Our Articles

You asked. We answered.

You’ve written your manuscript. You’ve edited hard. You are now on your fourth, seventh, nineteenth draft. You still absolutely believe in your basic concept and you are certain that you have a vocation for writing / authoring.

But here’s the thing: you know your work isn’t yet good enough.

Maybe you know that just because you’ve got that feelings in my bones. (And believe me: I’ve been there too.)

Or maybe you’ve tried actually sending your work out to literary agents and had nothing but pre-printed rejection emails. (Or, worse, but very common – you haven’t even heard back.)

So what next? It feels like a Catch-22. You want expert editing to help you over the last remaining hurdles, but the people who look like they ought to be helping you – those literary agents – aren’t even replying to your emails.

So now what? And do these darn agents edit manuscripts, yes or no?

Well, if you want the short answer, then it’s:

Yes, they do edit manuscripts, but also
No, no, they really don’t.

If that explanation doesn’t seem totally helpful, then I’ll see if I can make it a little clearer.

When Agents Get Involved In Editing

And when (more often) they don’t.

When it comes to your dealings with literary agents, it’s essential to remember that these guys do not charge you anything upfront. Not a dollar, not a dime. I’ve had an agent for twenty years and I have never paid even one single penny for his or (with my first agent) her services – or not directly anyway.

Because the way that agents get their money is by earning commissions on sales to publishers.

So if you take the first book in my Fiona Griffiths series, my agent has made sales – and earned commission – on sales to publishers in Britain, America, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and further afield. He’s also been involved in the sale of TV rights. He’s also done a terrific audio deal for me. There may be other deals down the road too. Each time one of these deals happens, I get a wodge of money arriving in my bank account, from which the agent has deducted his little (and well-earned) sliver.

The consequence of this “no fee / commission only” payment structure is that agents only get paid for their time if they make a sale – and then only if that sale is for enough money to pay them back for all that they’ve done. That’s should be easy-ish if the sale is to a Big 5 publisher and brings some overseas book deals in its wake. If the only sale is to a mid-sized or micro domestic publisher, then the agent is probably (privately) disappointed.

The Tottering Slushpile

If the commission-only way of doing business seems challenging, that challenge is compounded by the sheer volume of submissions that literary agents receive.

That total varies from agent to agent, but about 2,000 submissions per agent per year would be typical. Of that an agent may find only 2-3 manuscripts that seem destined for the kind of advances that will generate enough revenue for an agent.

The result?

Predictably enough, agents will reject the vast majority of manuscripts that come their way. It’s not just that they don’t have the time to deal with those manuscripts and those clients, it’s that there’s no money in them. Most manuscripts that agents receive are just unsaleable.

So When do Agents Edit?

Agents will get involved in editorial advice when they come across a manuscript that:

1. Has an excellent, saleable idea.
2. Is written with a competent professionalism.
3. Has a strong story.
4. Is in the top 1%, or maybe the top 0.5% of all submissions.
5. Is not ready to be sent to publishers as it stands.

In effect, when an agent offers to get involved editorially, they are thinking, roughly:

“Look, if I sent this manuscript out as it is, I might get offers, but I don’t think they’d be very strong ones... and actually, I might just get fistful of rejections. And I certainly don’t want that.

“Then again, I can’t helpfeeling that this manuscript could do really well, if I put in the 2-3 dozen hours needed to get this manuscript into shape. Yes, the writer themselves will be doing the actual work here – my job will be one of guidance only; I’m not going to be making hands-on changes to the manuscript myself.

“But with my input, and if the writer works hard and makes the changes I recommend? Then yes, I think this could be a really profitable (and fun, and artistically rewarding) project. I’m going to reach out to this author. Yay!“

As a writer, that’s good to hear on a number of levels. You don’t want a real estate guy who just dumps your house on the market without telling you to mow your overgrown lawn and fix that sagging guttering. You want the real estate person who forces you to fix the house up for sale, in order that you get the very best price.

So the fact that agents are willing to be engaged, active and intelligent in how they sell your book is great to hear.

But from your perspective, as writer, there are two crucial qualifications to take away.

Crucial Thing the First
Your manuscript has to be really, really good already.
You can’t just use agents as a free pass to solving the difficulties that you and your manuscript face.

If you send an agent a mediocre manuscript, you stand no chance at all of engaging them qua editor. In fact, because the competition is so intense, you won’t get an agent involved even if your book is really quite good.

The sad fact is that “really quite good” isn’t even close to the standard agents are looking for.

Crucial Thing the Second
Some agents are really strong editorially, and love doing it.
Others just aren’t that strong and don’t pretend to be.

After all, an agent’s core job is as a saleswoman (or, less often in this industry, salesman.) My first agent – who was great – told me directly when I engaged her that she just wasn’t that great at editing books, but she was a powerhouse when it came to selling them.

These days, I’d say that all agents have had to become more hands on when it comes to polishing manuscripts prior to sale, but there’s still a reason why editors edit, and agents sell.

In effect, using an agent as an editor is a bit like using a carpenter as a bricklayer. Sure, carpenters are skilled and multi-talented. They’ll probably do a pretty good job of building that wall, but . . .

If You Want An Editor, Hire An Editor!

There are plenty of freelance editors around. We at Jericho Writers built our business and our reputation by offering superb editorial advice to writers just like you. Get a manuscript assessment here.

And what you get is editing, editing, editing.

You pay for our input, and you get our full, committed, detailed assessment of your manuscript, along with a ton of recommendations about what to do and how to do it.

Now you probably think that, because we make money from editing, and because we’ve had a huge number of success stories, I’m going to tell you to rush over to us for editorial help.

Well, no. I’m not.

You can’t use editorial input as a shortcut. Successful writers always put the hard yards in themselves.

Some writers think something like this: “Hey, I’ve completed my manuscript. I’ve done a couple of quick read-throughs for typos and that kind of thing. I’ve emailed my manuscript out to a few dozen literary agents, but no one offered to take me on and they won’t help me edit my book, even though I asked really nicely. So, OK, maybe I need to pay someone to get this book into shape.”

If you think like that, then you won’t make the grade as a writer and, to be honest with you, you aren’t the sort of client that we especially love dealing with. I mean, sure, we’ll work with anyone, and we’ll do our level professional best for you. But our favourite clients? They are always, always the super-committed ones.

Remember: Writing is rewriting.

Self-editing is the art of sifting through your manuscript and checking it for everything.

Surplus words, sentences, paragraphs and scenes. Faulty, vague or unconvincing characterisation. Weak dialogue. Weak plotting. Problems with pace or viewpoint.

Basically, you need to think like an author and work these things out for yourself, as far as you are possibly able.

You will benefit in three ways. First, your manuscript will get better (probably a lot better). Secondly, your own skills as an author will grow. Thirdly, your pride and confidence will – quite rightly – grow and blossom.

So, OK, you do all that and then you may still need editorial help.

And that’s fine. Maybe you’ll just know for yourself that your manuscript needs work. Or maybe you’ll try your luck with literary agents and not get the response you wanted. Or maybe you’ve been scratching away at a dissatisfaction with your work, and have found yourself going round in circles.

If you fit into any of those categories, then, yes, you do need third party editorial help and, yes, we at Jericho Writers would absolutely love to give it.

We are here to deliver outstanding editorial services to committed writers, and we would be deeply honoured to work with you. If you're interested in our copyediting services, please click here.

In the meantime, happy writing, happy editing and (when you’re good and ready to send your work out) happy agent-hunting too!

Slaying The Myths

There are many contrasting opinions on the internet as to whether agents actually care about slushpile-type submissions. Well, no one knows literary agents better than us, so we’ll tell you straight what’s true and what’s not.

And, above all, the thing to bear in mind is this: most hyper-successful authors of today were once slushpile authors, just like you. Literary agents accepting unsolicited submissions is how the majority of deals between agents and writers come about. Any agent will tell you that, yes, there is plenty of dross in the slushpile – but there are diamonds too. And most agents love that search for diamonds.

So, with no more ado, here are the myths … and here is the truth.

Definition: What Is The Slush Pile?

What is the slushpile? It’s basically all unsolicited submissions to literary agents. And since most submissions to literary agents are unsolicited – that is, the agent doesn’t know about you upfront; there is no back-corridor of private recommendation involved – the simple truth is that most submissions to agents, the overwhelming majority in fact, are slushpile submissions.

So what isn’t a slushpile submission? Examples would be:

• One of an agent’s existing clients recommends a particular new writer, and the agent looks at that writer’s work.
• An agent comes across a broadcaster or journalist with interesting things to say on a particular topic, and makes contact directly to enquire about a possible book.
• One literary agent leaves her firm and her clients are parcelled out to other agents.

And so on.

Yes, these can all be important channels of client-acquisition for an agent. And yes, more senior, more experienced agents may source quite a high proportion of their new clients through routes like these.

But at pretty much every literary agency in London and New York, the vast majority of incoming submissions will come via the slushpile – people like you, packaging up their work and sending it off, with fingers crossed and candles lit.

And at pretty much every literary agency in New York and London, those submissions will be sifted, sorted and taken seriously.

And no wonder! JK Rowling came through the slushpile. So did Hilary Mantel. So did Dan Brown. So did … well, most authors.

And that’s why, though the term “slushpile” sounds dismissive, it really isn’t. It doesn’t mean “these manuscripts are rubbish.” It means, “these manuscripts are the feedstock for our industry”. Yes, there’s trash in there, but there are nuggets of pure gold as well. So don't be put off; "slush pile hell" really isn't all that bad.

Slushpile Myths … And Slushpile Realities

Myth #1: Agents Don’t Want Slush Pile Submissions.

It’s true that there are some agents who really don’t. Those would include (a) agents winding their business down prior to retirement, (b) those agents who are senior enough that they can find good new authors via private recommendations, etc, (c) those who source a majority of their new clients from the media and other ‘celebrity’ type sources.

But those guys are in a minority – and are usually very easy to spot. Basically, high profile agents are usually in that category.

Ditto many (but not all) older ones. Ditto those with a client list stuffed full of bestsellers. Unless you have a media/celeb background, or you have real reason to think your work is remarkable, you should simply avoid those agents. They’re probably not right for you. (After all: would you really want to be those guys’ least important client? I’m thinking not.)

Apart from those guys – who account for maybe only 5-10% of all agents – pretty much everyone wants submissions. We know incredibly reputable, well-established agencies with fabulous clients who have consulted with us to discover exactly how they can increase their slushpiles.

Why? It’s simple: the slushpile is where the brilliant authors lie. After all, as every literary agent knows, J.K. Rowling came from the slushpile. So did Zadie Smith. So did Hilary Mantel. (See for example this interview.)

So, if to comes to that, did I, along with pretty much ALL new writers. Apart from existing celebrity and media types, pretty much every single new fantastic author emerges from the slushpile or, these days, from an out-of-nowhere self-publishing success.

Because agents know that and because agents have to keep their client lists replenished with new talent, they care about the slushpile. In those hills, there be gold.

Myth #2: Agents Don’t Look At 99% Of The Manuscripts That Get Submitted.

They do. OK, there may be times when agents are just overwhelmed with work and things go pear-shaped, but those times are exceptions, at any rate in any well-run agency. But good agencies, nearly always, will look at everything that comes in.

