List Of US Literary Agents

This post has (at the bottom) a complete and regularly updated list of the literary agents active in the United States. By clicking through to each agent, you will also find which literary agencies they belong to.

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If you want a list of agents active in the United Kingdom, you’re on the wrong page. Hum God Save The Queen, throw a Union Jack round your shoulders, and teleport over here instead.

Want A Quick Reminder Of How To Get An Agent?

Finding a literary agent to take on, edit, sell and champion your work is a career-defining moment for any traditionally oriented writer. But it’s career-defining partly because it’s hard to achieve.

So let’s try to keep this simple. Here’s what you need to do to attract a literary agent:

Step 1: Write a wonderful book.

That’s hard, admittedly, but you’re on this page because you’re serious.

Step 2: Compile a longlist of qualified literary agents.

A qualified literary agent is one who is (A) in the right country, (B) open to your genre, and (C) reasonably open to taking on new work and new clients. Once you have that longlist – which could easily run to 100+ names – you can start to filter it.

Our AgentMatch tool, which is a literary agent database, allows you to select agents by genre at the click of a button. You can search by literary fiction, women’s fiction, crime thriller, romance, fantasy, science fiction, non-fiction, young adult, and pretty much every other genre you can think of – including all major non-fiction genres. It’s a great tool for helping you decide which agents to query. Learn more about AgentMatch.

Step 3: Narrow down to a shortlist of 10-12 names.

Once you have your longlist, you need to work to find the ones who jump out at you – normally because you find a point of contact. You’re looking for something that seems to connect the kind of reader that agent is with the kind of writer you are.

A shared favourite author. A passion for steampunk. Book set in your agent’s childhood state. Shared passion for the ocean. The point of contact doesn’t matter. Just find agents who sing to you.

Step 4: Write a brilliant query letter.

Sounds hard, but it’s really easy. All you need to do is read our amazing query letter advice – and follow it.

Step 5: Write a sizzling synopsis.

Sounds very hard, but it’s also very easy. There are two big tricks to writing a successful synopsis fast and easily. We tell you what they are (and with some bonus tips included) on our synopsis page.

Step 6: Give your manuscript and opening chapters a last check.

Look: I’m not about to tell you how to write a book. But you probably want to check your opening chapters meet the basic requirements for professional manuscript format. You will probably also be interested to learn what we think are the most common mistakes made in the kind of manuscripts that go out to literary agents.

If you want a properly complete guide to getting an agent, you can get that here. Phew!

Literary Agents: All You Need To Know

1. Agents sell manuscripts to publishers
2. All the agents in the US are listed on this page
3. You need to shortlist 10-12 agents
4. Write a synopsis
5. Write a query letter
6. Submit your work to your shortlisted agent
7. Keep your fingers crossed

How To Use Agentmatch To Find Your Literary Agent

AgentMatch gives you a complete, easily searchable list of all literary agents in the US – and all those in the United Kingdom too.

Our English-speaking, graduate researchers have put together profiles of all literary agents out there, making use of ALL publicly available information (not just that on the agent’s website.)

Then we make it incredibly easy to search:

• By country
• By genre
• By experience
• By level of interest in acquiring new writers
• Size of literary agency
• And much else

Each agent has a detailed profile, including photo wherever possible – so you can complete an entire search process in a swift and completely non-haphazard way.

Sounds good right? Except presumably we’re going to ask you for a ton of money.

Except – no.

We’re writers too, so we offer a free trial of Agent Match . That gives you access to ALL the data, not just profile summaries. You can also get access to our search tools, which allow you to compile your agent longlist in about 20 seconds . . . and compile a really effective shortlist in the time it takes to drink a couple cups of coffee and maybe eat a croissant too.

And “free trial” means just that.

We don’t ask you for any payment details. We don’t restrict your usage of the site. Any data you collect, you are welcome to retain and use for your own purposes. (We’re nice like that!)

You can get your free trial here.

We hope you love it!

Meantime, we promised you a complete list of every literary agent currently active in the United States so that you can embark on the next step of your publishing journey. So scroll on down and knock yourself out.

Or actually – don’t. Knocking yourself out? Ouch. Just scroll.

US Literary Agents: The List

Jericho Writers is a global membership group for writers, providing everything you need to get published. Keep up with our news, membership offers, and updates by signing up to our newsletter. For more writing articles, take a look at our blog page.