News / books
Good Literary Agency to close
The Good Literary Agency (TGLA) – set up in 2018 to represent marginalised writers – has announced it will close at the end of March.
In a statement posted on Instagram on Thursday, the agency said they were “heartbroken” to be making this “very difficult decision to stop doing this work at a time when it continues to be so needed”.
TGLA, co-founded by Julia Kingsford and Bristol-based author Nikesh Shukla, was founded with over £500,000 of funding from the Arts Council to help find, in Shukla’s words, “the next generation of diverse writers who represent the many stories Britain has to tell”.
is needed now More than ever
Soon after their founding, the agency developed a strong reputation for platforming working-class, LGBTQ+ and disabled writers as well as writers of colour.
TGLA were also renowned for their commitment to giving substantive feedback to all writers who submitted to them.
However, a lack of additional funding has meant the agency has had to “cut back” over the years and will now ultimately need to close.
The agency was co-founded by Julia Kingsford and Bristol-based author Nikesh Shukla in 2017 – photo: The Good Literary Agency
TGLA’s Instagram statement added that: “Though we continue to have funding from Arts Council England as a National Portfolio Organisation and their full ongoing support, we have been feeling the effects of investment in authors becoming more and more stretched and squeezed each year we’ve been operating and thus decreasing what we have been able to earn in commission which we need to match ACE’s funding.
“We’ve applied for funding elsewhere but not been successful.
“We’ve cut back and restructured as much as we could but we’ve now come to a decision point that realises that it is time for TGLA to pass the baton of the work that we do firmly back to the publishing industry as a whole and we believe in the ability of the industry to pick that work up.
“We are immensely proud to have played our small part in an incredible informal collective of organisations and individuals who have prioritised helping drive change across the industry.
“The work is far from done and we are so sad we no longer have the ability to keep doing our bit in this way but we are ever hopeful and excited to see the change that still needs to happen keeping driving on.”
View this post on Instagram
TGLA has represented over 200 authors across its seven years in business, including poet Dean Atta and novelist Alex Wheatle, whose life story was adapted for the screen in 2020 by Steve McQueen in his BBC historical drama Small Axe.
The agency has confirmed to book industry magazine, The Bookseller, that all book contracts and future earnings will revert to their authors after the agency closes.
Main photo: Sarah Koury / KoLAB Studios
Read next:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
