Literary agency PFD faces fight to hold on to stars after agents threaten to quit

The new chief of the literary and actors' agency PFD is hoping to avert mass defections by offering a lucrative deal to existing agents who choose to stay on.

Caroline Michel was brought into the troubled agency as chief executive from the rival William Morris agency last week in the hope that she would be able to change the minds of agents who are planning to quit, taking their best-selling authors with them.

At least six agents at PFD, whose clients include Alan Bennett, John Mortimer, Joanna Trollope, Kate Winslet and Ricky Gervais, have already handed in their resignation and are planning to leave next year to set up a rival agency. Among them are Pat Kavanagh, the distinguished agent married to the novelist Julian Barnes, Caroline Dawnay, Anthony Jones and Maureen Vincent.

Although many authors have pledged to stand by their agents and leave PFD, their existing contracts will remain with the agency. The prospect of losing commission on these contracts might persuade some to remain at PFD.

David Buchler, the chairman of PFD's parent company CSS Stellar, said: "I hope that they will stay. They will have a proposition to stay over the next week." But he admitted: "In the summer there were five or six people that handed in resignations."

The agents are on six months' notice, although PFD could choose to let them go earlier.

The arrival of Ms Michel, who is married to the former Faber and Faber chairman Lord Evans of Temple Guiting, has acted as a catalyst for discontent, but the agents' decision to part company with PFD was made before her appointment, after they failed to pull off a £4m management buyout from CSS Stellar, the international sports and entertainment marketing group which acquired the literary agency in 2001.

One insider said "almost the entire staff" was planning to leave, with the exception of the veteran agent Michael Sissons, who played a role in persuading Ms Michel to join PFD.

"It was the refusal to accept the management buyout that precipitated this. I don't think it's specifically that they're walking out in protest over Caroline," said the source. But they added: "It's also to do with Caroline's vision. She wants PFD to be an international multimedia agency like William Morris. They don't want that. They're there to look after their authors and not to maximise shareholders' returns. They regard their bosses as the authors they represent and not a great global conglomerate."

There is speculation that Ms Michel will try to tempt agents to stay at PFD by offering them generous commission on cross media deals between books, film, television and theatre.

David Godwin, a rival literary agent, who represents the Man Booker Prize-winners Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai, warned that quitting PFD might not be in the authors' best interests. He said: "The job of agents above all is to protect the interests of their clients, not their own."

One suggestion is that the agents intending to leave will try to strike a deal to share the profits from existing contracts, as they would have all-important access to the author.

Joel Rickett, deputy editor of The Bookseller, said: "For an agent starting from scratch, the first few years are very lean, because they're only on 10 or 15 per cent of the author's earnings ... All of those who are thinking of leaving will be looking at the figures and deciding whether they can afford to leave those contracts behind."

Top agents

* Ed Victor

Victor's clients include Nigella Lawson, Frederick Forsyth, Kathy Lette, Andrew Marr and Sophie Dahl. Victor has also written a book, The Obvious Diet. Born in the Bronx in 1939, he moved to the UK in 1961 and worked in publishing before founding Ed Victor Limited in 1976.

Shark Rating: Four out of five

* Andrew Wylie

Wylie is not called 'The Jackal' for nothing. He poached Salman Rushdie from Deborah Rogers and persuaded Martin Amis that he would be able to secure him a better deal for The Information than Pat Kavanagh, his agent at the time. With offices in New York and London, the Wylie Agency also represents Ariel Dorfman, Paul Theroux, Al Gore and Annie Leibovitz.

Shark rating: Five out of five

* Peter Straus

Like Caroline Michel, Straus is a former publisher turned agent. Following 12 years at Picador, where he published Bridget Jones's Diary, Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Graham Swift's Last Orders and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, he became managing director of Rogers, Coleridge and White, which has three books on this year's Man Booker Prize shortlist.

Shark rating: Three out of five

* David Godwin

When a parcel landed on Godwin's desk containing the manuscript of Arundhati Roy's The God Of Small Things. Spotting an instant winner, he caught the first flight to Delhi and signed her up. Roy's first novel went on to win the Man Booker prize. Godwin's list of writers now includes Kiran Desai, Claire Tomalin, William Dalrymple, Simon Armitage and Howard Marks.

Shark rating: Three out of five

* Pat Kavanagh

The wife of the novelist Julian Barnes is one of those leaving PFD to set up a new agency. Kavanagh's authors are often friends as well as clients. She represents Ruth Rendell, Joanna Trollope and Andrew Motion.

Shark rating: Two out of five

* Christopher Little

Little maintains a low profile, particularly where his most famous client, J K Rowling,is concerned. Little is said to have secured a £900,000 deal for General Sir Mike Jackson's book Soldier: The Autobiography. His Christopher LittleLiterary Agency also represents Damon Albarn's pop group Gorillaz.

Shark rating: Four out of five

* Clare Alexander

President of the UK Association of Author's Agents, Alexander was also named Literary Agent of the Year 2007 at the British Book Awards. She represents Mark Haddon, whose novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time won the Whitbread Prize in 2004, as well as Penny Vincenzi and Lucy Kellaway.

Shark rating: Four out of five

* Caradoc King

Agent to Philip Pullman, King made headlines for the wrong reasons when he split from his then wife, the romantic novelist Rosie Thomas, in 1998. After five years at Penguin, he joined AP Watt in 1976, rising to become joint managing editor. His authors include Graham Swift and Tony Parsons.

Shark rating: Three out of five

* Deborah Rogers

This year's Man Booker Prize shortlist was good news for Deborah Rogers of Rogers, Coleridge and White. Ian McEwan, her client, is the bookies' second favourite to win. Rogers has also represented the late Angela Carter and Bruce Chatwin.

Shark rating: Two out of five

* Luigi Bonomi

With a client list packed with stars of the small screen, it is no wonder that Bonomi is adept at striking cross- media deals. His clients include John Humphrys, Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan and Alan Titchmarsh.

Shark rating: Four out of five