About
An independent agency of four literary agents, representing writers of fiction and nonfiction internationally.
Our Story
Gracewell Literary Agency opened in 2014 with three clients and one principle: that an agent's first duty is to the writer's whole working life, not to a single transaction.
A decade later we represent authors across fiction and nonfiction, publishing in dozens of territories, and we still take on only a handful of new writers each year.
Our Mission
We look for distinctive writers and give their manuscripts the editorial attention they deserve before submission. We negotiate carefully, explain everything, and keep our authors informed at every stage.
Representation, for us, means advocacy — in editorial meetings, in contract negotiations, in rights markets, and over years rather than months.
Our Philosophy
Trends change; a voice does not. We read for the writer who could only have written this book, then we ask what the book needs in order to reach the readers who are waiting for it.
We believe in candour. If a project is not right for us, we say so quickly and clearly.
How We Work
Each query is read by the agent it is addressed to. If we ask for the full manuscript, we read it properly. If we offer representation, we begin with an editorial conversation and a written plan for submission.
Our commission is standard and disclosed in full before any agreement is signed. We never charge reading fees.
What We Look For
Novels with an unmistakable narrator. Genre fiction built with real craft. Nonfiction with a genuine argument and the authority to make it. Books for young readers that respect their intelligence.
Individual agents list their specific interests, and what they are not seeking, on their own pages.
Why Authors Choose Us
Our clients tell us they stay because they are never one of forty names on a list. They reach their agent directly, they see their submission strategy in writing, and they know their rights are being worked, not filed.
We are independent, which means our decisions are ours — and our loyalties are to the writers we represent.
Founder
Founder & Literary Agent
Julian Hayes spent fifteen years in editorial and rights work before opening Gracewell Literary Agency in 2014. She built the agency around a simple conviction: a writer is not a title on a list, and a career is not one book long.
She reads for voice first — the sentence that could not have been written by anyone else — and then for structure, ambition, and the argument a book is making with the world. Her list spans quiet literary novels, sweeping historical fiction, and nonfiction that reframes a familiar subject.
The Team
Each agent reads their own submissions and builds their own list.
