Madeleine Buston to set up own agency

Literary agent Madeleine Buston is setting up her own agency, leaving the Darley Anderson Literary Agency where she has worked for five years, and beginning with 14 authors including Carolyn Jess-Cooke.

The Madeleine Milburn Literary, TV & Film Agency will open for business at the end of the month, as Buston, currently literary agent and deputy m.d. of children's books, leaves the Darley Anderson agency today [24th February].

The offices will be based in central London close to King's Cross. The agency will represent commercial and accessible literary fiction; genre fiction including women's fiction, crime, thrillers and mysteries; memoirs; and crossover fiction, children's and young adult titles; handling all rights in the UK, US and foreign markets. In the US, Buston will work with agent Carly Watters on a case by case basis.

Buston said she was hoping the agency would be "innovative, dynamic and personal", focused on "growing and establishing new authors", planning to have a 50/50 split between adult and children's fiction. She added: "I will miss Darley Anderson and his team enormously but I am thrilled to be, as Lee Child says, captain of my own ship."

As well as the 14 authors she will bring with her from Darley Anderson, including J J Salem, S B Hayes, Emma Garcia, Victoria Fox and C J Daugherty, Buston is planning to take on two new authors through a competition to celebrate the launch of the agency, which can be accessed through www.madeleinemilburn.com, to go live on 14th March.

Anderson said: "Maddie was an excellent foreign rights agent here for four years and also latterly was helping to build the children’s agency which will continue to develop and expand. And for the last year she was a full time agent. Building a broad fiction author’s career takes many years, however, and I wish her every success at doing that at her own agency." He added there would be announcements in the near future about further developments at Darley Anderson.