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Federica Martin Leonardis has left Rogers Coleridge & White to found her own agency, Martin Leonardis Literary Management.
Leonardis joined RCW in 2014 as associate literary agent. Previously she was senior contracts executive at Orion.
Leonardis said: “I’m grateful for all I’ve learned in publishing throughout my career, and I’m particularly grateful to Peter Robinson and David Miller at RCW for mentoring me over the last two and a half years, but running my own agency has been a longstanding dream of mine. This year, I finally felt the time was right to strike out on my own."
The new agency will specialise in three main areas: commercial fiction, cookery, and positive thinking/lifestyle. The agency will also offer "careful" career planning and a strategic approach uniquely tailored to each of its authors.
Confirmed clients already include food writers Oliver Rowe, author of Food for All Seasons (Faber), and Thom Eagle, food blogger and chef at the Darsham Nurseries Café, and journalist Caroline Kenyon, founder of The Food Awards Company.
Leonardis recently agreed the first publishing deal for her new agency, selling UK and Commonwealth rights for The Arrangement, a debut novel by City University MA graduate Sonya Lalli pitched as “Bridget Jones’s Diary meets 'Bend It Like Beckham'”, to Katie Seaman at Orion Books.
Leonardis said: “A solid relationship with the right agent is crucial for an author to flourish and succeed in this industry. My aim is to give authors the peace of mind they need in order to concentrate on their writing knowing that the agency will take care of the rest. I’m looking forward to building a select list of clients and working closely with each of them to develop their publishing careers.”
Martin Leonardis Literary Management is open to submissions. Submission guidelines can be found on the agency's website.