Regal Literary Inc., a full-service agency with offices in New York and London, was founded in 2002. We represent works in a wide range of categories, with an emphasis on literary fiction, outstanding thriller and crime fiction, and serious narrative non-fiction.  Regal Literary is also a partner in The Culinary Cooperative, which represents chefs, restaurants, and food writers. 

We are deeply committed to every aspect of our clients' careers, and are engaged in everything from the editorial work of developing a great book proposal or line editing a fiction manuscript to negotiating state-of-the-art book deals and working to promote and publicize the book when it's published.  We are at the forefront of the effort to increase authors' rights in publishing contracts in a rapidly changing commercial environment. 

We deal directly with co-agents and publishers in every foreign territory and also work directly and with co-agents for feature film and television rights, with extraordinary success in both arenas.  Many of our clients' works have sold in dozens of translation markets, and a high proportion of our books have been sold in Hollywood.   As well, we have strong relationships with speaking agents, who can assist in arranging author tours and other corporate and college speaking opportunities when appropriate. 

Regal Literary Inc. is a member of the Association of Author Representatives and abides by its Canon of Ethics.  Our domestic commission is 15% and our foreign commission is 20%.  We charge no reading fees.

Bess Reed Currence came to Regal Literary in 2003 after three years as an editor at The Oxford American, "the Southern magazine of good writing," where she worked with William Gay, Ron Carlson, Tim Gautreaux, and Mark Winegardner, among many others. Born and raised in New Orleans, she remains infatuated with the South’s literary tradition and cultural sensibility and is interested in writing that is clever and peculiar. She represents literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, psychology, women's, quirky self-help, diet, and cooking.

Markus Hoffmann joined Regal Literary in 2006. He previously worked for several years as a literary scout and foreign rights agent on both sides of the Atlantic, most recently as Foreign Rights Manager at Aitken Alexander Associates in London and then Director of International Scouting at Maria Campbell Associates in New York. His main interests are international and literary fiction, crime, (pop) cultural studies, current affairs, economics, history, music, popular science, and travel literature. He also looks after foreign rights for the agency, sacrificing his health to the strenuous demands of the London and Frankfurt Book Fairs every year. He's the trumpeter of Half on Signature, the finest R & B band on the international publishing circuit.

Lauren Pearson started her career at the Russell & Volkening Literary Agency, and after stints at Tina Brown's Talk magazine and the Chicago-based Modern Luxury magazine group, she joined Regal Literary in 2004. In 2007, she moved across the pond to set up our London office.  In addition to handling UK rights for the agency, she is looking to represent European-based writers of literary and commercial fiction, memoir, and narrative non-fiction.  If it makes sense for your primary agent to be based in London, she’s your gal.  She has a particular weakness for anything pop-culture or crime-related, and is an avid late-night watcher of Law & Order reruns and the British detective drama Dalziel and Pascoe.  She is a graduate of Duke University and the Radcliffe Publishing Course.

While pursuing a career as the lead singer of the rock band RAMA, Joseph Regal got his first job in publishing at the Russell & Volkening Literary Agency in 1991. There he worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning bestselling authors Anne Tyler, Eudora Welty, Annie Dillard, Howell Raines, and Peter Taylor, as well as Tony Award-winner Ntozake Shange, Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer, and TV anchorman and novelist Jim Lehrer.  After leaving music for publishing, he founded Regal Literary Inc. in 2002.  He graduated from Columbia College magna cum laude.  His primary interests are literary fiction, international thrillers, history, science, photography, music, culture, and whimsy.

After graduating from Middlebury College, Michael Strong was a sailing instructor at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, a carpenter in Berkeley, California, an English teacher at a school for dyslexic students, and a graduate student in English at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he read for Carolina Quarterly. He was a PhD candidate at the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught classes on technology and ethics, wrote a dissertation on Finnegans Wake, and was Assistant Director of the Penn National Commission. After 7 years in digital marketing at Sotheby’s, he now handles marketing and publicity at Regal Literary. He yearns for fine literary fiction and ambitious thrillers, and for non-fiction about art, politics, science, business, sports, and boy does he love boats and the ocean they float on.