But notice that I say “look at”, not “read”. The truth is that about 90% of manuscript submissions reveal themselves as not-good-enough very quickly indeed. There are three basic ways a submission can fail. Those are:

• A writer simply can’t put a sentence together. Those famous ‘green ink’ manuscripts are actually relatively rare. They’re the smallest category we’re dealing with here. If you’re together enough to be reading this blog post, you’re almost certainly not in that category. Some agents have actually died from an excess of bad grammar.
• The concept for the book just can’t work. A Young Adult book that’s 150,000 words long? A cosy little book about the author’s talking parrot? A highly didactic work of fantasy-fiction aimed at teaching 8 year old kids about groundwater pollution? There are, unfortunately, books which fail before you hit the opening sentence. The most common problem is that they haven’t answered the question of what would make this book stand out from the crowd. You must have a good answer to that question.
• There are signs of clunky, awkward or amateurish writing on the opening page. Our friends at the Writers’ Workshop periodically run events called ‘Slushpile Live’, where (remarkably brave) writers read their opening page out to a panel of literary agents. Those agents then play Simon Cowell and say what they really think, live, with no previous exposure to the writer or the manuscript. And the good manuscripts are really, really easy to spot. Ditto the ones that are clearly not yet strong enough. That sounds brutal, but it’s not really. There’s a quality threshold to enter the industry. You have to meet that threshold. If you don’t, then no one wishes you ill, but your work is not yet ready.

If your work fails any of these three tests, it’ll be rejected – and the agent may spend as little as a minute making the decision. That’s not because the agent is evil, but because you haven’t yet met the standard.

If you pass the opening scrutiny (good concept, check; decent writing, check), the agent simply has to read on. If your first three chapters still glitter with promise, they have to request the rest. And if the rest of the manuscript is wonderful – well, hell, you’ve got representation. (Did we hear someone whimpering in there?)

Myth #3: It’s An Agent’s Job To Deal With The Slushpile.

It isn’t.

Talk to any agent at all and they will tell you that their regular day job (from, say, 9 am to 6 pm) is to work constantly on behalf of their existing authors: negotiating contracts, chasing up royalties, solving problems, meeting publishers. Of course agents know that if they don’t take on new and fabulous authors, their business will slowly wither – but 99% of agents will be dealing with their slushpile material during evenings and weekends. (These guys work hard: they’re always reading.)

That means you need to cut agents some slack. There just will be times when life goes crazy for them. The big book fairs (London, Frankfurt, Bologna) are always very intense. If several existing authors deliver manuscripts at much the same sort of time, the agent in question HAS to prioritise those and will simply have to neglect his growing slushpile until they’re properly dealt with.

It also means you need to take care of the agent’s reasonable needs. If your covering letter is a little too long, or unclear about what kind of book yours is, or makes any of those other niggly-but-annoying mistakes that agents often talk about – well, hell, remember that the agent is probably reading your stuff at 9.30pm, after a full day in the office. That’s not a good time to start annoying somebody with trivial little details that it was your job to get right in the first place.

So get them right.

Myth #4: Good Agents Will Offer Feedback To Slush Pile Writers.

Not true. Never true, in fact.

Yes, if an agent loves a book, they might offer representation even though they know that that book will need to go through another couple of drafts. (Or more. I spoke to one agent recently who was working with a writer on his sixth draft. So don't be afraid to be your own editor, but also know that you can query an agent with your work before it's 'perfect'.) But agents can only offer that much input to actual or probable clients. There’s no way they can get into discussions on the 999 in 1,000 manuscripts they don’t take on.

(And, anyway, if a detailed editorial input is what you’re after right now, why would you go to an agent whose main job is about selling manuscripts, not editing them?)

Myth #5: Agents Get Their Assistants To Do The Work For Them.

This is sometimes kind of true, but the implications are way different from what you think.

When you see writers on the Internet saying, “Oh, that agent, I know he never read my work because [whatever particular piece of evidence is summoned in this particular instance,” they might actually be right. Basically, as agents get more senior, they’re increasingly likely to delegate chunks of their day to day activity. So, very roughly, the picture looks like this:

• New/young/hungry agents: they want to actively build client lists, as they don’t have a body of existing authors to sustain them. Those guys can’t afford to delegate anything to anyone, and probably don’t have assistants anyway. Every single interaction you have in relation to these manuscripts comes straight from the agent him or herself.
• Established agents. These guys are still open to new clients. They might take on 1-2 new authors a year, straight from the slushpile. But a lot of these folks will have some kind of assistant, and a big part of that assistant’s role is to do a first-cut filtration of the slushpile. It’ll work differently in different agencies (one notable agency, for example, employs a reader whose only job is to reduce the slushpile). Others will use their PAs as first-cut readers. Or whatever. But even so, these people will be looking at the top 1-5% from their slushpile and making their own decisions. If you get rejected before this stage, you may well get a note from the assistant’s desk. After that, the note will more likely come direct from the agent.
• Senior agents. These guys may never directly read a slushpile submission, but they will have a system that places the very best-of-the-best manuscripts on their desks – perhaps at the rate of 1-2 a month. It’s unlikely that these folk ever send a sorry-but-no message, unless yours is that truly exceptional manuscript which gave them pause.

Now if you get rejected by an agent’s assistant (or reader, or even receptionist) you might think that you simply haven’t had an opportunity to put your work in front of the only person whose decision matters. But that’s not true! Any half-competent agency knows that the slushpile could well contain the next JK Rowling, the next Stephenie Meyer. They can’t afford to let those gems get away – and they mostly don’t.

I know one leading London agency whose receptionists are hired, mostly, for their literary skills. Yes, they need to be able to answer the phone without dropping it, but their essential function is to act as really thoughtful, careful readers of a manuscript. They are trained very carefully and supervised very closely.

And they get it right!

It just isn’t that hard, in truth. Most manuscripts that come to any agency are just clearly not good enough. As the quality level rises, the decisions get tougher – but those decisions are passed upwards in the chain until they reach the person competent to make the decision. But absolutely no one can afford to be the person who said no to Rowling/Meyer/Suzanne Collins/whoever, so if your MS has real merit it will come to sit on the right desk.

Myth #6: Agents Only Care About Bestsellers, They’re Only In This Game For The Money.

Just wrong, this one.

No one goes into the literary business for money. I mean, that would be like going to the Sahara for its watersports.

Every single agent I know is in the biz because they love books, love stories, love writing, love authors. They love written culture and being in the swim of its creation. I don’t know a single agent who would take on a work he didn’t like (*) just for the dosh. It just doesn’t happen.

All that said, of course agents are keen to represent books that may sell a lot of copies. That’s called being a sane businessperson and doing a great job for your clients. If my agent didn’t want my books to sell by the truckload, I’d get a different agent.

[David Godwin took on Pippa Middleton for her party book. Since David Godwin is noted for his high-end literary list, her addition to that list raised a few eyebrows at the time.]

Myth #7: Agents Care About Your Social Media Profile.

Of course they don’t.

If you got a manuscript in your slushpile that was just as amazingly brilliant as Wolf Hall, why would you give a tuppenny damn about the author’s Twitter following? Answer, you wouldn’t.

There are exceptions, of course, but they only work positively, not negatively. So Ben Goldacre (author of Bad Science, etc.) has a massive online presence and that presence would impel any sane agent/editor to offer hm a deal. But you need Twitter followers in the tens of thousands (ideally hundreds of thousands) to make a real difference there. Ditto, when it comes to blog followers. If you have that, great. If not, don’t worry about it. Few writers do, and very few novelists do.

Myth #8: Agents Care About Who You Are, What You Look Like, How Old You Are, Etc.

They don’t. Or rather, it’s the same as above. Most writers (including yours truly, Harry Bingham) are middle-aged writers of no particular beauty or celebrity, and that’s just the way it is. Which is fine. No one cares. Indeed agents will often remind you that Mary Wesley began a string of bestselling books in her seventies.

On the other hand, if you are incredibly beautiful and would be wonderful on TV and have an incredible backstory, those things will help, a bit, but not much.

Asked to choose between a comely author with a mediocre manuscript and a plain one with a wonderful one, every agent on the planet will prefer the latter.

So will publishers.

Click here for more tips on finding an agent.

A few years ago, most literary agents were snobby about self-published work. And rightly so.

A few years back, it was genuinely the case that a large majority of self-published authors wrote bad books that were poorly edited with terrible covers and sales to match. There were some breakout successes – there always have been – but they were rare enough that no agent wanted to tramp those stony fields in the hopes of finding something to grow.

That’s Changed.

There are, still, plenty of lousy self-published books, but the average standard has improved in almost every dimension. Book covers look vastly better, for one thing. If you go to the Amazon Kindle bestseller list (here), you’ll find traditionally published and self-published books selling alongside each other – but I defy you to guess which is which from the covers alone.

And then because Amazon has made it easy for readers to complain about poor copyediting and weak storytelling, writers have responded by improving their attitude to those things too.

It’s true that many of the self-pub successes (Joe Konrath, John Locke, EL James, and many others) write genre fiction aimed squarely at the lower end of the market – but they tell their stories well for the market they aim at. And it’s not as though traditional publishers are averse to those markets. On the contrary, Random House was happy to take EL James’s work and turn it into the biggest publishing event of the decade.

And – no surprise – agents have noticed all this. Remember: they want any author whose work is strong and saleable. They truly don’t care where that author comes from (and don’t care much about who the author is either, for that matter.) If an author self-publishes a novel that starts to get a considerable following on Amazon, then agents will be interested.

Though the hurdles are high.

As a rough guide, I’d suggest that:

• if you are selling print copies of your book, you would need to sell 5,000+ to earn an agent’s interest. (And it would also raise the question of why you weren’t selling electronically. These days, self-pub increasingly means e-pub – not least because it’s vastly easier to accumulate sales if your novel starts to attract readers.)
• if you are selling e-books at low prices (£3.99 or less), you would need to sell, let’s say, 30,000 copies or so to make a persuasive case. Remember that a regular publisher may well double the price of your e-book and will probably price a paperback at £7.99 or so, which means that some of the sales achieved at lower prices would be choked off by the move to the mainstream.
• if you are selling your e-book as a free download, then you would need to hit 50,000 downloads before a publisher could get excited.

Those numbers are broadly true of the UK market, but you can probably double them for the US market – perhaps even more than double them. And I’m assuming here that we’re talking about a real, proper mainstream publisher – either one of the Big Five Publishers, or one of the major independents (Bloomsbury, Faber, Canongate, for example.) A smaller, niche publisher might well start to get interested at volumes somewhat smaller than those I’ve mentioned – perhaps about 2/3 smaller.

If you want to boost your chances still further, then it helps if you:

• Can demonstrate that you are energetic and resourceful when it comes to self-promotion. A good website, an active Twitter account with good followers, a decent Facebook presence: all those things can add to your look as an author who can make the most of any opportunities. Those things won’t swing a deal all by themselves, but they do demonstrate that you are a business-minded author and that will help
• Can show a lot of 5-star reviews. We know of one fine author whose book generated huge free download interest on Amazon, but crucially also generated a ton of 5-star reviews. I suspect that her reviews did as much as her downloads to persuade Accent Press to take her on.
• Can write a lot. One of the key “how-to” titles for the self-pub market is called “Write. Publish. Repeat.” Successful genre authors on e-platforms just generate a lot of text. That means a minimum of one book per year, but in some cases it means a fair bit more (even if one of the “books” is a free novella or short story, basically given away to readers at Christmas, or whatever.) The rapid-fire approach to writing generates plenty of snobbery from more literary types, but it is a technique that mainstream publishers have experimented with and, indeed, ploughed a ton of money into at times.

If you’re ticking these boxes, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t approach agents with every expectation of keen interest in you and your work.

