A June view of the River Spree at the Bode Museum in Berlin. Image – Getty iStockphoto: Midja Herma
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Gaeb: ‘A Trusting Relationship’
Two highly successful German literary agencies—which “share a longstanding collegial relationship and a common understanding of agency work—have today (July 3) announced that they’re pooling resources and merging.
The resulting agency name is almost self-explanatory to those who know the German agenting scene: Literarische Agentur Gaeb & Eggers GmbH brings together Michael Gaeb’s and Petra Eggers’ shops with Gaeb the lead on management and Eggers focused on her work as an agent.
The new entity plans to continue the two houses’ former international work, we’re told, both in translation rights and television and film. The company will be working with the Breitling Media Agency in the television and film side. The newly merged firm represents exclusively German-language and Spanish-language authors.
Michael Gaeb. Image: Gaeb & Eggers, Marcus Witte
In comments provided to the news media from the two partners, Gaeb says, “Petra Eggers was one of the first to found the profession of literary agency in Germany almost 30 years ago.
“Since then, she has promoted and accompanied an impressive number of important authors.
“We’ve enjoyed a trusting relationship for many years, and our joint exchanges have always been inspiring.”
Petra Eggers. Image: Gaeb & Eggers, Marcus Witte
And Eggers says, “For many years, I’ve been impressed by the excellent author support and the international orientation of Michael Gaeb’s agency.
“I’m all the more pleased that we’ll be taking a common path in the future and that all our colleagues will be able to contribute their year long experience.”
In co-agenting for the German-language market, Gaeb & Eggers will continue Petra Eggers’ representation of agencies and publishers from the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa. The list of those international outfits:
- The Cheney Agency
- Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency
- Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents
- Calligraph LLC
- The Lennon-Ritchie Agency
- Unbound
- Anne Edelstein Literary Agency
- Bernstein Literary Agency
- Jennifer Barclay Books
- Milkweed Editions
Likewise, Michael Gaeb’s representation on the German market continues with:
- Fitzcarraldo Editions
- Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson
- Il Saggiatore
- Walkabout Agency
- Codice Edizioni
- Elastica and Minimum Fax
Eggers: ‘A Common Path’
Eggers’ agency was founded in 1995 and it has represented authors including Yael Adler, Ulrike Draesner, Raphaela Edelbauer, Giulia Enders, Cemile Sahin, Robert Seethaler, and Juli Zeh.
Eggers is a former editor with Suhrkamp and S. Fischer and for several years was in New York at Eggers & Landwehr.
Gabe’s agency is 20 years old, having been established in 2003 with an emphasis on international as well as German-language work, representing, among others, César Aira, Nadire Biskin, Kenah Cusanit, Wolfram Eilenberger, Marc Elsberg, Katharina Fuchs, Ariana Harwicz, Tobias Hürter, Fernanda Melchor, and Hanno Sauer. The agency has a well-known specialization in Spanish-language content and is especially well connected in the Latin American markets. Gaeb is a former fellow at Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Jerusalem Book Fair (now the Jerusalem International Book Forum).
Publishing Perspectives readers might recall our Books at Berlinale interview in February with Bettina Wißmann—chief of film and television rights at what was then Literary Agency Michael Gaeb. More about both Eggers and Gaeb is here, their merged agency’s authors are here, the company’s books are here, and a full list of their international co-agenting partners is here.
Some of the books on the home page of the new combined agencies’ site as the merger is announced. Image: Literary Agency Gaeb & Eggers
More from Publishing Perspectives on literary agents is here, more from us on international publication and translation rights is here, and more on the German market is here.