Introducing Key People

Earlier this year, publishing professionals Lou Johnson and Jeanne Ryckmans set up a new literary agency, Key People Literary Management. With a connection going back to their time as colleagues at Penguin Random House in 2000, Johnson and Ryckmans have worked across a wide range of publishing roles, and Ryckmans is also author of the recently released book Trust: A fractured fable (Upswell). The duo tells Think Australian the story behind their new agency—and a little of their plans for the future.

Tell us about your individual careers before you created Key People.

Jeanne: I have had a varied career as an on-air television presenter and reporter fronting Masterpiece, TV World, and Imagine arts programs on SBS television (this will carbon-date me); director of two documentaries; features magazine editor; book publisher for two multinationals (Random House/ HarperCollins) and one independent (Black Inc.); and artistic director of the Canberra Writers Festival (2019–2022)—the latter whilst working simultaneously as a literary agent. Essentially it’s been a long vocation of storytelling from both sides of the publishing fence, with plenty of author wrangling.

I’ve been fortunate to work with authors including dual Miles Franklin Award winner Christopher Koch, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, Socceroos legend Johnny Warren, Margaret Whitlam, 2019 Stella Prize winner Vicki Laveau-Harvie and many others. Last month, Upswell Publishing released my hybrid memoir/detective story called Trust: A fractured fable. I feel grateful to those publishing colleagues and authors who have stayed the course.

Lou: I was lucky enough to be born into publishing. My father was sent from the UK to Australia by Penguin Books in 1968, and my mother was a publicist, literary agent and publisher, so I grew up surrounded by authors and books.

Publishing gets under your skin, and although I toyed with other careers, it was publishing that won my heart. The power of storytelling to connect us has always been the driver of that.

Over a career of more than 30 years—but that has really spanned my whole life—I have been a managing director (Simon & Schuster), publishing director (Murdoch Books), international publishing director (Miami-based Mango Publishing), sales director (Allen & Unwin/Random House), and head of marketing (Random House), and managed the ABC’s retail concessions, and founded and sold my own publishing startup (The Author People).

Along the way, I was vice president of the Australian Publishers Association; a key participant in the Book Industry Collaborative Council; chair and participant in numerous industry working groups, on panels at writers’ festivals and retailer conferences; a founding committee member of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation; and a board member of the Stella Prize. 

From navigating digital transformation, managing the sales in Australia of the biggest publishing events in history (the last two Harry Potter books), working with a who’s who of incredible names including Lynda La Plante, Jackie Collins, Michael Crawford, Philippa Gregory, Pamela Stephenson, Ian Thorpe, Posie Graeme-Evans, Bill Granger, Ronni Kahn, Neil Perry, and Gloria Steinem, and championing books that became bestsellers like The Blue Day Book, Wild Swans, The Alchemist, Still Alice, and The Kite Runner, and briefly joining Salman Rushdie’s security detail on a top-secret tour to Australia, it’s been an exhilarating ride.

When did you decide to create Key People, and how did the decision come about?

Jeanne: I have known Lou for more than two decades. We sat at opposite ends of a boardroom table at Random House in 2000, and I always appreciated her honesty and kindness. A decade later, we collaborated on a Gloria Steinem book, when she fought to secure the ANZ and UK rights and sealed the deal with elegance. But our paths had often crossed prior, and there was strong, steady mutual respect. I realised and relished early on that we held similar values; we prized endeavour over ego and altruism over ambition. That’s shorthand, if you like, for not being an a**hole.

What aspects of your previous experience will inform the way you go about running Key People?

Jeanne: I worked until recently (for six years) at a creative management agency. Timing was such that Lou and I had been talking about the importance and necessity of trust and loyalty in the industry—both the professional and the personal. I was feeling somewhat gloomy and Eeyore-ish about the state of publishing affairs. Lou bolstered my spirits, and we took the leap of faith. Timing, as they say, is everything.

Lou: I think, as with many things that seem to happen quickly, it has been a long time in the gestation, and a short time in the doing. After talking about how great it would be to work together over the years, in June this year, the stars aligned to finally make it a reality.

As Jeanne has said, we have known each other for over twenty years and recognised a meeting of kindred spirits from the beginning. We’ve always admired the way the other operates in work and life. We trust each other implicitly; our values are aligned, and we have a shared innate disposition to think boldly and make things happen.

We know the industry inside out, and this combined and complementary breadth of commercial and creative experience, our sensibility, network and, of course, the writers we partner with are our strongest assets. 

Can you tell us about any of your authors or projects yet?

We have a strong stable of writers, journalists, poets and a King’s Counsel working across genres, as well as several irons in the fire for books to screen. Just a small sampling of people we are partnering with include winner of Alone Australia, rewilder and speaker, the inspirational Gina Chick; science guru Dr Karl Kruszelnicki; Walkley Award-winning journalist Louise Milligan; Joanne Fedler with a new exquisite fairy tale for grown-ups; the indomitable Bradley Trevor Greive; media entrepreneur Lisa Messenger and co-author journalist Sarah Megginson; founder and CEO of women’s leadership and empowerment movement Women Rising, Megan Dalla-Camina; Bandjalung art advisor and curator Djon Mundine; and essayist and academic Yvette Henry Holt.

Will Key People specialise in any particular genres?

What we want to do is have our finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist and work with creators with a point of view and an interest in making a positive contribution to the world. We don’t want to limit what that means in terms of genre, as we want to be able to be flexible enough to read, respond, and provide the content people want to consume, in the ways they want to access it.

What excites you most about Australian publishing at the moment?

That Australian readers want Australian stories written by Australian writers. When we started, there was a real cultural cringe, especially around locally written and located genre fiction. Also, the definition of what an Australian story is has evolved dramatically, finally reflecting more diversity, though there is still room for this to be much more expansive. The calibre and professionalism of Australian writers is also really exciting to see.

What was the last Australian book you each read and loved—and why?

Jeanne: The last Australian book I read was in fact a re-read. I was nostalgically reorganising my bookshelf and came across 2019 Stella Prize winner Vicki Laveau-Harvie’s The Erratics (Fourth Estate). It’s an exquisitely crafted memoir on so many levels and aptly described as having ‘the tightly compressed energy of an explosive device’.

Lou: Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran (Ultimo): What a potent and compelling combination of storytelling, social commentary and cultural observation, and a perfect example of what is so exciting about Australian fiction right now.

Pictured: Johnson (L) and Ryckmans.