To find those agents, follow the rules that we talk about elsewhere on this site, namely:

• Use our search pages to locate about 8-12 agents who are active in your area and where you feel points of contact.
• Use our “who represents who?” function to discover agents who may have helped other self-pub authors turn traditional.
• Make a proper professional approach to agents using these guidelines.
• Do be specific about your sales and review stats. Don’t massage them into looking better than they really are: agents will want to show proof to publishers, so expect to have your figures checked up on.

Anyone who succeeds in selling a lot of books, whether that’s self-pub, trad-pub, or any-other-sort-of-pub, deserves respect.

It’s not easy to achieve, and if you’ve done it, you’ve done very well.

We congratulate you!

Have you just finished your novel and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, we’re here to help! 

WANT TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE AGENT LIST? 
CLICK HERE 

Historical Fiction

Historical fiction remains a wonderfully rich and diverse section of the market. 

At the top, it comprises such stellar talents as the multi-prize winning Hilary Mantel. But it also includes the commercial talents of Kate Mosse and Phillipa Gregory, the bloodthirsty or thrilling talents of Conn Iggulden and Robert Harris, not to mention such weird and wonderful things as Victorian-inspired steampunk fantasies and even historical erotica. 

All this suggests (correctly) that historical fiction is a vibrant, intelligent and lively genre but it also means that locating the right literary agent to handle your particular novel is potentially more complex than it would be if, say, you had just authored a simple police procedural. After all, the agent who represents Hilary Mantel might not be the right person to handle your steampunk fantasy. Mere interest in history isn’t enough of a connecting line. To have the best chance with an agent be sure that your submission pack is polished, and that you’ve done the work so you can start querying the best agents for you. 

Once you’ve clearly defined your genre and where it sits in the market, it’s time to put together an agent shortlist. And you’ve come to the right place! 

AgentMatch And How To Use It

There are plenty of historical fiction-loving agents, but you won't want to approach them all. The best way to develop and refine your own shortlist of UK agents for historical fiction is to visit AgentMatch, our literary agent database, and use the search tools on the left to make your selection. 

With AgentMatch you can select by genre (e.g. historical fiction), country, the agent’s level of experience, their appetite for new clients, and much more. You can even save your search results and come back to them, allowing you to work through them one by one, at your own pace. Each profile has been researched thoroughly including what agents like to read in their spare time, information on their most recent deals, manuscript wishlists, submission requirements, and exclusive interviews. 

You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial which will give you a good feel for the data and functionality. Or join us as a premium member and get unlimited access to AgentMatch. 

UK Agents For Historical Fiction

To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 UK agents looking for historical fiction: 

More Resources  

We’re here to help you at every step in your writing and querying process. Check out our favourite blogs that can assist you in putting together your query letter and synopsis, and if you want valuable, personal feedback on your writing you can book a fifteen-minute One-to-One with an agent of your choice. Premium members can also get a free query letter review from our lovely Writers Support team!   

Happy searching, and good luck on your querying journey!   

Have you just finished your crime novel and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, we’re here to help! 

WANT TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE AGENT LIST? 
CLICK HERE 

Crime, Thriller, And Action 

Readers have always found a love for those perfect books that have us on the edge of our seats and keep us reading on. From classical to modern authors, the crime thriller genre has remained one of the most popular, with more well-known and successful authors than we could possibly list.  

Whether your book focuses on a police procedural storyline, a detective mystery filled with twists and turns, or more of a gory thriller plot, one of the key things is that it keeps people interested and keeps them guessing. The crossover links of mystery, suspense, crime, thriller and action mean that you can make your book unique and stand out in the market.  

Whatever your story, there’s sure to be an agent out there who can’t wait to read it. So, where to begin?  

AgentMatch And How To Use It

There are plenty of crime novel-loving agents, but you won't want to approach them all. The best way to develop and refine your own shortlist of UK agents for crime and thrillers is to visit AgentMatch, our literary agent database, and use the search tools on the left to make your selection. 

With AgentMatch you can select by genre (e.g. crime, thriller, and action), country, the agent’s level of experience, their appetite for new clients, and much more. You can even save your search results and come back to them, allowing you to work through them one by one, at your own pace. Each profile has been researched thoroughly including what agents like to read in their spare time, information on their most recent deals, manuscript wishlists, submission requirements, and exclusive interviews. 

You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial which will give you a good feel for the data and functionality. Or join us as a premium member and get unlimited access to AgentMatch. 

UK Agents For Crime, Thriller, and Action 

To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 UK agents looking for crime and thrillers: 

More Resources  

We’re here to help you at every step in your writing and querying process. Check out our favourite blogs that can assist you in putting together your query letter and synopsis, and if you want valuable, personal feedback on your writing you can book a fifteen-minute One-to-One with an agent of your choice. Premium members can also get a free query letter review from our lovely Writers Support team!   

Happy searching, and good luck on your querying journey!   

Have you just finished your novel and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, we’re here to help! 

WANT TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE AGENT LIST? 
CLICK HERE 

Science Fiction

The science fiction market remains as varied as it has always been, with plenty of international (and commercial) appeal. Although you can still write classic space opera and find an eager adult or young adult market for it, there has been an increased interest in seeing more dystopia, genre collisions, and intelligent idea-driven fiction.  

As a genre, science fiction remains rich. You can even argue that literary novelists like Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell have published science-fiction novels. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley are certainly renowned for their sci-fi masterpieces. While authors like Iain Banks and China Mieville, who aren’t traditionally considered as literary novelists, have produced some excellent examples of challenging, bold, and thoughtful fiction.   

As the science-fiction market is so rich and deeply varied, it’s important to ask yourself: ‘am I really writing science fiction?’  

For example: 

A near-future thriller about an as-yet-undiscovered virus could well market itself more accurately as a techno-thriller and be suitable for crime and thriller agents and editors.  

An intelligent novel, like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, is probably better sold as literary fiction, no matter whether or not it uses sci-fi ideas and techniques.  

Whatever your story, there’s sure to be an agent out there who can’t wait to read it. So, where to begin?   

AgentMatch And How To Use It

There are plenty of science fiction-loving agents, but you won't want to approach them all. The best way to develop and refine your own shortlist of UK agents for sci-fi novels is to visit AgentMatch, our literary agent database, and use the search tools on the left to make your selection. 

With AgentMatch you can select by genre (e.g. science fiction), country, the agent’s level of experience, their appetite for new clients, and much more. You can even save your search results and come back to them, allowing you to work through them one by one, at your own pace. Each profile has been researched thoroughly including what agents like to read in their spare time, information on their most recent deals, manuscript wishlists, submission requirements, and exclusive interviews. 

You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial which will give you a good feel for the data and functionality. Or join us as a premium member and get unlimited access to AgentMatch. 

UK Agents For Science Fiction

To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 UK agents looking for science fiction novels: 

More Resources  

We’re here to help you at every step in your writing and querying process. Check out our favourite blogs that can assist you in putting together your query letter and synopsis, and if you want valuable, personal feedback on your writing you can book a fifteen-minute One-to-One with an agent of your choice. Premium members can also get a free query letter review from our lovely Writers Support team!   

Happy searching, and good luck on your querying journey!   

We get asked a lot of questions over the course of a month, but perhaps the most common questions boil down to these: how do you find a literary agent? Do you know literary agents who are taking on new and first-time writers?

And the answer, of course, is yes.

Nearly all agents, great or small, take on new authors. If they didn’t, they’d go out of business. Not straightaway, maybe, but out of business nevertheless.

There’s a second point here, too: all agents need to submit to the same bunch of editors (and a small bunch at that: most books will be pitched to between eight and twelve publishers in the first round of marketing).

By and large, agents are all looking for manuscripts that meet a certain quality threshold. If they find one, they’ll agree to take it on. If they don’t, they won’t.

That’s the homily. A homily which boils down, as ever, to the first and second commandments of getting a literary agent:

1. Write a good book.
2. If you need help, get editorial advice where you can.

It’s somewhat easier to secure a less well-established agent than a Giant of the Industry. That’s not because quality standards are lower – they aren’t at all – but because a newer agent knows he or she must work harder to build a list. If you went to such an agent with a novel that is dazzling but imperfect, they may well be prepared to put in the work needed to fix it. An agent with a longer list may (regretfully) turn the book down.

That’s worth remembering.

If you want to find a literary agent who genuinely welcomes first-time authors, as opposed to merely accepting them, you will do well to approach those who have been less long established in the business – basically, you’re looking for youngsters, or those who have come into the profession from elsewhere in the industry.

It is not a sensible strategy simply to pick smaller agencies, because (1) there are plenty of one- and two-person agencies who have been in the business a long time, and whose lists are already amply populated. Also, larger agencies will all have new recruits who are hungry to build up their lists. You shouldn’t rule those people out from your search.

With bigger agencies, it’s fine to call the switchboard and ask for suggestions about which agents might be right for a project. Not all agencies (or receptionists) will be helpful, but enough will be, to make it worth your while. Indeed, it was good advice from an office receptionist that encouraged me to approach the Well-Known Literary Agent who ended up offering to represent my first novel.

As always, though, these guidelines must be balanced against everything else.

You’re looking for an agent who loves your book and believes they can sell it. That’s all. If that agent works for a big agency or a small one, is young or venerable – doesn’t matter.

You, the book, the agent. If those three things gel, nothing else much matters.

Use our literary agent advice pages to navigate your way.

Use our database for reference.

And if your book isn’t taken on by the first fifteen agents, then do consider editorial feedback as an option. Writing a book is hard and few get there on their first attempt. We can help.

Good luck!

More On UK Literary Agents

Have you just finished your YA novel and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, you’ve come to the right place! 

WANT TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE AGENT LIST? 
CLICK HERE 

Young Adult Fiction

Young Adult (YA) fiction has become a super selling genre in recent years. Look at Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins whose trilogies were so popular they were turned into multi-million Hollywood blockbusters. While big-hitters, like Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series, continue to attract a mix of readers. 

What was the key to their success? Good character development, a fast pace, and a touch of danger. 

New and engaging young adult novels, think Holly Jackson’s A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder or Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, are carrying on this tradition and beginning to attract a wider audience, capturing the imagination of adult readers too.  

The fact that so many young adult books are selling means that agents are inevitably interested in the area and keen to take on outstanding work. However, it also means that agents will be picky: they’ll be looking for novels that can compete with the big names. To make sure you give yourself the biggest chance at success, you need to target the right agents. So do your research and perfect your opening chapters before you start querying agents. Don’t waste your chance by rushing into it. 

Once you’re sure your submission pack is ready, it’s time to start preparing your agent shortlist. 

AgentMatch And How To Use It

There are plenty of YA-loving agents, but you won't want to approach them all. The best way to develop and refine your own shortlist of UK agents for young adult fiction is to visit AgentMatch, our literary agent database, and use the search tools on the left to make your selection. 

With AgentMatch you can select by genre (e.g. young adult fiction), country, the agent’s level of experience, their appetite for new clients, and much more. You can even save your search results and come back to them, allowing you to work through them one by one, at your own pace. Each profile has been researched thoroughly including what agents like to read in their spare time, information on their most recent deals, manuscript wishlists, submission requirements, and exclusive interviews. 

You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial which will give you a good feel for the data and functionality. Or join us as a premium member and get unlimited access to AgentMatch. 

UK Agents For Young Adult Fiction 

To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 UK agents looking for YA fiction: 

More Resources  

We’re here to help you at every step in your writing and querying process. Check out our favourite blogs that can assist you in putting together your query letter and synopsis, and if you want valuable, personal feedback on your writing you can book a fifteen-minute One-to-One with an agent of your choice. Premium members can also get a free query letter review from our lovely Writers Support team!   

