Wise named new AAA president

Senior agent at Curtis Brown, Gordon Wise, has been elected president of the Association of Author's Agents (AAA), following the end of current president Sam Edenborough's term.

Wise, who won the Bookseller Book Industry Awards Agent of the Year gong last year, has served on the AAA committee since 2012.

He said: "I'm honoured to take over Sam’s mantle as president and continue working with our brilliant committee. Our task includes maintaining the new relationships we have forged as we well as sizing up to the challenges we face within and without our industry. I see the role of the association as being to support the work each of us does in being perpetually vigilant about our clients’ rights, in a world where change is the constant; to engage credibly with publishers – fighting our corner, but from a position of being informed about how the market works; and to be outward looking towards not only consumer trends but public affairs matters, particularly where external challenges may have significant impact on our clients’ livelihoods and our profession."

Edenborough, of Intercontinental Literary Agents, succeeded Peter Straus in 2014 after five years on the committee.

The association thanked Edenborough for his "diligence and hard work in helping the association expand its horizons, both from the point of view of being a UK rights professional whose daily work is engaging with the world outside English-language markets, and in terms of engagement with public affairs - defending authors' rights at government and other policy level, besides the cut and thrust of agents' daily business with publishers."

His term of office saw the AAA joining the Alliance for Intellectual Property, as well as a number of initiatives partnering with the Publishers Association and the Society of Authors.

Lizzy Kremer, head of books at David Higham Associates, is to serve as vice president. Her recent AAA projects have included the drafting of the new guidelines for members involved assisting self-publishing authors, now published on the AAA website.

She said: "The two subjects speak to my dual beliefs: in the universal benefit of establishing good agenting practice across the industry on the one hand; and the responsibility of the agenting community to demand the very best practice from publishers on behalf of our clients on the other."

Isobel Dixon, a longstanding agent at Blake Friedmann, is to join the AAA committee.

The AAA is a voluntary trade organisation whose membership comprises over 100 British literary agencies.