Welcome to the Talbot Fortune Agency

At the Talbot Fortune Agency our authors receive full-service literary representation and long-term career management advice delivered with passion and savvy. Agents John Talbot and Gail Fortune are former book editors with over two decades apiece in commercial book publishing. Likewise our rights director Eileen Laverty licensed audio, first serial, and translation rights for over a decade at top publishing houses before coming to our agency full-time.

Our collective advice is based on years of real-world experience with major publishers and our contacts are excellent. We have taken first-time novelists onto the bestseller lists and we have coached established authors into some of their most meaningful and successful books. Our clients' books are balanced evenly between fiction and nonfiction, and include a wide range of genres. We have represented several New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, a National Book Award Finalist, a National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee, and a New England Book Award winner.

Working from separate but nearby offices in New York's Westchester County, John and Gail each run a division of the company that reflects their personal vision. We work with aspiring authors as well as established professionals, and encourage all who might be interested in our services to get in touch with us via the contacts page.

Client News

ONE ROUGH MAN is now a New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller! Congratulations to Brad Taylor and the entire Dutton team for this extraordinarily successful debut.

Cleo Coyle's HOLIDAY GRIND (Berkley Prime Crime) made #4 on the B&N Mystery List, #18 on the B&N Mass Market List, and #20 on PW's Mass Market Bestseller List. 

ONE ROUGH MAN by Brad Taylor (Dutton) is a Featured Alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club, the Mystery Guild, and the Military Book Club.

Reviews and endorsements for ONE ROUGH MAN: 

“Brad Taylor’s ONE ROUGH MAN is an auspicious, adrenaline-soaked rocket ship of a debut novel. Taylor’s protagonist, Pike Logan, is One Rough Man who is one bad dude -- as a super-hero, Pike ranks right up there with Jason Bourne, Jack Reacher, and Jack Bauer.” —John Lescroart, New York Times bestselling author

"The deadly duel between Pike and the terrorists is both cerebral and graphically violent, with a high body count. Verdict: Taylor, a former Delta Force Commander, brings such incredible realism and authenticity that readers feel like they are looking over the shoulders of a real antiterrorist operation. This will appeal to Brad Thor and Vince Flynn fans." --Library Journal

"Taylor's debut flows like the best of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. An intense and intriguing character, Logan is definitely an action hero to watch." --Booklist

“Brad Taylor has created a feisty, devil-may-care hero in Pike Logan, a man forced to race not only time, but his own shadowy instincts.  A coiling plot, crisp writing, and constant braids of suspense make One Rough Man one exciting debut.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author

MURDER YOUR DARLINGS: An Algonquin Round Table Mystery by J.J. Murphy (NAL/Obsidian) is a Featured Alternate selection of the Mystery Guild and the Quality Paperback Book Club.

DEATH BY LIBERALISM by J.R. Dunn (HarperCollins/Broadside Books) is a Main Selection of the Conservative Book Club.  

Triumph Books has acquired 25 REASONS TOM BRADY IS BETTER THAN PAYTON MANNING by Sean Glennon. 

ROCKET MAN by William Hazelgrove, winner of the American Library Association's "Editor's Choice Award," is forthcoming from Sterling & Ross.

"ROCKET MAN is the funniest serious novel I have read since Richard Russo's STRAIGHT MAN, rich with the epic levity of John Irving and salted with the perversion of Updike." --Chicago Sun Times

Elizabeth Searle's literary thriller, GIRL HELD IN HOME (New Rivers Press) has received the following endorsements:

"GIRL HELD IN HOME gracefully walks the knife's edge between wild satire and ripped-from-the-headlines realism. Elizabeth Searle's new novel is sexy, funny, creepy, and highly enjoyable." --Tom Perrotta

"In GIRL HELD IN HOME, Elizabeth Searle uses her signature zany brilliance to turn suburbia, adultery, parenting, politics, and even terrorism into something new and insightful. Move over John Cheever! Elizabeth Searle has arrived!" --Ann Hood

Bravo Sierra Motion Pictures, producers of the ground-breaking short film of Elizabeth Searle's CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE (Graywolf Press), are now developing A FOUR-SIDED BED (Graywolf Press) for the screen as well. 

St. Martin's Press has acquired three additional titles in the Donut Shop Mystery Series by Jessica Beck. Some recent endorsements: 

"Delicious!" --Tamar Myers. 

"A lovable amateur sleuth... and great donut recipes!" --Dianne Mott Davidson.

"This delicious series will give readers some serious cravings." --Publishers Weekly

We have just received some beautiful ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) for EVIL ECLAIRS, which publishes May 2011. 

International Large Print Rights to Jessica Beck's FATALLY FROSTED (St. Martin's Press) have been placed with AudioGO International. 

We have sold an additional three Pizza Parlor Mysteries by Chris Cavender to Kensington Publishing.

"A SLICE OF MURDER is a delightful new mystery... Chris Cavender's sister sleuths are spunky, fun and smart... and they make darn good pizza (recipes included). Like the slice of a perfect combo pizza, one isn't enough. A deliciously satisfying read!" --Earlene Fowler, author of The Benni Harper Mysteries and The Saddlemaker's Wife. 

J.R. Dunn's DEATH BY LIBERALISM (HarperCollins/Broadside Books) will be released as an Audio Book by Audible.com.

Congratulations to our 2010 RITA Finalists:

-Jodi Thomas for Best Historical Romance for THE LONE TEXAN (Berkley)

-Betina Krahn for Best Historical Romance for MAKE ME YOURS (Harlequin Blaze)

-Amdanda McCabe for Best Romance Novella for "Charlotte and the Wicked Lord" in THE DIAMONDS OF WELBOURNE MANOR (Harlequin)