Happy searching, and good luck on your querying journey!   

Good News From An Agent

Some time ago, a writer called Chloe wrote this to me:

I had two full manuscript requests for my novel this week (I gave it to both agents non-exclusively). One of the agents has now offered to represent me. I plan to tell him that I’d love to meet up and discuss it, etc., etc. I also plan to tell the other agency that I’ve had this offer (I think it’s polite and professional – is that right?). I’ve been trawling around trying to find out what agents expect in this situation and the etiquette. I don’t want to offend the agent that’s made an offer by looking like I’m holding out for another one, but I also want to make sure I’m with the right agent.

Anyway, the bit of etiquette I can’t find an answer to is whether I should tell the three other agents I’ve submitted my partial to, or not. At the moment, presumably, my MS is sitting on their slush piles. Should I tell them that I’ve got an offer? Should I just tell them if/when I sign to an agency? They may well not be interested – I’ve had one other rejection already – but I want to be polite and do things “properly”.

(By the way, my first attempt at novel writing was critiqued by you and, although I didn’t find an agent for that, I learned so much from the critique… Thanks very much!)

First off, congratulations to Chloe. Woo-hoo for her, and I’m delighted that we played an important role in the early part of her journey. Seeing someone make this huge leap from unrepresented to represented (or published) writer is always the most thrilling aspect of what we do.

But what about this question of etiquette? What do you say to agents if you’re in Chloe’s fortunate position?

It's Not Tea, It's Business

Let's start by dropping the idea that etiquette has anything to do with it. You’re not going to tea at the Ritz; you are about to enter one of the most important business transactions of your life. Naturally, because you’re a good sort of person, you will behave truthfully, courteously and professionally at all times -- but you will also look after your own interests with fierce single-mindedness. This is your career, and it matters!

So of course you want to do what you can to maximise the chances of securing multiple offers of representation. That way, you can meet the various different literary agents and see who you feel most comfortable with. It’s like getting quotes from different builders – the only difference being that this relationship will likely last longer, have more influence on your career, and (you hope) be of greater financial significance.

Suggestions For How To Respond

I'd suggest that you try this.

With the agent who has your full manuscript, you drop a note saying something like this: “I’ve had an offer of representation elsewhere, but I don’t want to say yes or no to that offer until I’ve heard whether or not you might have an interest in this MS. If you do, I’d love to talk to you. Is there any chance that you might be able to read the manuscript within the week and let me know your thoughts? If that was feasible for you, it would be wonderful for me.”

An email along those lines is truthful, polite, a tad flattering – and it will serve your interests very well. In the meantime, it’s best simply to tell the agent who has made you the offer that you’d love to come in and see him but, gee, the next few days look difficult, is there any chance of coming by a week from Thursday...? Agents are much more used to competing for authors than you might think -- so while no agent wants the competition, they’re unlikely to be offended.

What About Agents With Partials?

Then there’s also the question of what to do with those literary agents who have partial manuscripts, but not full ones. I would definitely try to loop those guys into your ring too. I would simply send an email – with the full manuscript attached – saying: “I’ve had an offer of representation, but don’t want to commit to it until I’ve heard back from you. I know that you may have a lot on your reading list, but if there was any chance of moving this manuscript up that list, I’d be delighted.”

That might sound pushy to you, but really, an email of that sort is welcome to most agents. After all, at the moment, they’ve got 100 manuscripts in the slushpile at their elbow. They know that they might have a real decision to make about 1, maybe 2, manuscripts in that pile at most. By sending the email I suggest, you essentially save a mountain of work for them, by alerting them to precisely the manuscript that is likely to be of most interest to them.

And when you do accept that sweet offer of representation from an agent, be sure to write to everybody and let them know that you've accepted representation elsewhere!

You don't need me to remind you that tastes differ, and the market is hard. What boils one person’s kettle may leave another’s stony cold. But the fact that things are difficult and unpredictable only means that you should look after your interests as carefully as you can. These things matter and are for the long term. I’ve had at least eight editors in my life as a writer, not to mention numerous publishers and more publicists than I can shake a manicured fingernail at. But I've only had two literary agents, and I’d be quite surprised if I don’t stay with my current one until one or the other of us retires.

Best of luck, Chloe!

If you’re also searching for agents, this may help, as may this.

Happy writing!

International writers often have to make choices about which literary agents to approach. Here’s a quick guide to help you make a decision.

(If you’re unsure about what literary agents do, then have a quick read of this first.)

US Vs. UK Agents- Which To Choose?

On the whole, it’s simple.

British authors write books. They send them to UK literary agents – often ones based in or close to London. A British agent finds a British publisher. Then, once that first crucial deal is in the bag, the process of international sales begins.

For US authors, it’s the same. You find a literary agent, often one based in New York. They find a US publisher. You sign your US book deal, and off they go to see what you can get overseas.

There are countless complications, though. What if you’re Irish? Or Australian? Or South African? Or Canadian? Or of dual citizenship? Or resident in one place, but citizen of another?

There’s no easy way through such complexities. It all depends on your situation, the book you’re trying to sell.

International Agent Submissions: The Basic Rules

To start off super-simple, American authors (when resident in the US) will almost always seek a US literary agent in the first instance. British authors, resident in the UK or Europe, will almost certainly seek a British agent. So:

Rule #1

In general, authors in the two largest English-speaking publishing markets should seek an agent local to that market: American agents for American writers, British agent for British writers.

Easy.

It’s not much more complicated if you are Irish or Canadian (or Aussie, or whatever) and writing a book of strictly local interest.

So it’s pretty clear that The History of Kilarney Castle will have its best market in Ireland. Likewise, How To Care For Your Moose is likely to have a better market in Ontario than Orlando.

In these cases, again, you can just play it simple.

Rule #2

Authors in smaller publishing markets writing books of strictly local interest
should query local agents (if there are any) or just submit directly to local publishers, who will be happy to receive submissions.

But of course plenty of Irish and Canadian authors are writing books with obvious international sales potential. So Colm Toibin and Tana French (both of Ireland) are great examples of smaller-market authors with terrific international sales. I’m reasonably confident that Margaret Atwood and Yann Martel (both of Canada) have sold a book or two in their time as well.

This type of author has a choice. In the case of Ireland and Canada, these are both obviously satellite markets orbiting a much larger one right next door. So, one way or another, authors from these countries need to find a way to access that much bigger market

Rule #3

Canadian authors with international sales potential can approach Canadian agents or US agents. Either way is fine. Likewise, Irish authors with international sales potential can approach Dublin-based agents or British agents. Either way is fine.

If you’re opting for a locally based agent, you probably want to check that the person involved has a decent track record of sales into the larger market . . . but those checks are almost certainly going to come back in the affirmative, because Irish agents would struggle to live on sales into the local market alone. The same goes (if rather less emphatically) for Canadian literary agents.

For more distant locales – South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere else come to that – you need to play it a little bit by ear.

UK literary agents tend to be more naturally international, and UK publishers have closer connections with the Commonwealth (which, in publisher-land, includes Ireland but not Canada). Overall, writers from the Commonwealth will naturally knock on a London door first, but there are exceptions. If I were an Aussie sci-fi writer, for example, I might well be attracted to the US market, because of its depth.

So, our (slightly fuzzy) fourth rule runs as follows:

Rule #4

International authors from Commonwealth countries should probably query UK literary agents in the first instance.
International authors from non-Commonwealth countries should probably query US agents.

But this rule is fuzzy, because US agents would be perfectly happy to receive a great submission from India / Singapore / Nigeria / Australia. Likewise British agents would be perfectly happy to receive a great submission from Argentina / Japan / the Philippines.

Often when (say) a Nigerian writers does choose to query a US literary agent as a first step that’ll be because they have some kind of connection with the US that makes it a natural thing to do. So when Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie chose to seek US representation for her first novel, she did so because she was studying in the US. She felt part-American. She was resident there. For her, it would have been unnatural to query an agent in London, simply because Union Jacks once flew in Lagos.

You can apply the same basic tests. Truth is, no one cares too much. And if your manuscript is absolutely amazing, then no one will care at all.

But what about if you were an American living permanently in the UK? Or a Brit living permanently in the US?

Well, our even fuzzier fifth rule is:

Rule #5

You probably want to prioritise residency over passport when it comes to querying agents.
(But no one really cares.)
(So you can go either way.)

As a matter of fact, if the circumstances of your life are such that you can provide plausible sounding reasons for submitting queries to both major markets, then our (whisper it quietly, tell no one you’re doing this) sixth rule is:

Rule #6

If you want to query agents in both markets . . .
And you’ve got reasonably plausible reasons for choosing either market . . .
And you don’t tell agents, “Hey, I’m just querying everyone,” . . .
Then you’ll probably get away with it.

After all, it’s not like anyone checks. Or cares that much.

You’re not breaking any rules.

There’s one curious issue, though, to which there’s no good answer.

Bestselling thriller writer (and one of our Festival of Writing speakers) R.J. Ellory writes very good US-set thrillers, but he’s British . . . and for a long time he struggled to find an agent.

UK literary agents were reluctant to take him on because his books sounded like they’d been written by an American. US agents were reluctant to take him on because he was British, without representation in London or a UK book deal. That meant that American agents, even if they liked his work, felt kind of suspicious. How come this guy hadn’t got local representation? It sounded like there might be a catch somewhere.

In the end, he was so good that he was taken on (in Britain, first). His career took off.

This story brings us to our seventh rule, the super-essential Ur-rule for all agency submissions:

Rule #7

Write a super-incredible dazzling book.

If you obey that rule, then the truth is that nothing else really matters. Any agent from anywhere will want your work.

Where Do You Find A List Of International Literary Agents?

Why, you find it here, of course. On Agent Match.

Agent Match here on Jericho Writers is a complete, searchable, database of literary agents. It's the biggest agent database on the planet, covering nearly every literary agent active worldwide.

And it's not just a comprehensive database, it's a smart one. Let's say you wanted to search for:

“Literary agents in the US
who are open to historical fiction submissions
and who are currently seeking new writers”

. . . well, you could perform that search in about twenty seconds.

And get a complete answer.

And a complete set of agent profiles for absolutely everyone on that list.

I mean, maybe you’d prefer to spend a week on Google (and get a slightly worse set of answers), but it’s totally your call.

Access to AgentMatch is restricted to members of Jericho Writers . . . but since membership of JW confers an awesome cornucopia of writerly fabulousness, you probably want to consider membership no matter what. Which leads us to a bonus rule, rule number eight...

Bonus Rule #8

Find out more about Jericho Writers!
You’ll be rootin-tootin glad you did.

I do hope you come and join us. We’d love it if you did! Any more questions? You can contact us here.

More than ready to get the ball rolling with agents, but just need a little push? Or perhaps you’ve had a few rejections but aren’t sure why? Our Agent Submission Pack Review gives you detailed professional advice on how to perfect your submission and increase your chances of securing an agent.

Have you got a new and exciting work of non-fiction on the go and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, we’re here to help! 

WANT TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE AGENT LIST? 
CLICK HERE 

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction is any literary work that is based on fact or true events. They are intended to educate the reader and inform them on the chosen topic as accurately as possible.  

