Synopsis Literary Agency has gone
through three incarnations since its inception in the early
nineties. The first began when the London-based Elizabeth Van
Lear fulfilled a then fifteen-year old dream of doing business
in Russia through a publishing-related venture. She opened the
fledging agency in 1993 under the name “Elizabeth Van
Lear”. A few years later the company reorganized as a
limited company named the Fontanka Literary Agency.
In April 2001 the
agency reincorporated once more changing its name to the Synopsis
Literary Agency. In the meantime, the agency’s client
base continued to grow in England, the United States, Europe,
Canada, Australia and elsewhere.
There is a successful
and productive synergy between the Moscow and the London offices.
The former is now located in an office five kilometres from
the Kremlin in the historic complex beneath the Mir Russkoi
Dushi Museum.
Synopsis sells rights
to many different publishers – big and small – in
Russia, the Ukraine and the Baltic States. In terms of marrying
a book with its acquiring publisher, the emphasis is always
to find the appropriate publisher for each book whose right
is being sold.
The London office is the financial
headquarters of the agency and is responsible for collecting
all advances and royalties due, issuing the statements, and
paying the client publishers and literary agencies through bank
accounts in London and New York.
Presently, Synopsis
represents the exclusive Russian and Ukrainian rights on behalf
of many literary agencies and publishers throughout the world.
The agency also acts as the sub-agent for many of these same
literary agencies and publishers in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
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