Carter founds new literary agency after 10 years at Janklow & Nesbit

Literary agent Rebecca Carter has launched Rebecca Carter Literary after 10 years at Janklow & Nesbit.

The new agency, which is already up and running, is working in collaboration with PEW Literary in Soho, London, for contracts, accounting and translation rights. Carter can be contacted at rebecca@rebeccacarterliterary.com and Margaret Halton can be reached at margaret@pewliterary.com for foreign rights enquiries.

The agency has already closed two deals: with Kaiya Shang at Chatto & Windus for a new memoir by Xiaolu Guo, and with Sarah Braybrooke at Ithaka for a “powerful” narrative non-fiction book about Ukraine by the BBC’s Andrew Harding. More information on these acquisitions will be forthcoming from the publishers, The Bookseller understands. 

Carter’s authors include Olivia Laing and Elly Griffiths. Recent titles from her authors include Rutger Bregman’s Humankind (Bloomsbury), Russell Foster’s Life Time (Penguin Life), Rebecca Stott’s Dark Earth (Fourth Estate), Nell Stevens’Briefly, A Delicious Life (Picador) and Gavin McCrea’s Cells (Scribe UK).

Before becoming an agent, Carter was editorial director at Chatto & Windus and then Harvill Secker, publishing books ranging from Roger Deakin’s Waterlog, early in her career there, to Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus shortly before she left to become an agent. She also led the publication in English of Irène Némirovsky’s Suite Française.

Carter said: “I have been privileged to spend 10 years at Janklow & Nesbit, sharing the company of some of the most skilled agents in the business. I have always longed, though, to embark on a venture of my own. I am excited to be in a position now to deploy my publishing wisdom and experience in a start-up agency that will reflect my values of independent-thinking, innovation and internationalism.”

She continued that “deep care and attention” to the writing of her authors will be “at the heart of the new agency”, which is part of what she says makes an alliance with Patrick Walsh’s PEW Literary “so perfect, because I know we share the same outlook".

“I look forward to my authors benefiting from Margaret Halton’s talent, experience and love of literature in the care and sale of their translation rights. For film and TV, I will continue to work with great co-agents such as Emily Hayward-Whitlock at The Artists Partnership and Jonathan Kinnersley at The Agency. I can’t think of a more congenial community with which to be involved,” Carter said.