While non-fiction subjects can be varied, agents are generally interested in the genres that sell best. These include:  

• Celebrity-led projects, anything written or endorsed by a celebrity  
• Strong and compelling memoirs  
• Exotic travel stories, whether they’re funny or moving  
• Popular science  
• Narrative-led history  
• Biographies, especially if the subject is well-known  
• Major new diet or motivational work  
• Strong and quirky one-off pieces  
• LGBTQ+ themes.  

The important thing to remember is that, unfortunately, no one is looking for niche. Anything specific with a narrow market, like local history books or biographies of unknown subjects, aren’t traditionally sought after by agents. You may find that your work might be picked up by the right publisher, but it’s unlikely you’ll get an agent for these types of projects.  

You’ll notice that specialist and academic non–fiction isn’t listed here, either. That’s because your best bet would be to write up a book proposal and pitch directly to publishers who specialise in your subject area. You don’t typically need an agent for these.   

Few agents focus solely on non-fiction projects. Most agents will build a fiction and non-fiction list, just as they would cultivate a literary and commercial list. The important thing to remember is that it’s the quality of the agent that really matters, not whether they specialise in a particular genre.  

How Do You Know What Literary Agents Want?

This can be split into three categories:

• Firstly, know what you need to query agents with.  

For fiction submissions, you need to have written the whole book before querying agents. With non-fiction submissions, you can often get away with sending a book proposal, which is basically an outline of the book you intend to write, first.  

If your book is story-led (think memoirs), then it would be worth writing the whole book before you submit to agents.  

But if your non-fiction is subject based, then it‘s fine to start with the book proposal.  

• Secondly, deliver a saleable manuscript.  

As I mentioned above, the only thing agents are really looking for is a manuscript that will sell well and make money. This means you need:  

Strong, popular, entertaining writing – even if your subject is interesting, if the writing is poor no one’s going to want to read it!  

To write for the market. Obvious, yes, but a surprisingly high number of non–fiction authors don’t know who their intended market is. So, if you don’t know yours, then go to a bookstore or local library and find out.  

• And finally, get professional help.

If you keep getting agent rejections or just want to perfect your manuscript first, then it’s time to ask for help. There’s lots of information out there. We’ve helped non-fiction authors in their writing journeys, and we can help you too. So, get in touch. 

Non-Fiction Genres

Let’s look at the most popular non-fiction genres a little closer:

History 

Historical non-fiction is any piece of literary work that looks at a specific time or event from the past. This could be delivered in a very fact-based way, or in a narrative way (such as The Five by Hallie Rubenhold), and can explore very wide and general topics (such as the Romans, or the Elizabethan era) or a very specific person, event, or niche topic (such as salt – no really, it exists. Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky).  

Food And Cookery 

Non-fiction that focuses on food and cookery is a staple of many households. Recipe books would be the most common form of this genre, but it can also include crossover books that explore the history of food (such as Scoff by Pen Vogler), or food-based memoirs (such as Stanley Tucci’s Taste, or Grace Dent’s Hungry). This is a varied and diverse genre, full of useful tips and interesting facts. 

Memoir 

Memoirs can encompass a wide range of books, from the food-based memoirs I mentioned above of celebrities Stanley Tucci and Grace Dent, to a memoir of a postman (Please, Mister Postman by Alan Johnson). If you have an interesting story to tell, then there is space for you on the memoir bookshelf. That’s not to say it isn’t difficult to get there. If you’re not a celebrity, then you need an incredibly interesting story and a true way with words in order to reassure a literary agent that your book will sell. 

Mind, Body, Spirit 

This genre is an interesting one. It spans topics of mindfulness, meditation, astrology, the paranormal, and much more, and can be quite divisive (depending on an individual’s beliefs). Whether you are a Doctor writing professional advice (Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? By Dr Julie Smith), or you’re writing based on your own experiences (The Wim Hof Method by Wim Hof), it’s important to demonstrate the value you bring, not only to the genre as a whole but to the readers picking up your book. It is likely that readers of Mind, Body, Spirit want to learn something new about themselves, or how to approach the world we live in and our daily lives.  

Politics, Society & Current Affairs 

Politics and current affair books can cover many things, from political history to a focus on an individual, or a deep-dive into a specific political event. Bestsellers like Owen Jones’ The Establishment (exploring British politics), or Watergate: A New History by Garrett M Graff, explore popular topics at the time of their publication. One of the most important things to remember when writing political non-fiction is to remain current and relevant, unbiased (unless your work is biased, in which case it’s important to make that clear), and to ensure your book is fact-based (as far as facts are available at the time of publication).  

Popular Science 

Popular science is a genre that makes current scientific discoveries and theses accessible to the average reader. Anyone should be able to pick up your book and come away with a greater understanding of the topic than they did coming into it. Popular science can cover any topic (especially ones that are of particular interest or relevance at the time of publication), from space, psychology and medicine, to astrophysics and our understanding of death. Anything that is current and of interest to the general population. Once again, one of the most important things when writing in this genre is to have demonstratable expertise, and to be able to explain why YOU are the person to write this book. 

Travel 

Travel writing can encompass everything from a travel guide to a travel memoir (Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert). Books in this genre can do a deep dive into a specific city, or they can give general advice for camping or backpacking. They can be food based (One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake) or based in history (Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton). Whatever your expertise or experience, it’s important that the writing of your book lines up with its aim. If you are writing a guide it should be informative, whereas if you’re going for a more narrative interpretation, it should be able to strike the balance between fact-based and captivating.  

Popular Culture 

Popular culture is those topics, beliefs, themes or objects that are dominant and widely known in society. This can encompass books, film, music, art, fashion, and much more. Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties: A Book does an excellent job of capturing the popular culture of an entire decade, while Matt Alt’s Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World focuses on an entire nations historical influence. The importance when writing works of Pop Culture is to remain current and relevant, alongside the emphasis on being fact based. You can deliver a serious discussion on a topic, or a more tongue-in-cheek satirical view, but whatever you do it’s important once again to demonstrate your expertise and why it will be of interest to the mass readership. 
 

Narrative Non-Fiction 

Narrative non-fiction describes a piece of literary work that is fact-based at its foundation but presented in the style of a fiction novel. Take Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five. This is a book that explores the history of the victims of Jack the Ripper, providing facts and citing her sources. Hallie takes creative liberties in her presentation of this story, using the facts to create a fleshed-out narrative of the lives of these women; in this way the narrative element suits her book as she seeks to humanise them. When writing narrative non-fiction, it is important to strike this balance between fact and fiction. Your book should read like a story, but remain entirely fact-based. This form makes the writing accessible and interesting to the mass readership, and they can go away having learnt something new (sometimes without even realising it). 
 

Business And Finance 

This genre can provide business advice, explore historical aspects of business and economics, look at finance analysis, marketing and management, or encompass cross-genre books such as politics (Butler to the World by Oliver Bullough), or memoirs (We Can All Make It by Sara Davies). Whether you are an expert in your field or have personal experience to draw on when writing your book, you should demonstrate not only that you are the best person to write it, but that there is a space and interest for it. 

Health & Lifestyle 

This genre focuses on all aspects of health and lifestyle, from dieting and working out, to mental health, relationships, and careers. Whatever your focus is, it’s important to make sure your book is relevant, well-researched, and that there is space for it in the current market.  
 

Self-Help 

Self-help falls into similar categories to Mind, Body, Spirit, and Health and Lifestyle. These books all focus on the individual and encouraging personal development, but self-help sits apart as more of a guide. Marie Kondo’s Spark Joy and James Clear’s Atomic Habits provide information and advice for how the reader can go about making the relevant changes in their own life. They are there to evoke a positive response in the reader and to provide them with something that will remain even when they put the book down. Once again, relevance and expertise are required when writing in the self-help genre. 
 

Sports 

Sports non-fiction covers everything from guides to biographies. They cover any and all sports you can think of, and can either be an interesting read or a tool for the reader to develop their own skills. Whether you’re considering the social influence of sports, specific individuals, or the history of sport, it is important that you can demonstrate your knowledge and whether there is interest for your book.  

Arts 

This genre covers a wide range of topics, including art, photography, fashion, music, film, and crafts. They can work incredibly well as coffee table books, or as an exploration into an individual (A Life of Picasso by John Richardson) or a movement. They can provide a collection of creative work, a historical exploration (The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair), or offer advice for beginners (Read This if You Want to Take Great Photographs by Henry Carroll). 
 

Women's Issues 

Also categorised as Gender Studies, this genre explores a variety of topics, from feminism to medicine, history to race. Books that focus on women’s issues attempt to evoke change, and often look at social discrimination and inequality. Books like Caroline Criado-Perez’s Invisible Women and The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart use data and facts to inform the reader, and offer up ways we can make change for the future. 

LGBTQ+ 

This is a very broad genre that encompasses a variety of topics and crossovers. From memoirs (What if Feels Like for a Girl by Paris Lees), to essay collections (Gender Euphoria by Laura Kate Dale), and from histories (The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser), to guides (Queer Up by Alexis Caught). The aim of this genre is to inform and to evoke change, both for those readers who are queer, and for those who aren’t. From appeals for change to uplifting real stories, this genre is as diverse as its authors and topics. It is important when writing in this genre to remain relevant (is there a market for your book?), fact-based, and to have personal experience of your chosen topic and be able to demonstrate why you should be writing it. 

AgentMatch And How To Use It

There are plenty of agents who love non-fiction, but you won't want to approach them all. The best way to develop and refine your own shortlist of UK agents for non-fiction is to visit AgentMatch, our literary agent database, and use the search tools on the left to make your selection. 

With AgentMatch you can select by genre (e.g. your non-fiction genre), country, the agent’s level of experience, their appetite for new clients, and much more. You can even save your search results and come back to them, allowing you to work through them one by one, at your own pace. Each profile has been researched thoroughly including what agents like to read in their spare time, information on their most recent deals, manuscript wishlists, submission requirements, and exclusive interviews. 

You can sign-up for a 7-day free trial which will give you a good feel for the data and functionality. Or join us as a premium member and get unlimited access to AgentMatch. 

UK Agents For Non-Fiction

To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 UK agents generally looking for non-fiction: 

More Resources  

We’re here to help you at every step in your writing and querying process. Check out our favourite blogs that can assist you in putting together your query letter and synopsis, and if you want valuable, personal feedback on your writing you can book a fifteen-minute One-to-One with an agent of your choice. Premium members can also get a free query letter review from our lovely Writers Support team!   

Happy searching, and good luck on your querying journey!   

How Much Do Literary Agents Cost? And Are They Worth It?

One thing that puzzles a lot of writers about literary agents is their fee structure. Can you afford an agent? What do they charge? How much do literary agents actually cost?

The answer is mostly good news . . . with a little bit of bad news thrown in.

The good news is that literary agents charge absolutely nothing upfront. Not a penny. They don’t charge fees down the line either.

I’m Harry Bingham. I’ve been a professional author for twenty years. I’ve sold a lot of books and been paid a lot of money for them. And I have never once been given an invoice by my agent.

Too good to be true?

Well, there’s a catch of course, and it’s this:

Literary agents charge commission. That is, for every $1000 they get you in advances or royalties or overseas sales or film rights, they will take their cut.

If they earn nothing for you, they will charge nothing. If they sell your book for a lot of money – well, they’ll be doing well for themselves as well as you!

The brilliant thing about this arrangement is that your agent’s financial incentives are almost perfectly aligned with your own. That means, when the agent is querying different publishers, or reviewing contracts, or hassling over hiccups in the publication process, their financial goals are exactly the same as yours.

For that reason, authors tend to be very close to their literary agents . . . and are often rather less close with their editors!

