About Nicole
Nicole James joined Chalberg & Sussman as an agent in December 2013. Previously she was the Foreign Rights Director as well as an agent at The Aaron Priest Agency, where she sold international and New York Times bestselling and brand name authors including David Baldacci, Robert Crais, Greg Iles, and Philip Caputo.
Primarily focused on commercial fiction and nonfiction, Nicole is drawn to plot-driven novels with relatable characters and addictive pacing—whether she's reading a white-knuckle thriller, a breezy beach read, an intense family drama, or a thoughtful young adult novel. Nicole is always on the lookout for psychological suspense, upmarket women’s fiction in the vein of Emily Giffin or J. Courtney Sullivan, and thrillers. On the nonfiction side, Nicole enjoys uplifting female-driven memoir, upmarket self-help (like The Happiness Project), and hip lifestyle books (like Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence).
Her clients include the thriller authors Jorgen Brekke, a #1 international bestseller, and Ben Coes, New York Times bestselling author of the Dewey Andreas series, along with young adult authors such as Diana Harmon Asher, author of Sidetracked, Nick Burd, winner of The American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award for The Vast Fields of Ordinary; Johan Harstad, author of 172 Hours on the Moon; and Arne Svingen, winner of the Norwegian Ministry of Culture’s Best Young Adult Literature Prize for The Ballad of a Broken Nose. Nicole also represents select nonfiction, including the memoir A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Gift of Thomas Ethan Gray by Sarah Gray, as well as dog celebrity and social media star Manny the Frenchie's Art of Happiness.
