at other agencies for screenwriting. Gendell will bring that formula to the new agency.
Story of ‘bloodthirsty unicorns’ brings debut author record publishing deal
theguardian.com – Thursday September 17, 2020
A 28-year-old first-time author from Canterbury has landed what is believed to be the world’s largest ever book advance for a debut children’s writer, with a fantasy series about “bloodthirsty unicorns”.
Annabel Steadman, writing as AF Steadman, was paid a “major” seven-figure sum by Simon & Schuster this week, following a hotly contested multi-publisher auction for three books in her fantasy adventure series for children, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief. Set in a world where unicorns are deadly, and can only be tamed by the rider who hatches them, the series follows Skandar Smith, who is preparing to become a unicorn rider. When the most powerful unicorn in the world is stolen by a mysterious figure, becoming a rider becomes a lot more complicated than Skandar ancitipated.
“Unicorns don’t belong in fairytales; they belong in nightmares,” writes Steadman as the series opens. The unicorns in her books are “not at all like the unicorns we know in shops, these fluffy unicorns with rainbows, they’re different and exciting and magical but also dangerous,” she says.
Simon & Schuster, which will publish the first book in the series in spring 2022, said the deal was believed to be record-breaking for a debut children’s author. Sony Pictures has also signed an “aggressive” seven-figure deal for the feature film rights in the series, which is aimed at readers of nine and over.
PW Star Watch 2020 Honorees Named
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday September 16, 2020
Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse have named 40 publishing professionals as honorees for PW Star Watch 2020, the annual publishing and bookselling award now in its sixth year. Honorees hail from the U.S. and Canada, and were selected from the ranks of the Big 5 publishers as well as independent and university presses, literary agents, booksellers, and other industry and related organizations.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 also marks several firsts for the awards. This year, a charitable component was added to the program, and will benefit the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation, which provides financial support to booksellers. In another departure from previous years, the celebration, usually held in a downtown Manhattan locale, will be a virtual celebration free and open to all, and will be held on October 13 at 5 p.m. The five honorees selected as finalists will speak, and one Superstar will be announced by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly’s editorial director, and Erin Cox, Frankfurter Buchmesse’s U.S. publicist. As in past years, the Superstar will be invited to the virtual Frankfurter Buchmesse 2020 as well as awarded a sponsored trip to Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021.
New Literary Agent Listing: Jane von Mehren
firstwriter.com – Wednesday September 16, 2020
Interested in narratives in the areas of business, history, memoir, popular culture and science, books that help us live our best lives, literary, book club, and historical fiction.
Stormzy launches second year of #Merky Books writing prize
eveningexpress.co.uk – Monday September 14, 2020
Stormzy has said he hopes authors who do not have “an outlet or a means to get their work seen” will take inspiration from his publishing imprint as he launched the second year of the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize.
The prize aims to discover unpublished, under-represented writers aged 16-30 from the UK and Ireland and the winner or winners will receive a publishing contract with #Merky Books, an imprint within Penguin Random House UK.
The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges including Stormzy, authors Candice Brathwaite and Emma Dabiri, Man Like Mobeen star and creator Guz Khan and Olympian Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
New Literary Agent Listing: Rick Richter
firstwriter.com – Thursday September 10, 2020
Areas of interest include self-help, music and pop culture, military history and memoir, history, thriller, men’s fiction, business, celebrity, sports celebrity and faith. He has deep experience and interest in children’s books.
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