1) Literary Agent Fees

Typical commission rates for literary agents

Typically commissions work as follows. Your literary agent will take:

• 15% of all sales made in home markets (ie: the US if you are working with a US agent; the UK if you are working with a British one.)
• 20% on overseas sales, and
• 20% for sales of film and TV rights.

Some agents may vary from this, but these rates are increasingly standard. They are not compulsory however, and if you are bold enough to negotiate, there’s nothing wrong with that. (And indeed, top authors often don’t pay full whack. They don’t have to.)

Literary Agent Commissions: An Example

Let’s say you’re a Brit and you sell your book to:

• a UK publisher for £10,000, and
• a US publisher for $25,000

then your agent will take

• 15% of £10,000 (so £1,500), and
• 20% of that $25,000 (so $5,000).

There would also be fees for any foreign language sales and for film or TV sales. In practice, film & TV deals are relatively rare and generally a lot less lucrative than the newspapers would have you think!

2) Royalties

When you sell a book to a publisher, you sell it for an advance against royalties. So let’s say you sell your manuscript to a publisher for $10,000, but that book goes on to be a bestseller.

You will be entitled to a per book fee on every copy sold (that’s called a royalty, and the actual calculation of those things is a bit complex.)

But, to simplify, let’s say that over the first two years of sales, you earn $110,000 in royalties.

The first $10K of that is set aside – your $10,000 upfront advance was an advance against royalties, so you can’t claim it twice.

But the other $100,000? Yep, that’s yours, and you will start to be paid that money via six-monthly instalments, depending on sales. Be aware, though, that your literary agent is also entitled to their fees on those earnings (because they brought you the deal that turned your book into a bestseller). So minus your literary agent's fees, what you would actually get in this example is:

• 85% of your $10K advance (your agent gets the other 15%)
• 85% of your $100K royalty earnings (again, your agent gets the remaining 15%)

Again, be aware that good agents will press for the highest advance they can get away with, so you can easily, easily earn a living as a professional author and not see a royalty check from one year’s end to the next.

3) If You Move On From Your Literary Agent

If you decide to fire your agent, or otherwise move on, then your agent is still entitled to any commission due following deals that they signed.

And that makes sense. If you get rich because of a deal done by your agent, then your agent should be entitled to their share of the fruits of that deal, no matter how far down the road.

In practice, most client-agent relationships are quite long term, and if you have signed a book deal successful enough that it’s still pumping out money, then you’re not likely to split with your agent.

But still: the possibility is there, and it’ll be carefully covered in any contract or letter of engagement you have with your agent. So read that letter or contract – and if in doubt: ask!

4) Are Literary Agents Worth Their Fees?

Yes.

Was that emphatic enough? I don’t think it was. So one more time, with feeling:

Yes, yes, yes!
Get an agent!
They will make you much more money than they will cost you!
It is the best career move you will ever make!

A good agent will do the following for you:

• They’ll make sure that your manuscript is right for the market. That may mean that you need to tweak the book, but those tweaks are intended to get it just right for publishers in today’s market.
• They’ll approach the right editors at the right publishing houses. That means having impeccable contacts and staying current. (That’s also why, by the way, nearly all agents are based in New York or London. They need to be close to the publishers, and those fine cities are where the publishers hang out.)
• They’ll run a proper auction. That’s the salesy bit of their job, and most agents are very good at it.
• They’ll negotiate a proper contract for you. Publishing contracts today are typically up to twenty pages long (in the UK and US, though European ones are shorter). Contracts are full of abstruse terms and royalty rates, and you need to be an industry insider to navigate them properly. It’s not a task you can do yourself.

I am a very experienced author myself and (because of my role in Jericho Writers) I am exceptionally well plugged into the wider publishing industry. But you know what? I still use an agent, because I make loads more money that way. And save myself a ton of hassle. And can draw on a ton of expertise that I couldn’t easily access any other way.

So get an agent. Pay their fees. Write well. Be happy.

Do you need a literary agent? Are they worth having? And how do you actually maximise your chances of getting a literary agent?

Getting a good literary agent and avoiding dozens of rejection letters may feel impossible, but it really isn’t.

In our comprehensive guide on how to query agents, we will be talking about what makes a good agent, how to find the right literary agent for you, and how the publishing industry works.

So get ready to discover your first agent. This may well be the blog post that changes your writing career!

Find A Literary Agent In 8 Simple Steps

Whether you're writing literary fiction, or a commercial genre novel (such as science fiction or historical fiction), to get in front of traditional publishers - especially the big four, such as Penguin Random House or Harper Collins - you need a literary agency to represent you.

Here's our very simple 8-point checklist which we will go into detail further along. If you can get past point 1, then you're good to go!

1. Write a wonderful book
2. Have realistic expectations
3. Prepare your manuscript properly
4. Research agents with care
5. Send out simultaneous submissions
6. Prepare for agent rejections – it happens (a lot)
7. Review your progress
8. Get out there

But before we run through the list, let's answer some urgent questions.

Do I Actually Need A Literary Agent?

The answer to that question depends on who you are and what you are writing.

You definitely DO NOT need a literary agent if:

• You are self-publishing your work on Amazon. You can just upload your material for free without anyone’s permission or approval. The only time you would need a literary agent as a self-published author is if you sold a lot of copies in the English language, and you needed an agent’s help with foreign language sales, audio sales, film/TV rights, and the rest.
• You are approaching independent publishers. Some smaller indie publishers don't require you to have an agent. They may not pay a big advance (or any, in fact) but if they cater for your target audience and specialise in your preferred genre, then you may be happy to work with them direct.
• You are writing poetry or flash fiction or other non-commercial art forms. Agents are there to make money. If your work is art-for-art’s-sake then (a) great for you, but (b) forget about an agent.
• You are writing niche titles that won’t attract significant advances. Let’s say, for example, you are writing a book on “How to Care For Your New Alpaca”. I guess there IS a market out there for alpaca owners who need that kind of book, but most agents want to make money and that book won't sell the kind of numbers they need.

You DO need an agent if:

• You're writing commercial fiction. A traditional publishing house (ie the kind who dominate book stores and trade press) only takes submissions via literary agents. You won't even get close to them without the right agent.
• You're writing a children’s novel. Read the paragraph above. Every word of that applies to you too.
• You're writing narrative non-fiction. Walk into a large bookstore and look around at the front tables bearing non-fiction. Ask yourself, “could my book live here?” If the answer is YES, then you need a literary agent for the exact same reason the writer of that book has one (because they will do). If the answer to the question is NO (probably because the book you’ve written is too niche to appeal to the general reader), then it’s doubtful whether you need an agent . . . or an agent needs your business.

There are, of course, always exceptions.

Many commercial fiction authors are very successful working directly with digital first publishers, such as Bookouture, who you don't need an agent for. Or they may already have a good relationship with an editor. Other writers with a large and established following (ie celebs or experts in something), may also be sought-after directly by a publisher.

The best rule of thumb before starting your agent search is think about what authors you want to emulate and see how they got there.

How Much Do Literary Agents Cost?

This is a very easy answer.

NOTHING.

The only money you pay an agent is commission – typically 15% of any income earned on home sales and 20% of anything earned on overseas or film/TV sales.

So if they don’t make money for you, they don’t make money for themselves.

Never ever pay an agent upfront, not to read your manuscript or to submit to editors. If that is what they're asking, then they're not to be trusted.

Are Literary Agents Worth It?

Let's see what you get:

• Access to publishers who would otherwise not take you seriously – and those are the publishers with the huge sacks of money available
• Access to the best editor for your work (because it's an agent’s job to know who’s who in the publishing world)
• Someone with a great track record of conducting auctions for books like yours
• Someone who can organise the exact same thing globally. And where your agent doesn’t know the territory themselves (Bulgaria, say, or South Korea), they’ll work with a trusted counter-party who does
• Someone who has trodden the book to film route before and can guide you through that (most treacherous) maze
• Someone of real editorial acuity who, most importantly, knows the market for your book and how to optimise your writing for that target audience
• Someone whose financial interests are exactly the same as yours (ie you both want this book to sell)

Is an agent worth it?

If you want your book to become a Sunday Times Bestseller, be in a bookshop window, feature in the press, reach your ideal audience, be translated into other languages, be made into a movie, and make you money - then yes. You need a literary agent.

But how do you find these most elusive of angels? Let's start with the hardest part...

1. Write A Wonderful Book

The bad news is that the best agents want the best books. Each submission is a long shot, but there are no shortcuts!

And the right agent doesn't just want a great book, they want one that is easy to sell to an editor, who they will be able to sell to bookstores, who they can sell to the public.

See where this is going?

Debut authors who are about to start querying often call literary agents 'gate keepers' like it's a bad thing - but it's not. They are the filter between books the public are most likely to buy, and books (no matter how brilliant) that probably won't sell.

So how do you write a book that will grab an agent's interest?

Look at what sells: You can't easily pre-empt the market or trends, but if it's easier to find agents with a romance or thriller (rather than your horror book featuring cowboys and unicorns) then look at changing genre

Know your comps: If your book is unique yet still sits comfortably between two best-sellers in its genre, then use them as comparisons

Get your pitch ready: If you can't get a potential reader excited about the premise in less than a minute then an agent with 300 manuscripts to read in their inbox won't give yours any more time either

Learn to write: This may seem obvious, but you can have the best premise, but if your sample chapters are littered with bad grammar and clunky prose then no good agent will take it on

Get an editor: This may seem counter-productive, many agents work with writers to strengthen their story before submission. But have a professional editor look at your work first will ensure that at least it won't be the writing, language, pace or plot stopping your work from being taken on. Details of where to find this level of support can be found right here.

2. Have Realistic Expectations

Literary agents spend most of their time handling existing clients. A typical agent might take on just two new authors a year, and most agents receive around 2,000 manuscripts a year. That means, inevitably, they reject most submissions.

This is disheartening, of course – but it’s not about odds. Finding a literary agent is about:

Quality. If your book is strong enough, it will sell. At Jericho Writers have virtually never seen an exception to that rule, and we have handled thousands of client manuscripts over the years.

Professionalism. Even when you get a no, keep it professional and courteous. Publishing is a small industry and you will cross paths with all these people again!

Faith in yourself. We’ve had clients who have sent their (very good) manuscripts out to 2-3 agents. They didn’t get a positive response, so they gave up.

I once encountered such a client at a crime writing festival. We'd helped edit her manuscript, so I asked how she’d got on. She’d been to three agents, hadn’t got anywhere, and shelved the manuscript. I pretty much yelled, 'you can’t do that!' I told her she needed to reach out to at least a dozen agents in total before drawing any final conclusions. So she did, she got an agent, and then a book deal!

Persistence. Let’s say you take your first book out to 12 agents. No one offers you a deal, but you get back some encouraging comments. What then?

If you quit - you are not a writer and never really were one. That’s when the real writer keeps going. You might write another book. You might take your existing book and get editorial help on it. Or you rework your book and take your original idea down a different and more exciting road.

After a long time in this game, I can tell you that persistence wins every single time.

3. Prepare Your Manuscript Properly

Agents see hundreds of manuscripts, so don’t miss out because you didn't follow their submission guidelines. Even the font and size matters. Check!

Also, eliminate spelling errors and don’t rely on a computer spell check (bee shore of what ewe right).

Lay your manuscript out like a book, not a business document, which means no space between paragraphs, and with the first line slightly indented. Every page should be numbered, with your title and your name in the header.

You do not need to worry about copyright, either. Making a fuss about it marks you as an amateur.

