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

Recent News:

Congratulations to Jerome Preisler and Kenneth Sewell on this fine PW review for CODE NAME CAESAR (Caliber): "With suspense surfacing amid the military intrigue, this latest by Preisler and former submariner Sewell (co-authors of ALL HANDS DOWN: the True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion) reads like a tense thriller, but the authors also keep a steady course on the human aspect of their tale as they reconstruct the events behind this little-known WWII incident and its aftermath."

Congratulations to Jodi Thomas! JUST DOWN THE ROAD hit #15 on The New York Times Bestseller list!

Congratulations to Brad Taylor for having TWO New York Times bestsellers this spring -- ALL NECESSARY FORCE in hardcover and ONE ROUGH MAN in paperback!

Congratulations to John Carpenter for having a Kindle bestseller with GOING GEEK: What Every Smart Kid and Every Smart Parent Should Know About College Admissions.

Congratulations to Charlee Ganny -- CHIHUAWOLF is a Scholastic Book Club Selection!

Recent sales:

Art Garner's BLACK NOON: THE YEAR THEY STOPPED THE INDY 500, a narrative that reconstructs the events, circumstances and fatal decisions leading up to the 1964 Indianapolis 500, a turning point in auto racing technology and the first time the race was stopped by a fiery accident, focusing on the two drivers who died in the inferno, featuring as sources some of the greatest names in racing-- A.J. Foyt, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser and more, to Thomas Dunne Books.

Tony Walters's BURDEN, a blackly humorous tale of a young man who is determined to get himself killed by sleeping with the wife of every man in town, to Zipper Films, by Rich Green at CAA.

Liz Mugavero's KNEADING TO DIE, DIGGING FOR DEATH, and MEOWING FOR MURDER, "Pawsitively Organic" Gourmet Pet Food Mysteries set in a storybook New England town and featuring a gourmet pet food chef and her Maine coon cat, to Kensington.

Outside, Sierra, and Audubon contributor Brian Kevin's THE FOOTLOOSE AMERICAN, a first-person travelogue that takes readers along Hunter S. Thompson's 1962-1963 route through South America, a ground-level exploration of twenty-first century South American culture, politics, and ecology with an adventure-travel emphasis and Thompson's ghost as a guide, Crown Trade/Broadway Books.

Former Five Star Organic Farm owner Edith Maxwell's A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE, TILL DIRT DO US PART, and MURDER BY RUTABAGA, a new series of Local Foods Mysteries featuring a novice farmer and a colorful group of mystery-solving locavores, as well as lots of recipes, to Kensington.

Daphne DuMaurier Award for Excellence in Mystery Award winner Jessie Crockett's DRIZZLED WITH DEATH, TAPPING TROUBLE, and BOILED DOWN TO MURDER, a new series of Maple Syrup Mysteries set in rural Sugar Grove, NH, starring a fourth generation syrup maker and recipes, to Berkley.

President of Sisters in Crime New England chapter Barbara Ross's CLAMMED UP, BOILED OVER, and MUSSELED OUT, a new series of Clambake Mysteries set in coastal Maine and featuring a woman and her family clambake business, including recipes for such delicious treats as Snowden Family Blueberry Grunt and Snowden Family Clambake Clam Chowder, to Kensington.

Christine DeSmet's FIRST-DEGREE FUDGE, the first in a series centered on the owner of a fudge shop in Door County, Wisconsin, "the Cape Cod of the Midwest," to NAL.

Authors of the submarine thriller FINAL BEARING George Wallace, Commander, USN, Ret., and Don Keith's FIRING POINT, about an American submarine skipper, a Navy SEAL Team, and a rogue Russian plot to spark global war, the basis for the upcoming Philip Noyce and Relativity Media feature film entitled HUNTER-KILLER, to NAL.

FBI Special Agent Jerry Clark (Ret.) and Erie Times-News investigative reporter Ed Palattella's THE COLLAR BOMB STORY, the true story of Brian Wells, a pizza delivery man who was forced to rob a bank while wearing a collar bomb, to Berkley.

Librarian and information specialist Anna Loan-Wilsey's debut A LACK OF TEMPERANCE, set in 1892 and featuring an amateur sleuth and Victorian private secretary, to Kensington.

NYT bestselling author of ONE ROUGH MAN and ALL NECESSARY FORCE Brad Taylor's next two books in the Pike Logan series to Dutton.

Baseball historian Doug Wilson's THE BIRD: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych, about unique and unforgettable Detroit Tiger pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, whose magical 1976 rookie season and free-spirited antics on the mound-- which included talking to the ball -- made him a pop cultural icon, to St. Martin's Press.

Charlee Ganny's CHIHUAWOLF, in which a lovelorn Chihuahua, in order to impress the Afghan hound he adores, decides to transform himself into the biggest, fiercest canine he can imagine-- a Chihuawolf, to Sourcebooks.

Previous Announcements:

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.

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

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

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.