Mundy sets up UK outpost of ACM US

Toby Mundy is to head up the new British arm of the US-based Aevitas Creative Management (ACM), with industry veterans Trevor Dolby and Natalie Jerome among the agents joining him.

Mundy will merge his Toby Mundy Associates (TMA), the agency he launched in 2014, with the newly-minted ACM UK and act as the British outpost’s chairman and c.e.o. 

Mundy said he loved running TMA, but “by being part of something larger, we will be able to offer our clients more”. He added: “I think long-term success in this industry comes from great people working in a great culture. The creative, collaborative, and collegial atmosphere at ACM has been foundational to its success and I believe that by working with the outstanding team in the US, we can build something similar here.”  

ACM US was founded in 2016 by the merger of  Zachary Shuster Harmsworth and Kuhn Projects. Its over 600 clients include Wild author Cheryl Strayed, novelists Riley Sager and Ha Jin and the estate of Louisa May Alcott. The musicians and actors ACM has acted as book agents for include Jim Carrey, Amy Schumer, Neil Patrick Harris and Ben Folds.

Before launching TMA, Mundy headed up Atlantic Books for 14 years. He is the executive director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and chair of trustees of Wimbeldon BookFest. Dolby’s 35-year career has included stints at Orion and HarperCollins before he set up the Random House imprint Preface with Rosie de Courcy in 2007. He joined Mundy at TMA in 2018.  

Jerome has worked in the industry mainly as a publisher of non-fiction at Pan Macmillan, HarperCollins and most recently Bonnier Books UK, where she was acquisitions director and publisher, before leaving abruptly in March this year. She was a member of the 2018 Bookseller 100, an annual list of the most influential people in the British book trade.

Also joining the ACM UK team are Max Edward—who worked at United Agents, Rogers, Coleridge & White and Mulcahy Associates before setting up Apple Tree Literary in 2019—and Simon Targett, a writer, historian and founder of PR consultancy Thinking Cap Communications. 

UK rights for ACM US will continue to be handled by Abner Stein and the American arm will still use its current co-agents for translation rights. Susanna Lea Associates will handle ACM UK’s translation rights.