Pro tip. Don’t name your documents for your convenience; think about your agent instead. So whereas you are unlikely to be confused by a document called novel.doc on your computer, that’s of no help to an agent sifting through 30 unread manuscripts on her e-reader. So call your manuscript, for example, A Farewell to Legs, Maggie Mildasmilk, First 10K words. doc.

That’s cumbersome from your point of view – but amazingly helpful to the agent. And it’s the agent you’re trying to impress!

4. Select Agents With Care

Time to research literary agents!

Remember many take up to three months to get around to reading your book (even though most know within a few pages if it's right for them). Therefore send your submissions out in batches, much like applying for many jobs, because even agents don't expect you to wait for their response before moving on.

The Simplest Way To Find An Agent

You can Google search for days, hunt through Twitter, and look at the acknowledgement pages of your favourite books - or you could become a member of Jericho Writers. Our AgentMatch tool is quite simply the best way to find a literary agent, and we often run free trials!

In one easy search, you'll be able to find all the UK and US agents you need, listed by genre or agency size or experience.

Then when you want to learn more about any given agent, you simply dive into their individual profile, where one of our native English-speaking graduate researchers (most of whom have BAs / MAs in English or Creative Writing) has put together a detailed profile, along with a ton of specific data about that agent.

Find out more about our AgentMatch service here, read about specific agents via our agent blogs, or discover more about becoming a member here.

5. Send Out Simultaneous Submissions

Most agents have submission guidelines that require the following:

• Your first 3 chapters, 10,000 words, or 50 pages of your manuscript (check individual requirements)
• A short query letter (download our FREE template)
• A 500-700-word synopsis, unless agency guidelines explicitly ask for something else

Most agencies take submissions by email, while others provide an online form, so follow instructions or your query letter and manuscript may get lost or dismissed.

How Many Literary Agents Should You Approach?

You are aiming to generate a shortlist of about a dozen names. What you’re looking for is:

1. Agents who are open to your genre
2. Agents who are genuinely open to new clients (which will often mean younger or newer agents)
3. Agents with whom you can find some point of contact. So it might be that a given agent has one of your favourite authors on their client list (in your genre or out of it), or said something in a blog post somewhere that really resonated with you, or shares a passion (for sailing say, or synchronised swimming.)

Why a dozen agents?

Because if you approach fewer you risk being rejected just because the agents you approached had their hands full of existing work at the time you approached them.

So why not more than that?

Well, OK, you could go to more. 15 would be fine, and maybe even 18 wouldn’t be too crazy. But really, as soon as you are querying 10 or more agents, one of those guys WILL ask for a full request if your book is good enough.

If you send your book out to 12 agents, and get either rejection slips or silence, then you need to ask yourself why. Either the book idea is not exciting enough, or your writing isn't good enough (painful, but important to know).

Don't use up your chances with other potential agents by trying to flog a dead horse, go back and look at your book proposal and see why it's not working.

How To Write A Query Letter (ie Covering Letter)

It’s not hard to write a good query letter. In fact, if you can write a half-decent book, you can unquestionably write a perfectly good query letter (download our FREE template).

Here's an example:

Dear Mr Redintooth,

I am currently seeking an agent for my first novel, A Farewell To Legs. The novel (at 81,000 words) tells a love story, set against the background of a busy amputation clinic in Glasgow. I have enclosed the first three chapters plus a brief synopsis with this submission.

[Then one short paragraph of no more than 100 words describing the setting / hero / premise of the book]

I'm a 30-year-old accountant from Leeds. This story arose from my own experiences during a recent trip to Glasgow. The book attempts to deal with themes of loss and suffering in an accessible, moving, and uplifting way. I was particularly keen to write to you, after your success with Goodbye, Little Ear, the biographical work by Mr Van Gogh.

I very much look forward to hearing from you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,

Ms Mildasmilk

If you have completed a well-recognised MFA or creative writing course, then say so. If you are a professional writer in any other capacity (in journalism, TV, radio, etc), then say so. Ditto, if you’ve won any prize that has real merit. If you have a recommendation from ourselves or any other person or organisation likely to command respect, then you can say so too – but expect to be checked up on.

But it’s really OK if you are Mr or Ms Unknown of Nowheresville.

My own literary agent once had a totally unsolicited submission from an unknown Englishwoman living out in the Middle East. He liked her writing and took her on . . . and that author has gone on to write (and sell) a book or two – and win a small mountain of literary prizes to boot.

ALL agents have stories like that, so you need have no anxieties about being unknown. It’s the manuscript that matters, not the person behind it.

6. Prepare For Agent Rejections – It Happens, A Lot

It's all good knowing where to find a literary agent, and it doesn’t matter how good your book is, you will receive at least one rejection letter in your writing career. Every single successful author - from Rowling to King - has been rejected.

And most of the time it has nothing to do with you, your book or your query letters!

Reasons Why Literary Agents May Reject Your Work

1. They’re busy with clients
2. They’re on maternity leave/left the company/not taking anyone else on and haven’t updated their website
3. They’re overwhelmed/not very efficient and have 2,000 unopened submissions
4. They have an author who is writing closely competing work
5. They didn't like it
6. They really liked it. They just didn’t like it quite enough

This is why we recommend you send your manuscript off to five or so agents at a time (one agent per agency, to start with). Then, for each rejection you get, send another off.

Keep a spreadsheet with the date, their name, agency, email address, notes and feedback - and colour code it for Waiting, Rejection, Full Request and Offer. Some authors even buy a big box of chocolates, and eat one with every rejection.

Well, you may as well get some pleasure from the pain!

7. Review Your Progress

If you've reached the end of your list and you've still had no bites, then it's time to look at where you've gone wrong. If you’ve tried your luck with agents and got nowhere, then the chances are that one of the following apply to you:

1. You haven’t tried enough agents (or you’ve tried the wrong ones)
2. Your approach to agents has been howlingly bad
3. Your novel has just totally misjudged the market – for example by having a word count that is either way over or way under what agents and publishers are seeking (word count guidelines here.)
4. Your book just isn’t good enough (YET!)

If you handle your submissions process with proper professionalism – and the fact that you’ve read our monster post this far already is a very good sign! – then #4 may be the issue.

So then the question is, how near or far are you from success? The submissions process itself should give you some clue:

1. You have had warm, personal and encouraging rejections. That’s great. That means you are in the zone. You just need to identify any remaining issues in your text, then nail them. If you are in this category then seek professional editorial feedback. It may simply be a matter of changing the genre or a few plot tweaks.
2. You have had at least one request for your full manuscript. Again, if I were in that camp, I’d certainly be seeking editorial help.
3. You have had no full manuscript requests / no warm feedback / silence / standard issue rejection slips. That means – nothing much.

Your manuscript could be in the top 10-15% of all manuscripts submitted and come to that same end. You really could be a future bestseller, and still have that outcome with your first round of submissions...or you may really need to hone your writing skills.

Remember I told you earlier that I rated persistence above talent?

Yep. Well, this is the stage where you find out quite why that matters so much. So either get professional help with your novel, or write your next book and start querying that one all over again.

8. Get Out There: Go To Events And Meet Agents

Finally, if you want to meet agents in person and get feedback from them directly, you can.

Our Festival of Writing brings committed writers face-to-face with agents every year. You’ll get direct feedback on work and, just as useful, hear agents talk about the realities of their industry, what they’re looking for, and any tips and advice they can give. (Joanna Cannon is one author who signed with her agent just after the Festival.)

Through our in-person and online events, you’ll meet agents, editors, and publishers – plus it’s uplifting to realise the industry is warm, welcoming, and always open to new writers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you get a literary agent for a screenplay?

Much like authors, screenwriters also need agents. Here is everything you need to know on perfecting your screenplay and finding representation. You can also take advantage of our screenplay and script coverage service.

How do you get an agent for TV?

There are two ways of seeing our story come to life on the big screen. If you're a screenwriter, see above, or choose an agent for your novel with experience in film rights (then hope your book gets optioned). Most agencies either have an in-house agent who specialises in film rights, or they work with a partner agency.

Who are the literary agents looking for new authors in 2022?

The best way to know who is looking for what this year, is to take part in our Agent Match free trial. Alternatively, for a comprehensive look at the top 400 UK literary agents looking for new talent this year, check out this article. And for the US you can click here.

How do you get an agent for poetry?

Most agents take on commercial fiction, genre fiction, children's literature, and non fiction - but there are a few who are interested in poetry. The easiest way to discover which agents are looking for poets is to visit our Agent Match page and search via genre. If you're not a Jericho Writers member then look out for our free trial and discover a whole world of agents around the globe!

Find The Agent Of Your Dreams!

Lengthy as this guide is, we know that some of you will still have questions. For that reason, we’ve put together our jumbo literary agent explainer – a kind of FAQ for all things agent. You’ll probably want to take a peep at our Getting Published guide as well. You can get that here.

So off you go, get that literary agent of your dreams, and don't forget to visit our blog for further research. The best agents, top traditional publisher, and best deal are out there waiting for you!

The Art And Craft Of Beautiful Manuscript Presentation

Manuscript presentation makes a big difference to the way literary agents receive your work. Yes, sure, agents are looking for wonderful writing above all, so in that sense the way you format your manuscript is secondary . . . but getting an agent is hard, so you may as well make sure that first impression is a good one.

And of course remember this: literary agents aren’t mostly looking to accept a manuscript. They’re looking for early warning signs that say this author hasn’t taken enough care to be worth reading further. So the lousy presentation of your book’s cover page can screw up your chances of success before your book has really given itself a chance.

Sounds scary?

It doesn’t need to be. Follow the tips below and you’ll be fine.

What Is A Manuscript?

There’s a difference between a manuscript and a book, and it’s much the same as the difference between a writer and an author. A writer is anyone at all who writes. An author is a writer whose work has been published.

The same thing is basically true of manuscripts / books, so a reasonable definition of the word ‘manuscript’ would be:

A manuscript is the text of your novel (or work of nonfiction),
before that text has been turned into the finished book.

In the old days, when the industry still worked with paper, the manuscript was literally the stuff you printed off on your home printer. When I sent my first manuscript out to literary agents, the damn thing ran to more than 180,000 words and it was enormous. Over 600 pages of printed paper, as I recall.

These days, your manuscript may well never be printed off at all, anywhere.

Quite likely, you will work away at your manuscript on a laptop. You’ll send it to an agent by email. Any editorial work will be conducted by email and an e-copy of your manuscript. When the thing is ready to go out to publishers, it’ll go as a computer file, only.

It’s referred to as a manuscript though: it’ll only become an actual book once it’s been typeset and bound (and becomes an actual hard copy, dead-tree book), or once it’s been formatted and packaged up as an ebook. (As a matter of fact, I think some of the kudos that still attaches to trad publishing as opposed to self-publishing has to do with the way it marks out that transition.)

Format Your Manuscript Professionally:

1. Use double or 1.5 line spacing
2. Use a standard font
3. Make sure to use font size 12
4. Use standard margins
5. Chapter breaks should be marked by page breaks
6. Insert page numbers
7. Indent paragraphs
8. Don’t overuse the ellipsis… Or, exclamation marks!
9. Title pages should also include your name, contact info, and wordcount

Manuscript Basics

So your manuscript is basically just a computer file that lives (for now) on your home computer only, but may in time come to sit on the e-reader of your literary agent and (you hope) a whole bunch of editors too.

While the manuscript remains on your laptop and nowhere else, then you can format it just as you please. There are no rules at all. No one will see. No one will care.

