Agent Jan Michael hands over to Maydo Kooy after 40 years

Maydo Kooy Literary Agency is taking over from the Jan Michael Literary Agency, following the decision of agent Jan Michael to retire after 40 years in the business. 

Michael founded her agency in Amsterdam after leaving Deltos Elsevier, which had headhunted her out of London to be their international editor. Prior to this she worked for Faber and Faber as an editorial assistant and for Sidgwick & Jackson as an editor. Over the years she stayed deliberately small, often editorially involved, concentrating mainly on selling rights in UK authors on behalf of her clients into The Netherlands and Scandinavia. Among her successes were The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, and books by Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Martina Cole, Bernard Cornwell, Carol Ann Lee, Jill Mansell, Henry Marsh, Nadifa Mohammed, Linda Polman, Carolyn Steel and Malachy Tallach.

Michael is transferring her representations to the Maydo Kooy Literary Agency at the end of December. Kooy was formerly an agent, selling UK and US authors into the Netherlands, after working as editor at Dutch publisher Lemniscaat and as foreign rights manager at Simon & Schuster US. She has served on the advisory board of the Dutch Foundation for Literature and has translated books from Swedish into her native Dutch. She is now returning to agenting, but "staying small" - "though there is some room for expansion", according to Kooy - representing UK authors in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. 

Kooy is contactable on +31 (0)575 431851 and at maydo@kooyagency.nl. The website for the agency, based in The Netherlands, is www.kooyagency.nl.