Ritchie leaves Curtis Brown for A M Heath

Literary agent Rebecca Ritchie is leaving Curtis Brown after five years to join A M Heath.

Ritchie is moving to her new role on 18th April to develop her list of commercial fiction and non-fiction. As well as co-founding Twitter initiative #PitchCB, Ritchie has worked alongside Sheila Crowley and represented authors herself such as Red magazine’s literary editor Sarra Manning, Alex Lake, author of After Anna (Harper), the Sunday Times Top 10 paperback bestseller and Iona Grey, author of last year’s overall Romantic Novel of the Year Letters to the Lost (Simon & Schuster).

Upcoming titles include a debut historical novel, Beneath the Burning Sky, by Jenny Ashcroft, sold in auction to Sphere, and the second novel by Rebecca Done, who Ritchie discovered via an unsolicited submission, from Michael Joseph.

In 2015 Ritchie co-founded #PitchCB, Curtis Brown’s monthly Twitter pitching event, with a colleague, which invites aspiring authors to pitch their novels to agents using just 140 characters. The first event attracted more than 2,000 tweets and the hashtag regularly receives millions of impressions. In 2016, Ritchie was shortlisted for the inaugural London Book Fair Trailblazers Award.

Ritchie has worked alongside Crowley whose list includes bestselling authors Jojo Moyes, Santa Montefiore and Clare Mackintosh, and was co-agenting Jane Costello (now writing as Catherine Isaac) and Elizabeth Enfield with Crowley.

Bill Hamilton, m.d of A M Heath, said: "We are really thrilled to have Rebecca joining the team at A M Heath. She comes with terrific energy, great ideas and a proven track record. Rebecca’s expertise and innovative approach will complement the rest of the team perfectly.”

Ritchie said: "I have had a great six years at Curtis Brown and am sad to be leaving fantastic mentors, colleagues and friends, but I couldn't be more excited to join the brilliantly talented team at A M Heath. I am thrilled to be taking the next step in my career at such a prestigious, dynamic agency, and I'm looking forward to uncovering new talent and developing my list in the commercial sphere."

From 18th April, Ritchie can be contacted on Rebecca.Ritchie@amheath.com.