Neil Blair, Literary Agent | What you need to know

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Neil Blair is the founder of the Blair Partnership (Established 2011). He left the Christopher Little Literary Agency in 2011, taking its prize client, J.K Rowling, with him. The Blair Partnership sets out to offer representation and brand management to writers and creative artists

*J. K. Rowling is one of Neil's main clients. He is heavily involved in the Harry Potter brand and was responsible for Warner Bros acquiring the film rights for the books. Neil is also the director of Pottermore -- the digital Harry Potter project, and the Director of Lumos (Rowling's children's charity).

*He is not a traditional agent. Neil has a degree in law from Oxford and came to agenting via a career in litigation, and latterly, film and TV, where he was Warner Bros' European Head of Business Affairs.

*Outside of the agency, he is involved in charity work for Gift UK; the UK Friends of The Abraham Fund Initiatives; the Development Committee of the London 9/11 Project; and the Rugby Football Foundation.

*He is a twitter fan and regularly tweets @neilblairtbp

*Hobbies include cinema and theatre, walking his dog and football (he is a disappointed West Ham supporter)

*The agency accepts unsolicited manuscripts in all genres, and as the Head of a relatively young agency, Neil is likely to be interested in building the Blair Partnership's list.

*They doesn't publish personal client list, but in recent years they have acquired a strong stable of children's and young adult authors. Literary fiction, commercial fiction and popular science are also likely to be of interest. However, given Neil's commitments to J K Rowling's empire, our researchers suspect that debut authors may be better seeking representation from one of his colleagues.

*We have been in touch with Neil to find out what he is looking for in new submissions and plan to update this page with further details when we hear back from him. If any Agent Hunter users have information about Neil which might help a prospective client, we would be interested in hearing from you.

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Detailed data

Agency:

The Blair Partnership

Agent since:

2001

Short biography:

In 2011, after 10 years as a partner at the Christopher Little Literary Agency where I helped to look after J.K. Rowling, I set out to form a strategic agency offering representation and brand management for new and established writers and creative artists, as well as engaging in related production activities. As well as being a partner in the business, I am also one of the originators, and now director, of Pottermore - J.K. Rowling's groundbreaking digital Harry Potter project. It wasn't always thus: before moving into the literary world, I was Warner Bros.' European Head of Business Affairs, working in the film and TV arena on productions like 'Band of Brothers' and 'Eyes Wide Shut'. I also helped to acquire the film rights for J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, beginning a relationship that would quite radically change my course. Before that, I trained and qualified into the litigation team at Linklaters & Paines having graduated in law from Exeter College, Oxford (where I also managed to acquire a Half Blue in football!). Neil is best known for being JK Rowling's agent and dealmaker in chief, following her split with Christopher Little. The agency does a lot of work in licensing Harry Potter rights and sits behind the creation of Pottermore.

Client list status:

Open to new clients

Genres this agent is interested in:

Young adult fiction, Children's picture books, Children's fiction, Children's & YA non-fiction, Travel, Science, Politics, society & current affairs, Other non-fiction, Religion, Mind, Body, Spirit, Food and Cookery, History, Women's fiction, Science fiction, Paranormal romance, Horror, Historical fiction, Genre romance, Fantasy, Erotica, Crime, thriller, action, General Fiction, Literary Fiction

Authors & books liked:

'What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories' by Nathan Englander, 'Hope: A Tragedy' by Shalom Auslander

Other loves & passions:

I still keep up with the latest film and theatre releases, as well as enjoying long walks over Hampstead Heath with my wife, two sons and our overly energetic puppy, Jigsaw - and persist in supporting West Ham despite near-constant disappointment.

How to make a submission:

submissions@theblairpartnership.com Agency standard. Neil's personal Assistant is Rachel Pronger.

Other advice and background:

No Data

Attends Festival of Writing or other WW events?

Follow on Twitter:

@NeilBlairTBP

Interesting links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Blair_%28agent%29

Clients:

The following names represent the full agency client list: Simon David Eden, Dan Freedman, Professor Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman, Robert Galbraith, Roderick Gordon, Inbali Iserles, Karl James, Frank Lampard, Kieran Larwood, Pearl Lowe, Simon Murray, Maajid Nawaz, Sophie Nicholls, Zoom Rockman, JK Rowling, Louis Saha, Chung Yee Chong.

Full client list:

http://www.theblairpartnership.com/authors

Email address:

neil.blair@theblairpartnership.com

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Agents of: The Blair Partnership

Agency details

Website:

http://www.theblairpartnership.com

About the agency:

The Blair Partnership is a strategic agency offering representation and brand management for new and established writers. Our expertise covers book publishing, digital and new media, TV, film, merchandising, domain name and trademark portfolio management. We are proud to represent a broad roster of talent that includes J.K. Rowling, Maajid Nawaz, Louis Saha, Simon Murray, Dr. Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman.

Address for submissions:

No data

Office address:

8 - 14 Vine Hill, London EC1R 5DX

Email address:

info@theblairpartnership.com

Phone number:

0044 (0) 207 504 2520

Number of agents:

Accepts email submissions:

Yes

Submission type:

Other - see details

Further submission info:

The agency asks for a letter, synopsis and the first ten pages. They prefer digital submissions, but if you're particularly keen to send it by post, please send your printed submission, along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We are however rights managers for IP owners (some of whom are writers) as opposed to purist literary agents and take on only a very small number of debut writers.

More info on this agency:

No data

Average response time:

6 days

Agency Transparency Index:

41/100

Member of the AAA:

Yes

Overseas offices:

None

Accepts overseas writers:

Follow on Twitter:

NeilBlairTBP

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Neil BlairThe Blair Partnership