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Ed Wood leaves Sphere editorial to become agent at The Blair Partnership
Sphere’s Ed Wood is joining The Blair Partnership as fiction agent and director of fiction development.
Wood joins from publisher Little, Brown, where he was Sphere fiction publishing director for brands and creative partnerships and Little, Brown IP director.
The news follows Emily Barrett and Liane-Louise Smith joining The Blair Partnership as agents from Little, Brown and the Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency, respectively, in 2023.
In his role as fiction agent, Wood will be responsible for finding the best in new writing talent, continuing his specialism in crime and thrillers, while as director of fiction development he will have a broader remit to uncover and nurture IP opportunities across publishing, as well as in film and TV, brand licensing and other areas.
At Sphere, Wood’s award-winning, bestselling authors included crime, thriller and book club bestsellers such as Mark Billingham, Christopher Brookmyre, Carl Hiaasen, Keith Stuart, Patricia Highsmith and international megabrand Tom Clancy. He is chair of the Little, Brown UEA Crime Award and chaired the 2023 Daily Mail Prize.
Neil Blair, founding partner of The Blair Partnership and chairman of Pottermore, said: “Innovation and storytelling are at the heart of everything we do and so I feel proud to see the agency team growing from strength to strength.”
Rory Scarfe, managing director of The Blair Partnership, said: “I have admired Ed’s work for many years (as I know so many in our industry have) and long suspected that he might make a fantastic agent.
“He has a superlative eye for storytelling and an entrepreneurial flair in the way he goes about finding the best in talent and IP opportunities, which I know will serve him and us very well. The Blair Partnership is dedicated to bringing our clients’ work to life in the biggest and best way and Ed’s expertise and imagination will be crucial to this next exciting chapter of our story.”
Wood said: “I’m thrilled to be joining The Blair Partnership at a moment when it is showing such extraordinary ambition under the visionary leadership of Neil and Rory. I cannot wait to get closer to the process of creation and to seek out the very best storytelling talent, to platform incredible authors and fight for their interests in a changing publishing world. I also want to thank Little, Brown and Hachette, where I have spent an immensely happy and rewarding 12 years—Sphere is a special list to which I have been privileged to belong.”
Wood will join in January 2025. His email address is ed.wood@theblairpartnership.com.
