Agents Our agents and assistants represent a diverse background ranging from traditional publishing veterans to dynamic young bibliophiles, all sharing the same vision of strategic career planning and lifelong relationships. Combined, we are an aggressive, tireless team of advocates who feed off of one another’s experience and taste.
Jane Rotrosen Berkey left New York University just short of a degree and went to work for a small literary/dramatic agency in the City. Determined on following her own path, after only 12 months as an assistant and an associate agent, Jane divided her one-bedroom apartment in half and hung out the shingle of Jane Rotrosen Agency.
The year was 1974. In less than three years, the Agency had its first New York Times Bestseller. The following year, Jane moved the Agency to the townhouse on East 51st Street, where it has remained.
Jane’s interest has ranged over fiction and non-fiction of every variety. Though she no longer accepts new clients for individual representation, Jane continues to oversee the Agency’s worldwide operations in an executive capacity, and remains actively involved in the careers of all Agency clients.
Andrea fell under the spell of publishing from the day she first interviewed at Delacorte/Dell and saw Kurt Vonnegut sitting in the waiting room. Working in the Dell editorial department, she apprenticed with two of the most respected and gifted editors ever to put pencil to manuscript, Linda Grey and Beverly Lewis, who inspired and nourished her appreciation for commercial fiction. In 1980 she joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency intending to learn a new perspective, only to discover her true home. An unapologetic optimist, she loves nothing more than the anticipation of a valued client’s manuscript landing on her desk or the promise of a brand new and exciting voice. Her list includes bestsellers in suspense and women’s fiction of all sorts.
Meg Ruley’s career as a literary agent is bracketed by two beautiful book-filled buildings. As a teen bookworm, Meg worked at the Nantucket Atheneum Library, a gorgeous Greek-Revival literary institution. She was geeky enough to be thrilled that “athenaeum” came from the goddess Athena, whose celestial duties included cultivation of wisdom and literature. Somewhere at the intersection of the novels of Victoria Holt and the Lew Archer mystery series, if such can be imagined, she realized reading and writers were her alpha & omega. After working briefly for a publishing firm, Meg came to a second beautiful building, the Manhattan townhouse where Jane Rotrosen Agency is located. Two decades later, her list of clients reflects those iconic favorites from those Atheneum days, including authors of best-selling women’s fiction as well as suspense, thrillers, and mystery.
Annelise Robey has been with the Jane Rotrosen Agency since 1995 after answering a want ad in The Village Voice for a part time receptionist. The ad specified talking to authors on the phone as the primary task, and she couldn’t think of anything she’d rather do. As a recently-graduated English major, she thought she had the best job in the world. It wasn’t long before her part time position answering phones evolved into much more. She soon developed a client list of her own, which now includes bestsellers in women’s fiction, suspense, mystery, literary fiction and the occasional non-fiction project. She’s always looking for new material she can sink her teeth into, and she still believes she has the best job in the world.
A native of Northeastern Pennsylvania, agent Christina Hogrebe grew up on a steady diet of Anne of Green Gables and Sweet Valley Twins books, for which she was nearly laughed out of the English department at Franklin & Marshall College and the University of Denver Publishing Institute, who graduated her anyway. Inspired by her favorite chick lit heroines, she left the wilds of PA in search of dirty martinis and adventure, landing on the doorstep of Jane Rotrosen Agency, who, sensing a kindred spirit, hired her as one of publishing’s many over-eager assistants in 2003. Christina annoyed mentor Meg Ruley with reader’s reports until they promoted her to agent soon thereafter. She continues to pursue “three-hanky-” and “read-with-the-lights-on” reads and is accepting published and unpublished clients.
After 22 years of fried chicken and all-things William Faulkner, Assistant to Andrea Cirillo Suzanna Best made the journey over the Mason-Dixon in search of more concrete and fewer green pastures. With a B.A. in Journalism and English and the Ella Somerville Award for Poetry from the University of Mississippi, she dove into the glossy sea of magazine publishing at Condé Nast Publications as a temporary features assistant at Vogue Magazine and later accepted a full-time position as a sales associate for Men’s Vogue Magazine. Her longtime and often promiscuous love affair with books prevailing, she shifted focus to book publishing and stepped inside the welcoming townhouse door of JRA.
