You Will Submit! (Or At Least Consider It)

A List of Literary Agents

In this post I’m providing a sampling of agents who are presently selling books with what appears to be gusto. I drew some of these agents from today’s Publisher’s Lunch email, an industry publication that compiles recent sales, and others are from a Poets & Writers article from a number of years ago (after I confirmed these agents are still in the industry.)

I recommend doing your own brief fact-checking before querying the following agents, in case they’ve changed agencies or left the industry in the very recent past. I also recommend querying new agents you read interviews with or hear about from friends—even if they don’t have the experience of an agent like Joy Harris or Lynn Nesbit, they’re often energetic and eager to prove themselves in the field. I’ve heard that new agents are usually welcomed with open arms because editors and other industry insiders want to see them to succeed.  

I’ve included email addresses for those I could find or for their general agency inbox. Many use online portals now for submissions instead of emails, and the portal URLs I found are provided here too.

Keep in mind, as I mentioned in my agent query letter post a couple of days ago, it’s best not to put “Query” in the subject line of your email. Some agents have a filter that routes queries into a separate inbox they only check on occasion. It’s best to use something like “Nonfiction book” or “A referral from…” or “New novel.”