Caravéo leaves Orion to set up literary agency

Amber Caravéo, editorial director at Orion Children’s Books and Indigo, is leaving the publisher to set up her own literary agency with freelance consultant Joanna Moult.

The new agency, Skylark Literary, will be focused entirely on children’s and YA writing.
 
“Although there are of course lots of great literary agents already out there, we actually felt that there wasn’t a very large number of agencies specialising solely in children’s and YA,” said Caravéo. “The children’s and YA market is really quite distinct from the adult market (notwithstanding crossover titles). This is our area of expertise and we felt we could offer a really top-notch, tailored service to authors and publishers.”
 
Caravéo doesn’t have a set number of authors she would like to represent in mind but will look for “great writing and great voices, whatever the genre or target age group”.
 
She said: “We’d rather devote our time to a small number of outstanding authors than spread ourselves too thinly. We realise it will take time to build our client list but we are happy to spend the time it takes, working hard to find and nurture talented people.”
 
Caravéo has been working in children’s publishing for 18 years. At Orion, she developed several series, including Adventure Island, and worked with authors such as Liz Kessler, Holly Black, Caroline Lawrence and Emily Murdoch.
 
Fiona Kennedy, m.d. and publisher at Orion Children’s Books and Indigo, said Caravéo has delivered a number of “significant successes” at Orion. “Whilst working at Orion Amber has developed, created and commissioned a wide range of excellent books… to be able to find new and fresh ideas for series for middle-grade children is a particularly challenging job.”
 
Moult is a freelance literary consultant who has previously worked at Hodder Children’s Books and Simon & Schuster.
 
Skylark Literary will start taking submissions from writers in November.