Founded in 1965, ILA is a specialist literary agency which handles translation rights in general fiction, non-fiction and children's books, selling in all languages throughout the world except English. Our clients include literary agencies and publishing houses in the UK, the USA and Canada.

ILA started out as a partnership between Anthony Gornall and a select few literary agencies in London and New York, for whom ILA provided translation rights representation. The business has evolved over the years, with our client base expanding significantly in the early 2000s, and ILA is now established as London’s leading independent rights team. The agency is a member of the Association of Authors' Agents.

Who we are

Nicki Kennedy

Nicki Kennedy

Nicki joined ILA in 1989 having previously been a Rights Manager at Hodder & Stoughton and then Hamish Hamilton. She is Managing Director of the agency, and sells rights in France, Germany and Spain, working with our co-agents in Tokyo to negotiate Japanese rights.

Sam Edenborough

Sam Edenborough

Sam began his career at A M Heath, then moved to Andrew Nurnberg Associates where he started selling rights. He joined ILA in 2001. Sam is a director of the agency, and handles rights for our clients in Brazil, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. He served as President of the Association of Authors’ Agents from  2014 to 2016.

Jenny Robson

Jenny Robson

Jenny began her career at ILA in 2006 and is now a director of the agency. She handles rights in the Arabic-speaking countries, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Thailand and Vietnam. She works with our co-agents selling rights in Bulgaria, China, Korea, Romania, Serbia and Taiwan.

Katherine West

Katherine West

Katherine started her career at David Bennett Books, and worked at The British Museum Press and the Orion Publishing Group before joining ILA in 2007. She handles rights in Georgia, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine and works with our co-agents selling rights in The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Clementine Gaisman

Clementine Gaisman

Clementine Gaisman joined ILA in 2013, after working in the Rights teams at Puffin and Walker Books. She handles rights for our children’s and young adult titles in Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. She works with our co-agents selling rights in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Alice Natali

Alice Natali

Alice joined ILA in 2014 as Rights Assistant. In May 2018 she became Children’s and YA Rights Executive, assisting Clementine Gaisman and handling rights in the Arabic-speaking countries, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. She works with our co-agents selling rights in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.

May Wall

May Wall

May joined the ILA team as the Translation Rights Assistant in July 2018 after graduating from Durham University with a degree in Modern Languages. During her year abroad, she completed an internship with a French literary agency.

Clients

Bell Lomax Moreton Agency

Founded in 2000 by Eddie Bell, Bell Lomax Moreton handles quality fiction and non-fiction, biography, children's, business and sport.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Cassava Republic Press

Founded 10 years ago, Cassava Republic Press is one of Africa’s leading publishers of contemporary writing with offices in Abuja and London.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Clare Hulton Literary Agency

Clare Hulton Literary Agency is a young, creative, commercial and successful London-based agency.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Cooke International

Founded in September 2009, Cooke International represents foreign rights for Penguin Random House Canada, The Cooke Agency and Tundra Books.

ILA represents translation rights in all children's and young adult titles from Cooke International's catalogue.

Harold Matson Co.

Established in 1937, Harold Matson Co. was one of the founding partners of ILA. The New York based agency represents fiction and non-fiction including a number of high profile estates.

ILA represents all translation rights.

hhb agency

hhb agency ltd was founded in 2005 by Heather Holden-Brown, the agency represents writers of non-fiction and commercial fiction.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Jane Conway-Gordon Ltd

Founded in 1982, Jane Conway-Gordon Ltd handles mostly adult fiction with a specialism in the crime writing genre.

ILA represents all translation rights except German.

Kate Barker Literary, TV & Film Agency

Kate Barker Literary, TV & Film Agency is a boutique London-based agency representing writers of fiction and non-fiction. It works creatively with its authors and is actively looking for new writers.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Kingsford Campbell

Kingsford Campbell provides traditional literary agent services for authors, as well as offering brand, marketing and digital strategy services.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Knights Of

Knights Of is a new inclusive children’s publisher based in London. Focused on ensuring the team behind all their books is as representative as possible, KO publishes the best commercial fiction for all kids. #BooksMadeBetter

ILA represents all translation rights.

LaunchBooks Literary Agency

LaunchBooks is based in San Diego, CA. Founder David Fugate represents a wide range of authors writing genre-breaking fiction and trade non-fiction.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Luigi Bonomi Associates

LBA was established by Luigi Bonomi and Amanda Preston in March 2005. The agency represents a wide variety of best-selling and prize-winning authors, journalists and writers.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Martin Leonardis

Founded by Federica Leonardis in 2016, Martin Leonardis Literary Management represents commercial and crossover fiction, cookery and food writing, business, memoirs, psychology and lifestyle.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Miles Stott Children’s Literary Agency Ltd

Founded in 2003 by Nancy Miles, MSCLA is a specialist children’s agency handling baby books, picture books, novelty books, fiction and non-fiction for middle grade and young adult readers.

