Joelle Delbourgo Associates is a boutique literary agency based in the greater New York City area. We represent a wide range of authors writing for the adult trade market, from creative nonfiction to expert-driven nonfiction, commercial fiction to literary fiction, as well as new adult, young adult and middle grade fiction and nonfiction. Founded in September 1999, the agency and its co-agents have negotiated over 1,000 contracts with publishers throughout the world, and for adaptation into other media, such as film and television and audiobooks.
As a former editor who has worked at major publishing houses, Joelle Delbourgo knows the publishing world from both sides. The agency endeavors to help our authors at every stage of the publishing process, from creation of submission material, to pitching and selling, negotiating strong deals, and extending the reach of our client’s work internationally and in multiple formats. We enjoy helping authors to build careers over multiple books. We have a wide range of contacts throughout the industry. Our philosophy is to build bridges and effective partnerships.
We look for both narrative and prescriptive nonfiction: “big think” books, groundbreaking research-based nonfiction, history and politics, psychology, parenting, business and economics, science, memoir, health and wellness, and true crime . We love to see smart practical books in crafts, cooking and gardening, supported by strong author platforms. Our fiction spans mainstream quality commercial women’s fiction to literary fiction, upscale mysteries, and and occasionally, romance and fantasy. We seek quality first and foremost, distinctive voices, and original points of view.
We do not handle screenplays and poetry.
For more about our literary agency, click on bios of our staff and authors.
For submission guidelines, https://delbourgo.com/submissions/
“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joelledelbourgoassoc
As former editors who have worked a major publishing houses, we are creative, know the publishing world from both sides, and pride ourselves on helping our authors at every stage of the publishing process, from creation of submission material, to pitching and selling, negotiating strong deals, and extending the reach of our client’s work internationally and in multiple formats. We enjoy helping authors to build careers over multiple books. We have a wide range of contacts throughout the industry. Our philosophy is to build bridges and effective partnerships.
We look for both narrative and prescriptive nonfiction: “big think” books, groundbreaking research-based nonfiction, history and politics, psychology, parenting, business and economics, science, memoir, health and wellness, and true crime . We love to see smart practical books in crafts, cooking and gardening, supported by strong author platforms. Our fiction spans mainstream quality commercial women’s fiction to literary fiction, upscale mysteries, and and occasionally, romance and fantasy. We seek quality first and foremost, distinctive voices, and original points of view.
We do not handle screenplays and poetry.
For more about our literary agency, click on bios of our staff and authors.
For submission guidelines, https://delbourgo.com/submissions/
“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joelledelbourgoassoc
Our Team
Joëlle Delbourgo, President
Joëlle Delbourgo is President and Founder. She represents a broad range of adult nonfiction and fiction.
Her authors include 
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Debbie Cenziper and Dale Russakoff; Dr. Michele Borba, award-winning educator and parenting contributor to The Today Show; psychologists Thomas Armstrong and the late Dr. Susan Forward; memoirists Ariel Burger, Ashley Rhodes-Courter, Israel Meir Lau (former Chief Rabbi of Israel), Grace Jung and Sara Sherbill; historians Philip Freeman, Joanna Sliwa and Elizabeth White; true crime writer James Renner; novelists Marilyn Simon Rothstein, Lindsey J. Palmer, Roy Hoffman and Rosa Kwon Easton, among others.
What Joelle would like to see more of right now: history and science (especially neuroscience) that tells a great story or is cutting edge, nonfiction and fiction with a strong voice or point of view, lifestyle books with an innovative twist, out of the box thinkers, diverse and own voices, literature in translation.
Prior to founding the agency, Delbourgo was a senior editorial executive at HarperCollins and Ballantine Books, a division of Random House for more than two decades. Among the authors she worked with are Ken Davis, Abraham Verghese, Lee Smith, Barbara Tuchman, Carl Sagan, Robert Massie, James P. McPherson, Jim Davis, Sophy Burnham, Delia Ephron and Margaret George. She began her editorial career at Bantam Books, where she discovered and launched the Choose Your Own Adventure series for kids, which sold millions of copies worldwide.
Joëlle is a member of AALA (Association of American Literary Agents), an industry organization that upholds ethical standards.
She holds a Master of the Arts in English and Comparative Literature with Honors from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of the Arts from Williams College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a double concentration in History and English Literature. Joëlle is as sought-after speaker, panelist, workshop leader and instructor at writing conferences. She has taught publishing and editing at Rutgers University to graduate students. She has lived on three continents, is fluent in French, and considers herself to be a citizen of the world. The proud mother of two, she is an ardent student of Latin and ballroom dance and a dedicated home baker.
To reach Joëlle: joelle@delbourgo.com
You can also follow her Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/joelledelbourgoassoc, and see her latest sales on her Publishers Marketplace page
Subagents
We work with specialists in foreign rights, including foreign English language and translation rights, as well as audio rights and film/television and theatrical rights.
Foreign Rights
World rights excluding Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Thailand, Indonesia – Joelle Delbourgo: joelle@delbourgo.com
Asia excluding Japan – Andrew Nurnberg Associates International
People’s Republic of China: Jackie Huang, jhuang@nurnberg.com.cn, lauren@nurnberg.com.cn
Taiwan: Whitney Hsu, whsu@nurnberg.com.tw;
Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia: Weerawat ‘Big’ Techakjjathorn, big@nurnberg.co.th
Vietnam: Van Hoang, van@nurnberg.com.vn
Korea: Michelle Nam, Duran Kim Agency, michellenam@durankim.com
Audio, Tara Gelsomino
Tara is the founder and CEO of One Track Literary Agency, a boutique literary agency. We are proud to have Tara represent audio licensing for JDA. Founded in 2018, OTLA handles primary and audio rights for a variety of authors, agents, and publishers. A twenty-plus year veteran of the publishing industry, Tara was formerly the Executive Editor of Simon & Schuster’s digital imprint, Crimson Romance, and also worked for BBC Audiobooks America/AudioGO and Romantic Times Magazine.