Thank you for your interest in our Literary Agency.

Here at CWLA, our staff and contributors have a shared goal to create engaging Picture & Early Chapter books for young readers.

Early Chapter Books: I have genuine empathy with parents of children that are reluctant readers; as a mum of two boys myself, it can be incredibly hard to engage some children with reading. I believe there is a real need in the industry to create stimulating children’s content as a key stepping-stone into independent reading with Early Chapter books. This reading age group are very loyal to a ‘good’ series, which is often overlooked by writers and illustrators who either target at a higher age level with more detailed chapter books or a much younger age group with picture books. Our aim here is to bring a wider selection into the market by ensuring the storylines are engaging, relevant and by offering different formats, easier reading text and just by creating great stories!

Picture Books:As co-founder of one of the leading illustration agencies, I have over 20 years of experience in Children’s Publishing. I understand how important it is to match artwork and text to present an obvious choice to publishers. The enormous goodwill I have built up with 100’s of illustrators, and my reputation for having a high conversion rate, means that we can often produce speculative samples for publishers the same day. Clients benefit from how that translates into a smooth commissioning process.

I also understand the author’s side of the business. As a writer, I appreciate the fine balance of creative input with the pressure of deadlines. I really enjoy working with our like-minded authors who share the same passion for bringing immersive and imaginative content to market through young literature.

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully working with you in the near future.

Caroline Wakeman

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Caroline Wakeman

CEO and Founder

For more than 20 years, Caroline has worked to create award-winning children’s book content with many leading publishers across the world. Her ability to marry strong storylines from published authors, with amazing illustrations from professional artists, culminates in picture and chapter books that are full of the ideas that young minds crave. After all, great stories create passionate and independent readers. Caroline and her team at CWLA provide a one-to-one service, ensuring publishers and authors receive the time and dedication their projects deserve.

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Milly England

Executive Assistant and Designer

Milly has been working in the creative industries for nearly twenty years. During her degree in Costume Interpretation at Wimbledon School of Art she worked for the milliner, Philip Treacy. Post graduation she worked as PA to Dame Julia Peyton Jones at the Serpentine Gallery, followed by working for Damien Hirst for ten years, eventually heading up his studios across the UK and working on various projects around the world. She has subsequently worked as a Private EA and a Freelance Illustrator, securing projects with Derwent, Uniball, Waitrose Food magazine and Country Living magazine as well as writing articles for Leisure Painter and The Artist magazine.

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Liz Chadwick

Creative Children’s Content Editor

Liz has more than twelve years of publishing experience which began in Oxford at Oxford University Press and has since taken her to San Francisco, working as Senior Editor at No Starch Press, and back. She has honed her editorial skills over the years by working closely with authors to develop their ideas and drafts into successful books, including multiple international bestsellers. Liz has a degree in Creative Writing from UEA and likes thinking about the conceptual, bigger-picture aspects of story and character building, but also loves to get in deep with the words themselves.

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Annabel Blackledge

Content Editor & Project Manager

Annabel has more than 20 years experience as an editor, writer and project manager in the children’s publishing industry and beyond. Graduating from Exeter University with a degree in English with Medieval Studies, she began her editorial career at publishing packager Bookwork in Stroud. She has since worked both in-house and as a freelancer with many of the major publishers and on projects ranging from board books to board games, storybooks to study guides, and much more. She loves to work closely with authors, illustrators and designers to create books that are a pleasure to read – whatever the subject matter!

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Kate Johnson

Senior Sales Agent and Celebrity Manager

With over 20 years of experience and insights in children’s publishing, Kate Johnson is CWLA’s senior sales agent and celebrity manager. She is an expert storyteller with ideas, imagination, and interaction as her superpowers. As our senior sales agent, Kate uses her expertise and insights to help our authors create bestsellers, such as Phil Heckles’s Rubbish Pet Portraits and Who’s a Clever Boy Then?.

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Mike Cowley

Sales Agent

Mike brings more than 15 years of experience working in children's publishing, as well as a lifelong passion for literature and art. Mike graduated with a degree in illustration and has since been working with publishers worldwide, great and small, to help open up amazing worlds for young minds with visual language and powerful words. Being able to play a small part in that process is a true joy. He is passionate about all things books and is prone to buying more books than he’ll ever have time to read.

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Flora Rees-Arredondo

Sales Agent

Flora is a Literary Agent based in Los Angeles. Her background includes work as an Art Director and Art Manager in entertainment for clients such as Warner Bros. Animation, Osmo, and US Bank. And work across projects in animation, R&D, live action, marketing, and publishing. Though she started out as a designer, Flora gravitates towards management roles where she works with authors and helps clients achieve their creative vision. Reach out to flora@carolinewakeman.com anytime to bring your project to life at Caroline Wakeman Literary Agency!

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Natasha Lavall

HR Manager

Behind the scenes here we have mega organised Natasha, also known as our HR Manager, who keeps the business running smoothly ensuring that the wheels are inflated and the engine has its oil (metaphorically speaking of course). If you are in need of a beautiful spreadsheet, or an amazing list, you can rely on Natasha to give you some tips. Alongside looking after her work family, she is also bossing her new role as a Mum with one of the company’s first Lockdown Babies. This new role enables her to have a deeper understanding of the world of children from a completely different angle.
Natasha also graduated with a BA in Illustration, leading her to be both crafty and creative, designing brilliant cards for our sister Agency Advocate Art. This leads into her second role as Head of Sales at Caroline Wakeman Literary Agency, taking on this new position after working as an Agent herself for over 10 years.

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Jasmin Sadhwani

Finance Department

Jasmin Sadhwani is our Financial Controller here at CWLA. She started helping the team with royalties a few years ago, and her passion for number crunching has allowed her to grow into our Financial Controller. Jasmine is a pleasure to work with, as she has a calm nature and is always there to help. Outside of work, Jasmin loves to cook, bake, and spend time with her young son.