Top 15 Best Rated Literary Agents for your Fiction and Non-Fiction Books
laweekly.com – Thursday November 24, 2022
Looking to work for a literary agent? Here are 15 agents who are at the top of their game and are willing to work with new writers and give your manuscript a fair shake.
Here it is: the list. As in years past, we have assembled a list of literary agents who are building their client rosters and are open to working with new writers. Our agent guide features a variety of pros—some brand new and others tried and true—representing a variety of categories and genres. This year, instead of listing entire agencies, we’ve listed individual agents. When you’re looking at information for an entire agency, it’s not always easy to tell which reps are truly seeking new writers and which ones don’t have time to brave the slush pile.
Penguin scraps $2.2bn deal to buy rival publisher
bbc.co.uk – Tuesday November 22, 2022
Publishing giant Penguin Random House has scrapped a $2.2bn (£1.9bn) planned takeover of rival Simon & Schuster.
Last month, a US court blocked the deal, saying it could "substantially" weaken competition in the industry.
Penguin's parent company Bertelsmann said Paramount Global, the owner of Simon & Schuster, decided not to appeal the ruling.
The proposed deal would have cemented Penguin Random House's position as the world's largest book publisher.
"We believe the judge's ruling is wrong" the company said in a statement.
"However, we have to accept Paramount's decision not to move forward," it added.
‘Very scary time’ for Irish book publishers as print and paper costs soar
irishtimes.com – Monday November 21, 2022
Irish book publishers say it is a “very scary” time for the industry, with supply chain issues and the rising cost of paper and printing putting significant pressure on profitability.
Ivan O’Brien, managing director of O’Brien Press, said the company’s costs have risen “massively”, with increases of about 50 per cent.
“As we got squeezed from every other angle, print availability at a reasonable cost was something that we could rely on, and that is now gone,” he said.
“Timelines have also extended substantially, with another couple of weeks added to the schedule for most projects. Prices will have to go up, but it is unlikely that the market will take the level of increase required for the numbers to work. It’s very scary.”
Redfern returns to publishing to join Headline
thebookseller.com – Wednesday November 16, 2022
Martin Redfern, currently executive director at Northbank Talent Management, will be joining the non-fiction team at Headline Publishing Group as publisher on 6th February 2023.
Redfern has been a literary agent for nearly six years and is responsible for the agency’s non-fiction books representation. His clients include Iain Dale, Chris Mason, Paul Brand, Brian Cox, Anthony Seldon and Camilla Cavendish.
Before that, as editorial director at HarperCollins and BBC Books, Redfern published authors ranging from Peter Mandelson, John Major and Simon Schama to Jonathan Dimbleby, Dan Snow and Tom Burgis.
UK faces ‘serious loss of writing talent’ due to rising costs, Writers’ Guild survey finds
thebookseller.com – Wednesday November 16, 2022
The UK is facing a “serious loss of writing talent” due to the rising cost of living, a survey conducted by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) has found.
Of 250 writers surveyed by the trade union, 55% said that rising energy and food costs were impacting their ability to sustain a writing career, with other factors including having less time to work as a writer, or apply for funding, development schemes or other opportunities.
More than two thirds (67%) reported having to rely on their savings in order to manage day-to-day expenditure, while 37% said they had to rely on their partners’ earnings. Moreover, more than 70% of respondents had earned £18,000 or less for their writing work in the last financial year. The majority (over 80%) said they were freelance writers.
Publishers happy ever after as sales of romantic fiction keep on climbing
sundaypost.com – Sunday November 13, 2022
One of Scotland’s best-selling novelists will celebrate nine million sales this week as publishers report surging sales of romantic fiction.
Publishers from around the world will join Jenny Colgan to mark the multi-million copy milestone spanning her 30 happy-ever-after novels, which have been translated into 26 languages and enjoyed by fans around the world.
Publishers suspect readers are seeking uplifting, heartwarming escapist reads more than ever with romantic fiction, in particular, enjoying a huge uplift and love stories accounting for 26% of the titles in the Sunday Times best-sellers’ chart, up from 18.6% last year.
US Judge lays out case for blocking publishing giants merger
abcnews.go.com – Wednesday November 9, 2022
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has laid out a data-laden case for why she blocked Penguin Random House’s proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster, handing a victory to the Biden Justice Department in its contention that combining two of the world’s biggest publishers would hurt competition for top-selling books.
In her ruling filed Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Florence Pan also waved off as not relevant the publishers’ assertion that Penguin Random House would be the best “home” for Simon & Schuster and that other buyers — notably private equity firms — could destroy it. That argument isn’t relevant to the case and her decision, Pan wrote, which turns only on the issue of how the merger would affect competition.
Frankfurt 2022 from a Children's Book Perspective
publishersweekly.com – Saturday November 5, 2022
For many rights professionals, the recent Frankfurt Book Fair was their first opportunity since 2019 to attend a fair in person. Attendees said they were delighted to be back, even amid industry challenges and world uncertainty on several fronts. We spoke with a number of savvy agents and scouts about their impressions of the fair, and asked them to talk about trends they were noticing.
“It was wonderful to be back at a fair, and to be among so many fellow book people again,” said Sara Crowe, senior agent at Pippin Properties. “Being back in Frankfurt was energizing, emotional, and re-affirming,” said Rachel Hecht, founder of Rachel Hecht Children’s Scouting. “There is no replacement for the in-person connections to be made over tables while gasping over sample spreads, or the bolt of joy from waving down an old colleague while rushing between stands. We are a community of book people who thrive when we gather, and while Zoom is a convenient tool, it cannot replicate the alchemy that happens during a fair.
Books at Berlinale Issues Its 2022 Call for Submissions
publishingperspectives.com – Tuesday November 1, 2022
The annual Books at Berlinale program now is accepting submissions from film-rights holders for novels with high adaptation potential.
The Books at Berlinale program—long familiar to our Publishing Perspectives international readership—has issued its call for submissions for its 18th edition, scheduled to take place as a part of the Berlinale Co-Production Market, February 18 to 22.
A joint initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival and Frankfurter Buchmesse.
As usual, the 18th edition of “Books at Berlinale” will take place during the Berlinale as part of the of the Berlinale Co-Production Market (Feb 18-22, 2023).
As you know, the program selects 12 or so books to pitch to an audience of some 150 internationally established producers during the film festival.
US judge blocks $2.2bn Penguin Random House merger
theguardian.com – Tuesday November 1, 2022
A US judge has blocked the $2.2bn planned merger of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, with rival Simon & Schuster.
Judge Florence Pan of the US district court for the District of Columbia said in a brief order on Monday that she had found that the justice department had shown that the deal would “substantially” harm competition “in the market for the US publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books”.
Unlike most merger fights, which are focused on what consumers pay, this one focused on authors’ earnings. The US government argued that fewer publishing houses being in competition with each other would lead to lower advances for authors across the board, but focused on a small part of the market: bestselling writers who were paid $250,000 or more.
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