I know one (really good) literary author who has poor eyesight and weirdly bad spelling. So he types in a huge font size – Arial, size 16, often all bold – and just ignores the spelling errors.

If he sent out his work out like that, it would make a terrible first impression on anyone reading it. But he doesn’t. That’s just the way he works.

So manuscript formatting rules only apply when you’re ready to go out to agents . . . and even then, you need to realise that there are no rules, exactly. There’s no standard manuscript format. No required novel template that you have to follow, or else . . .

So the only real rule of manuscript presentation is a simple, ordinary one:

Your manuscript should look like a clean, professional document.

If you obey that one single rule, you’ll be just fine. That said, there’s a follow-up quasi-rule, which can be expressed as:

You probably want to set out your manuscript in a way that is most helpful to a literary agent.

Those guys read a lot of new manuscript submissions, so if you make their life harder, you are – even if just in a small way – acting against your own best interests.

Ways you can make an agent’s life easier include:

Helpful choice of filenames

Maybe the file on your computer is called novel.doc, because you hadn’t settled on a title when you started to write. That’s fine – plenty of my novels have started out that way too. But remember that an agent may be looking at your submission alongside 50 others. So don’t call your documents novel.doc / synopsis.doc / query.doc – you’ll confuse the agent almost instantly. Best practice would be to name your file something like The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald, first three chapters.doc. [Except I think that title might already have been taken . . .]

Clean, clear title page

I'll give more detail on that in a second

No unnecessary additional text

Your manuscript is just a working document, that has – prior to publication or the offer of a book deal – no special status in life. So don’t write dedications in here. Or Author’s Notes. Or long acknowledgements. If there”s a really compelling reason why you need to do these things, then OK. But in most cases, all that stuff can wait.

Easy readability for the main text itself

More on that shortly as well!

Oh yes, and I should probably also say that in the screenwriting trade, there are fierce and important rules about formatting. They matter because of an equation like this: length of screenplay = run time = production costs. That equation does not apply if you're writing a novel or nonfiction book, and the result is that the publishing industry requirements about format are much looser. And quite right too!

How To Format Book Title Pages

Applies both to novels and non-fiction books.

Your title page should contain:

• The book’s title in a large font
• A subtitle, if the book has one. Most novels won’t.
• A quick genre specifier, if you want it. “A crime thriller”, for example. I’ve added “A novel” to the page below, only because this page was prepared for the American market where “a novel” is quite often used as a kind of subtitle.
• Your name
• The book’s rough word count, rounded to the nearest 1,000 or 5,000 words
• Your contact info (Email, phone, address) in the bottom right hand corner, or otherwise somewhat secondary

It doesn’t need anything else. It doesn’t need and shouldn’t have a copyright notice. (See an example of the title page for one of my novels.)

Oh, and NO ARTWORK. Unless you are a professional illustrator, say, you just want to keep the front cover bare of anything except text. Remember that the publisher, not you, will decide what the final book looks like, so sticking your own imagery on the book will, in most cases, look a awkwardly amateurish.

Epigraphs, dedications, acknowledgements and all that kind of stuff can be left for when your book makes it into print. At this stage, you really don’t need that kind of thing. If you really must put in an epigraph, you can certainly do so on the second page or (probably italicised) on the cover itself.

Your cover page would ideally not have any page number on it but, as you can see from the image, I didn’t bother eliminating the number from my title page. It’s no big deal.

Manuscript Text Formatting Guidelines

Follow this broad template, and you’ll have a happy literary agent . . .

The following guidelines will mean that you deliver the kind of manuscript that any literary agent will instantly consider professional and easy to navigate. If you want to deviate from any of these exact strictures, you probably can.

The golden rule is to deliver something that looks like any normal, professional document AND one that is laid out like a book, not a business letter. (ie: indented paragraphs not line breaks in between.) And even that rule about indenting the paragraphs is often not followed by first time writers.

But are literary agents going to turn down great work just because they don’t love the paragraph formatting? Of course not. So don’t worry too much.

OK, enough preamble. For a nice looking manuscript, you want to present it in something like the following way:

• Make sure to use double or 1.5 line spacing.
• Use a nice ordinary font. (Times New Roman, Garamond, or Georgia are all good choices. Arial is quite common, but maybe better avoided as sans serif text is just harder to read at length.)
• Ensure that you use a font size no smaller than 12, and no larger than 14.
• Use standard margins. Your existing defaults are probably fine, but check.
• Chapter breaks should be marked by page breaks, so each new chapter starts on a clean sheet.
• You can mark each new chapter with a number, if you care to. Or anything at all, really, just so long as it’s clear what’s going on. (If you’re worried about how long your chapters are, or how many pages are in a novel, then read this and put your mind at ease).
• Don’t forget to insert page numbers (though, truth be told, all that matters less now that everything happens in e-form. It’s still a nice touch.)
• Indent paragraphs (using the tab key or the paragraph formatting menu – don’t rely on the space bar). Do not leave a double space between paragraphs except as a section break.
• Oh, and don’t overuse the ellipsis (“…”) or the exclamation mark. Professional authors use those things very sparingly.

This page shows my own choices: a nice looking chapter header (but mine is a lot fancier than you need.) Modest paragraph indentation, I like 0.3″. A personal, but not wacky font. (I usually use Garamond, though I’m not quite sure what I used in this example!) Line spacing that’s clear, but not too spacey. (I generally use 1.5 line spacing, though you can go as low as 1.25 if you really want.) Plus a nice neat page number, of course.

It would be good practice to include your name and the title of the book in a header or footer, though I haven’t done so in this image.

Oh, and did you notice that the very first paragraph in that page was not indented? That’s technically correct and looks quite classy . . . but don’t worry if you haven’t done it. At that level, no one will care. (And that’s one big thing to remember about manuscript presentation. You need your work to look clean, professional and literate. If you check those boxes, then you’re fine. Really, truly, nothing else matters – except the quality of your actual book, which needs to be amazing.)

Manuscript Format: Dialogue Presentation

This isn’t a full guide to dialogue format, so do check more complete sources if you need, but for a quick refresher:

• Dialogue counts as new paragraphs, so it should be indented.
• When speech by one character is interrupted by a descriptive line, and then the speech continues, this all counts as one paragraph. Begin the next paragraph with the next speaker.
• Use single quotation marks for dialogue. When dialogue is followed by ‘said X’ or ‘chortled Y’ you should not capitalise either the s of said or the c of chortled. This is true even if the dialogue ends with an exclamation mark or a question mark.
• If the speaker quotes someone else within dialogue, you show that inner quotation with double inverted commas. Like this, for example: ‘No,’ said Hugh patiently. ‘What Sophie actually said was, “Go to hell, you bloody idiot!” Words to that effect anyway.’
• For more help on writing dialogue in the first place, then nip over here.

Again, though, that rule about quotations within dialogue is hardly ever going to matter . . . and no one at all will care if you get it wrong. It’s your novel or non-fiction which matters!

Dialogue Format: An Example

   ‘This manuscript is nicely presented,’ said the agent.
   ‘Indeed it is,’ said the publisher. She paused briefly, to strike off a few zeros from an author’s royalty statement. ‘It is well presented. And intelligent. And beautifully written.’
   ‘But Oprah won’t like it.’
   ‘No, indeed. Nor the Chief Buyer at Walmart.’
   ‘So we’ll reject it!’ they chorused, laughing wildly.
   Their limousine swept on through the rainy streets, leaving a faint aroma of cigar smoke and Chanel no. 5 lingering on the mild springtime air.

Use the example above for guidance – or, if in doubt, open any paperback book. The way it’s laid out is the way yours should be.

Manuscript Presentation: Punctuation Basics

Your presented manuscript needs flawless punctuation. A few last tips.

• There is one general rule for punctuation. It is there to help avoid ambiguity.
• Commas are tricky, but often missed out before names. Get into the habit of putting them in and you will avoid absurdities like the ones noted by Lynn Truss in Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
• Hyphens are an endangered species, and only the writer can save them. Again, it is vital to avoid ambiguities and absurdities – for instance, the white toothed whale. Is it the whale or the teeth that are white?
• It is a good rule to avoid lists of adjectives but, when you have them, check to see if any should be hyphenated. You can have a dining room, but a table there becomes a dining-room table.
• Semi-colons are also endangered, yet can bring a deal of subtlety to a writer’s style. A semi-colon links two related sentences; the second often elaborates or adds context to the first. A semi-colon is stronger than a comma, but not as strong as a full-stop.
• Colons are used where one sentence introduces another. The rule is simple: use the colon when one sentence introduces the next.

The three mistakes that our editorial team sees most commonly are these:

1. Not Enough Use Of Commas

Commas are like a tiny pause within a sentence and they can divide sentences into little blocks of meaning. They can make (especially) long sentences much easier to parse and comprehend. And commas are free. Use them!

2. Use Of Commas Instead Of Fullstops/Periods

Yes, we like commas, but commas aren’t there to divide one sentence from another, if you use commas where you mean to use fullstops (periods), you will end up with sentences that never seem to end, writing of this sort will drive your editor mad, punctuation-related homicides are rising sharply as a result. (*)

3. Misuse Of Apostrophes

The mistake which will have most agents screaming has to do with apostrophes. These are simple, so get them right. (‘It’s’ means ‘it is’, It’s raining, for example. ‘Its’ means the thing belonging to it, The mouse gnawed its cheese, for example – and ‘its’ is correct. No apostrophes are added to other possessive pronouns like his or hers, either.) If you’re unsure, look these things up.

* – Oh and if you wanted to know how that sentence ought to look, it’s like this:

Yes, we like commas, but commas aren’t there to divide one sentence from another. If you use commas where you mean to use fullstops (periods), you will end up with sentences that never seem to end. Writing of this sort will drive your editor mad. Punctuation-related homicides are rising sharply as a result.

If you wanted a semi-colon instead of a period after “mad”, that would be very elegant and your editor would probably want to give you a kiss. Instead of shooting you. Which has gotta be a win, right?

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do You Prepare A Manuscript For Submission?

There are many things to consider when preparing your manuscript for submission as manuscripts have to be formatted quite specifically. The first and most essential thing is to ensure that your manuscript has been thoroughly edited and is as well-written as possible. Manuscripts tend to be written in Times New Roman font in a size 12 and are double spaced with no separation between paragraphs (though each paragraph other than the very first should be indented). The most important thing is that the text itself, and the formatting, are clear and readable, and you have provided all the necessary information somewhere within the manuscript.

What Is The Proper Format For A Manuscript?

A well-formatted manuscript will feature A4 pages, should have a font size of 12, be written in a legible font (such as Times New Roman), have regular margins, indented paragraphs, and be double spaced. Manuscripts also include a title page, a header, and page numbers and each line of dialogue should be indented and should start on its own line.

How Many Pages Should A Manuscript Be?

The number of pages in, and the general length of, a manuscript varies considerably in terms of genre, topic, readership, and many other important factors. Most manuscripts tend to be around 70,000-120,000 words long, which equates to around 250-450 pages. But children's books are generally far shorter (especially ones written for infants!) while certain books, such as fantasy and historical fiction, are much longer than that.

Get Help

Writing a book is hard. Getting an agent is hard. Getting published – well, that’s still harder.

And getting well published? Actually making a career out of this thing? That’s never been even remotely easy, and (if you’re talking about traditional publication) may be harder than it’s been for decades.

So get help. Don’t start spending crazy money, but get help.

If you're eager to polish your manuscript, but aren't sure where to start, get help from an experienced professional editor with our Manuscript Assessment Service.