Warnock Takes Things Literally

Agency Group chief Neil Warnock is planning to buy a comedy agency in addition to growing his company’s literary agency on both sides of the Atlantic.

This nugget came out in a recent interview he did for The Independent, and followed two press releases detailing how the north London agency’s undergone a few changes since the turn of the year.

The Agency Group, which has had a New York-based literary agency for several years, has taken another floor of the City Road building that houses its HQ in order to accommodate the expansion.

Warnock, who lists Robert Goddard among his own literary favourites, has brought in Jonathan Conway and Juliet Mushens to spearhead the London publishing operation.

Conway, who co-founded the literary agency Mulcahy Conway Associates, has had seven of his writers make the Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller Lists.

Mushens began her career in fiction marketing at HarperCollins in 2008, after graduating from Cambridge with a degree in History.

After joining UK literary agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop in 2010, she became an agent in 2011 and represents a diverse and growing list of fiction and non-fiction writers.

A year later she was picked by The Bookseller as one of their “Rising Stars of publishing.”

Warnock, who this year won Pollstar’s UK Booking Agent of the Year for the fourth time in six years, is also making changes in his live music booking department.

He’s promoted Paul Ryan, Natasha Bent and Heulwen Keyte to vice presidents of the UK division.

Last year The Agency reportedly had revenues of $32 million. The company employs 170 people in London, New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Toronto and Malmo.