Find a Reputable Literature Agency - The Most Important Tips

If you are looking for a book publisher in India for your book, you can hardly avoid literary agencies. In a survey of literary agencies in 2018, it turned out that large consumer publishers almost only publish manuscripts that are brokered by agencies. You rely on the expertise of agents who specialize in the book market. But how do you find a reputable literary agency as an inexperienced author?

Searching for a publisher for the first time

There is only one option for prospective authors to have their first book with a publisher: You have to offer the manuscript to a publisher or agency, even if there has been no contact up to now. Unless you are approached by a publisher or know someone from the book industry. But only a few experience this stroke of luck. Most of them have no choice but to look for publishers or agencies from a directory and write to them.

Usually, you don't offer a novel until the manuscript is ready. Then you create a cover letter and an exposé and add a reading sample. On the other hand, it is different from non-fiction books.

 

How do you find literary agencies?

But especially as a newcomer you ask yourself the question: which agency can I contact? Which agencies are there anyway? Which are serious? And which one shouldn't you entrust your manuscript to?

If you search for literary agencies, you will find various directories, both online and offline.

This is what distinguishes serious literary agencies

Serious literary agencies present themselves with a website that reveals more about the agency and its work: Who are the agents, which authors do they represent, which titles have recently been published by which publishers? The list of book titles brokered so far also shows the publishers with which the agency has already worked successfully in the past.

Of course, there are also reputable agencies that do not have a website. But then it is not possible to assess the size of the agency and the way it works. The question arises as to whether one would like to be contacted by an agency that presents itself as a "black box" and does not want to disclose any information about itself.

The conditions before placing a manuscript provide further information on the seriousness of a literary agency. A reputable agency does not ask for any money in advance. Agencies only earn when their authors receive a fee. That is why reputable agencies pay in advance: They neither take money for sifting through the manuscripts, nor for editing the excerpt, nor for revising the synopsis.