Old Street Publishing

Founded in 2006, Old Street is an independent British publisher with a small but eclectic list ranging from literary fiction to commercial non-fiction, with the odd – very odd – gift or 'humour' book thrown in.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Persephone Books

Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century (mostly women) writers. The emphasis is on beautiful writing that says as much about the time it was written, as it does about today.

ILA represents all translation rights for selected titles only on the Persephone Books list.

Pickled Ink

Pickled Ink is a boutique London-based literary and illustration agency, with a client base across advertising, design and publishing sectors. Our authors and illustrators include Laura Ellen Anderson, Dominique Valente, Briony May Smith, Júlia Sardà and Melissa Castrillón amongst others.

Regal Hoffmann & Associates

Based in New York, Regal Hoffmann & Associates was founded in 2002. The agency represents works in a wide range of categories, with an emphasis on literary fiction, outstanding thriller and crime fiction, serious narrative non-fiction, works in translation, and children's books.

ILA represents translation rights in the following languages: Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian and Swedish.

Robertson Murray Literary Agency

Robertson Murray is a dynamic new literary agency founded by Charlotte Robertson and Hilary Murray, representing fiction and non-fiction. The agency is headed up by Charlotte, most recently Director of Sales & Marketing and Paperback Publisher at Faber and Faber.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Short Books

Founded in 2001 by former journalists Rebecca Nicolson and Aurea Carpenter, Short Books has established itself as an independent publisher of first-class, popular non-fiction.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Skylark Literary

Skylark Literary is a specialist Children's & YA literary agency and creative consultancy founded in 2014 by Amber Caraveo and Joanna Moult.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Stimola Literary Studio

Founded in 1997, Rosemary Stimola's agency handles children's books (pre-school through young adult) fiction and non-fiction. The Stimola Literary Studio specialises in picture books, middle/young adult novels.

ILA represents all translation rights except German.

The Agency (Hilary Delamere)

Hilary Delamere at The Agency represents a range of children's authors and illustrators, both new and established, and handles their publishing and related media rights.

ILA represents Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Spanish and Turkish rights on behalf of Hilary's clients.

The Cheney Agency

Founded by Elyse Cheney in 2004, the agency represents a wide range of fiction and non-fiction writers.

ILA represents translation rights on behalf of The Cheney Agency in Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

The Good Literary Agency

The Good Literary Agency is a social enterprise literary agency, working to increase opportunities especially for writers of colour, disability, working class, LGBTQ+ and anyone who feels their story is not being told in the mainstream.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Hamilton Agency

The Hamilton Agency Ltd is a literary agency based in Michelin House in South Kensington. It was founded in March 2019 by Matthew Hamilton, who was an agent with Aitken Alexander Associates for over 12 years.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Hanbury Agency

Founded in 1983, The Hanbury Agency has consistently represented remarkable writers. The agency is dedicated, forward-thinking, delivers a personal service and represents its clients worldwide.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Shaw Agency

After eighteen years as a literary agent at Aitken Alexander Associates and The Viney Agency, Kate Shaw founded The Shaw Agency in 2019, a boutique literary agency proudly representing brilliant writers.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Soho Agency (formerly LAW)

The Soho Agency is a successful and creative London-based agency representing both writers and artists. Its clients feature regularly on bestseller lists worldwide.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Turnbull Agency

The Turnbull Agency was set up by Janet Turnbull Irving to manage John Irving's literary rights.

ILA represents all translation rights.

The Viney Agency

The Viney Agency is a successful independent agency, which provides a full range of services for its clients including handling the sale of film and TV treatments to broadcasters and production companies.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Wade & Co Literary Agency

Founded by Robin Wade in 2001, Wade & Co Literary Agency handles fiction and non-fiction for adults and young adults.

ILA represents all translation rights.

Please do not send us unsolicited submissions

Because we’re a specialist translation rights team, we cannot offer representation to authors directly. If you are seeking an agent for your book, please visit our clients’ websites, where you can find out more about what they are looking for, and how to submit to them. Also please note: we do not offer rights to any English-language publishers. Please do not send us submission queries, or any writing samples. We will not acknowledge receipt of any such messages, attachments, or physical materials sent via the post which we will immediately delete or dispose of securely, as a matter of policy.

Co-Agents

ALBANIA, BULGARIA, SERBIA & ROMANIA
Andrew Nurnberg Assoc. (SOFIA)
CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA & SLOVENIA
Andrew Nurnberg Assoc. (PRAGUE)
MAINLAND CHINA & TAIWAN
Big Apple Agency (TAIPEI & SHANGHAI)
Grayhawk Agency (TAIPEI & SHANGHAI)
JAPAN
English Agency (TOKYO)
Japan Uni Agency (TOKYO)
Tuttle-Mori Agency (TOKYO)
KOREA
Eric Yang Agency (SEOUL)
Shinwon Agency (SEOUL)

Contact Us

5 New Concordia Wharf
Mill Street
London
SE1 2BB

ila@ila-agency.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7379 6611