John Willig

Celebrating 47 years working in publishing, John often says to friends that his career actually began as a Newsday paperboy growing up on Long Island, New York.

After graduating from Brown University, his first job was as a sales representative in academic publishing. He soon began work as a marketing manager and then editor for HarperCollins where he published in 1984 one of the first books on AI — Artificial Intelligence: Tools, Techniques and Applications by Tim O'Shea and Marc Eisenstadt. As his interests moved to trade publishing, he became an executive editor at Prentice Hall for business books. While at P-Hall, John enjoyed working with such authors as Henry Mintzberg, Philip Kotler and Jim Collins. He acquired and edited Jim's first book Beyond Entrepreneurship which now has a new edition B.E. 2.0. In 1991 he decided to become a literary agent to work more closely with writers. Throughout his career as an editor and agent, John has successfully negotiated over 800 publishing agreements. John participates at many industry events including the Writer's Digest and American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) conferences.

Country & Year Established

United States

Agent since 1991

AI Policy