Agenting by inclination

Samuel Johnson said that reading was best done from 'immediate inclination', by those who really, really want to read good books. The best writing is best done by the same inclination, and we have a long history of working with the best writers of their time, whether in literary and crime fiction, biography, history, current affairs or general non-fiction.

The agency is run by Rachel Calder. She joined in 1991 and assumed sole responsibility for the agency a couple of years later after the untimely deaths of Tessa Sayle and Penny Tackaberry. A Board member of the Writers’ Centre, Norwich (Arts Council funded arts organisation supporting new writing) she is also on the programming committee of the Cambridge Wordfest. The agency is a member of the Society of Authors, English PEN, The Association of Authors Agents and the Crime Writers Association.

The Sayle Literary Agency was founded in 1896 by one of the first literary agents in London, J B Pinker and it has a distinguished history. Pinker’s speciality was nurturing new literary talent and he looked after the literary affairs of Joseph Conrad, H G Wells, and Arnold Bennett. After Pinker’s death, the agency was taken over and renamed by the subsequent owners and continued to represent the best British and international writers, including D H Lawrence, James Joyce, Henry James, Robert Graves, Rosamund Lehmann, Irwin Shaw, Dashiell Hammett, William Styron, Shelagh Delaney, Ronald Searle, and Brendan Behan.

In keeping with the original ethos of the agency, the list is kept deliberately small so we can work closely with our writers and we place them with committed publishers who will reach the widest readership. Our current roster have won between them prizes and accolades, spent weeks on bestseller lists all over the world, broken extraordinary news stories, brought fresh perspective to old conundrums, forged groundbreaking new theories, and all are writers who try to make us look at the world in a new light. You can click on the Authors page and marvel at them.

We use specialist co-agents to sell our books in foreign language markets, in the USA and for film and TV.

USA rights: Dunow Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency, New York
www.dclagency.com

Foreign rights: The Marsh Agency, London. www.marsh-agency.co.uk

Film and TV rights are usually handled by Sayle Screen. www.saylescreen.com

Our commission rates are:

Home - 15%
US, Canada, Translation, Audio, Film and TV - 20%