Amid a flurry of publicity and noise, Richard Abate left powerhouse agency ICM to create a literary agency within a Hollywood talent agency.
Endeavor expanded its reach from Hollywood and the movies to New York and the book world. He did a splendid job, brokering big deals that brought in big commissions. Several of his old ICM clients followed him, fattening up the agency's bottom line, and who wouldn't want such a hard worker on the payroll?
Now that Mr. Abate's baby is all grown up and getting hitched to William Morris, the man who helped make it happen is on the skids.
It's a case of office politics, in which Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of William Morris wants to be top dog and there's only room for one at the top. Is it true that she was chosen because she was the head of William Morris's much larger literary agency, so she won by virtue of experience?
Maybe. Or maybe she had the Board of Directors on her side.
Whatever happened, he's out the door and, given his experience, he's quite likely to open up his own literary agency. At the same time, he'd like to take his existing clients with him, and not leave all his hard work for someone else to reap the profits.
The agents he brought in may not leave with him, and he'll have to start again.
Whether or not he'd be interested in signing up some debut authors who don't have MFAs from Iowa remains to be seen.
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