The Author's Agent
PO Box 694
Tugun QLD 4224
Tel: 0431 874 787
Email: alexadsett@alexadsett.com.au

About The Authors' Agent


From 1 July 2022 this agency is owned and operated by Alex Adsett. Update material to come.



The Authors' Agent was founded by Averill Chase. At the end of 2011, Averill decided to retire, and sold The Authors' Agent to a long-time industry colleague, Brian Cook.

Brian Cook

For over four decades, Brian Cook has worked closely with writers and illustrators, helping them develop their ideas from nascence to publication, and promoting and representing the work of Australian authors to publishers locally and around the world.

Brian has held senior publishing industry positions in adult and children's publishing, fiction and non-fiction. From the mid-1990s he has managed his own manuscript assessment and literary agency businesses. He is widely experienced in intellectual property development; contract negotiation; publishing and editorial; sales and marketing; and in buying and selling rights around the world. Over the years, this has enabled him to launch and guide the careers of hundreds of writers.

Brian's passion for writers and writing, and his professionalism as an energetic advocate for his authors, are well known throughout the industry. To The Authors' Agent and its clients, Brian brings a profound understanding of both the traditional world of international commercial book publishing and the new world of fast-multiplying digital media opportunities.

As sole agent operating a boutique agency with a focused, selective portfolio of clients, Brian draws on staff resources as and when required. However, he always personally handles his clients' author management needs and the representation of their work to publishers.

The Future

The Authors' Agent is an 'authors come first' agency, with a focus on building long-term writing careers for its clients. Under Brian Cook's stewardship, the strategic plan for the agency has two clear objectives. To continue to provide second-to-none personal service to its clients, while steadily growing the business through seeking out "unique, exciting, well-connected, market-savvy" writers who will be a good fit with the agency's style and ethos.