Our rights director Peggy Gordijn, a native of The Netherlands, is at the helm of what has become the most rapidly expanding arm of JRA’s global business. Promoted to director in 2001, Peggy aggressively promotes the interests of over 150 authors and estates in every market throughout the world, working with co-agents in 34 countries and personally selling rights direct to the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Holland. The Frankfurt and London Book Fairs, and BookExpo America are yearly pulse points of her agenda, as are frequent meetings with her extensive rights contacts. The JRA rights department has seen consistent growth every year, including multiple appearances on bestseller lists in Great Britain, France, and Germany, and the Netherlands. Ever the European, Peggy is a die-hard fan of serial killer thrillers and true crime, like many of the clients she represents.
Lindsay Klemas's love for reading began at age three and is still going strong. After growing up on Carb Island (Staten Island) with the world's best pizza and bagels, Lindsay headed to college in upstate New York at Binghamton University, where she pursued a double major in English and Women's Studies. Upon graduation, and after a semester in London, she headed back to the City and joined JRA, enticed by both the books represented and the office's wallpaper. A product of the agency's belief in apprenticeship, Lindsay was introduced to every corner of the agency's business, starting out as an Assistant to one of the U.S. Agents and later on becoming the Assistant to the Rights Director and General Office Coordinator before being promoted to Rights Associate.
Business Affairs Our Back Office is committed to supporting the relationship between the author and the agent as a ‘third member’ of the team. Our staff of experienced professionals handles all the ‘paperwork’, from the tracking of contract documents to the timely processing of all payments; from obtaining proper foreign tax forms to analyzing royalty statements; from maintenance of the agency’s data base to overseeing compliance with all contractual terms by all parties. This group of royalty and contract specialists form an integral part of the service team that is JRA.
With the exception of short stints as a NYC limousine chauffeur and a high school English teacher, our Director of Business Affairs, Mike McCormack, has spent his working career in the publishing business. He came to JRA in 2007 after having spent over 20 years with the Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Clubs and Book of the Month Club as their Director of Contracts where he established long term and on-going relationships with the royalty, legal, contract and subsidiary rights departments of all the major and minor US and foreign publishers.
Donald Cleary originally embarked on a career in show business, which led to positions in arts administration, as Director of Marketing for the Oakland Symphony, and as manager of a subsidiary of San Francisco Opera. Don also worked as a press secretary to two political campaigns. In March of 1977, Don put politics and arts administration aside and joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency. As the Agency grew over the decades, so did Don’s responsibilities. After 32 years of service, Don provides a valuable consultation service for every aspect of the Agency’s business and financial activities.
After first experiencing the terror and humiliation of working for an independent film company, Kristen Pini, Business Affairs Associate, changed course and headed into the world of publishing. She worked for a literary publisher as the Foreign Rights Associate and at a literary agency, also in rights, before coming to JRA. Her work in the Business Affairs office at JRA involves the management of incoming and outgoing advances and royalties and participation in contracts procedure. Kristen’s position at JRA entails interaction with agents, authors, and publishers at all stages of the contracts and royalties process.
Joshua, CGC, TT, TD Inc is a rescued pit bull and our agency mascot. He has made appearances in Michael Palmer’s novel, the Fifth Vial and on CNN, and is an ambassador for his misunderstood breed as well as a beloved addition to this dog-friendly office.
Learn more about Josh and his friends at www.animalfarmfoundation.org
Petal, CGC, a rescued pit bull, affectionately known around the office as "The Beetle", traveled on December 3, 2008. Her spirit lives on in Luanne Rice's Dream Country and Tami Hoag's Deeper than the Dead and mostly, in all of our hearts.
Learn more about Petal's friends at www.animalfarmfoundation.org
Sculpture of Petal by Tim Racer