Agents ,
US Literary Agents For Young Adult Fiction
By Rachael Cooper
Have you just finished your YA novel and are ready to begin your search for an agent? Well, we’re here to help!
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Young Adult Fiction
In recent years, Young Adult (YA) fiction has become a prominent and big-selling genre. Novelists like Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins (whose trilogies were so popular they were turned into Hollywood blockbusters), and Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series made it acceptable and even popular for adults to read and enjoy children’s fiction.
What followed was the emergence of a spectacular list of YA authors. Think Holly Jackson’s A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder or Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses. These new and engaging authors carried on the tradition and continued to attract a wider audience of adult and young readers.
What was the key to their success? Good character development, a fast pace, and a touch of danger.
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.
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 US agents for YA 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.
US Agents For Young Adult Fiction
To get you started we’ve selected a list of 20 US agents looking 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!
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.
By Rachael Cooper
About the author
Rachael is the Head of Publishing and AgentMatch here at Jericho Writers. She has a Masters in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Romanticism; specialising in female sociability. She's currently working on a series of articles based on her research. Rachael lives in Oxfordshire; and spends most of her time writing, reading, walking her very overweight Labrador in the countryside, and staking out second-hand bookstores for overlooked treasures.
