Byrd Leavell
Born
Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
OccupationLiterary agent
Known forrepresenting Tiffany Haddish,[2] Justin Halpern, Cat Marnell and "Weird Al" Yankovic[3][4]

Byrd Leavell is a literary agent at United Talent Agency.[5][6] Previously he was known as a named partner at the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.[7][8]

Career

Leavell graduated from the University of Virginia and the Radcliffe Publishing Program.[3][9] In 2012, he partnered with Scott Waxman to form the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.[8]

As a partner at the Waxman Leavell agency, he has overseen multiple New York Times bestsellers including #1 bestselling books Shit My Dad Says by Justin Halpern.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Leavell also represents Rob Elliott, whose LOL series has sold more than 2.5 million copies.[17] He also represented the anonymous Dutch novel Diary of an Oxygen Thief.[18][19] Leavell also represents Cat Marnell, a former Lucky, XoJane and Vice blogger.[20]

In September 2017 he began his employment at UTA.[5] One of the first clients Leavell represented at UTA was comedian and actor Tiffany Haddish.[2] Haddish's memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, was a debut New York Times bestseller, spending each of its first six weeks in print on the list and, as of January 2018, reaching #5 overall.[2][21][22][23]

Selected clients

According to Publishers Weekly.[3][9]

References

  1. ↑ Alanna Stack, Byrd Leavell III The New York Times. June 22, 2016
  2. 1 2 3 Gallery Books to Publish Tiffany Haddish. Simon & Schuster. January 25, 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 "Profile: Byrd Leavell". Publishers Weekly.
  4. ↑ Haskell, Will This 23-year-old ditched her blog and started writing her memoir on Instagram — now 300,000 people are reading it Business Insider. June 22, 2016
  5. 1 2 "People, Etc. - Publishers Lunch". Publishers Lunch. 2017-09-20. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  6. ↑ People Round-Up, Early October 2017. Publishing Trends. January 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Newman, Andrew Adam (March 1, 2007). "Authors Find Their Voice, and Audience, in Podcasts". The New York Times.
  8. 1 2 "Waxman, Leavell Form New Agency". Publishers Weekly. May 30, 2012.
  9. 1 2 "UTA Literary Agent Byrd Leavell On Publishing Industry Trends". WritingRoutines.com.
  10. ↑ Deahl, Rachel Tucker Max Is Back—With Dating Advice Publishers Weekly. June 24, 2016
  11. ↑ Witt, Emily (December 13, 2011). "Sh*t My Agent Sells: The Art of Turning Instafads Into Tome-blrs". The New York Observer.
  12. ↑ "Best sellers: Paperback Nonfiction". The New York Times. November 8, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Best Sellers: Hardcover Nonfiction". The New York Times. June 11, 2010.
  14. ↑ Kleeman, Sophie This 23-Year-Old Is Writing Her Fairy Tale Memoir Entirely on Instagram Mic. June 22, 2016
  15. ↑ Dishman, Lydia (November 16, 2009). "Will Tweet for a Book Deal". Fast Company.
  16. ↑ Sambuchino, Sam (October 16, 2009). "Agent Advice: Byrd Leavell of Waxman Literary Agency". Writer's Digest.
  17. ↑ Lodge, Need a Laugh? Rob Elliott and HarperCollins Have You Covered Publishers Weekly. June 22, 2016
  18. ↑ Unknown "Oxygen Thief" author becomes self-published success CBS News. June 22, 2016
  19. ↑ Fleming, Jr., Mike ‘Diary Of An Oxygen Thief’ Sells To S&S Imprint Gallery After Gotham Group Buys Screen Rights Deadline. June 22, 2016
  20. ↑ Hoby, Hermoine (October 6, 2012). "Cat Marnell interview: shooting star". Guardian.
  21. ↑ Greene, David. Tiffany Haddish: 'I Know What I'm Supposed To Do Here On This Earth'. NPR. January 25, 2018.
  22. ↑ Gardner, Chris. Groupon Books Superfan Tiffany Haddish for Super Bowl Ad. Hollywood Reporter. January 25, 2018.
  23. ↑ Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction. New York Times. January 25, 2018.
  24. ↑ EXCLUSIVE: How Comedian Daniel O'Brien Turned One Joke Into A Major Book Deal Forbes. June 22, 2016
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.