Literary agent

by Mark robert alford
6th November 2025

I am a first time author.

Can anyone help me with advice on how to get a literary agent, please.

Replies

Could you put your unpublished work in for an award? We just put our unproduced screenplay in for an award. It won out of 360 submissions, and we're hoping that will mean something to an agent (otherwise my co-writer and I will be matching our oscar dresses to our zimmer frames at this rate :)) Good luck, Mark.

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Victoria Silverman
11/01/2026

I'm kind of in the same boat myself, but generally, you need to sift through lists of agents and find ones who are specifically looking for the genre you are working with. I'd pay special attention to their submission criteria, and make sure it is *exactly* what they are asking for. They tend to be very picky, so best to give them as few reasons as possible to toss your manuscript into the bin.

At the minute I'm focusing on polishing up my mansucript as much as possible, and tightening up my synopsis too. I'd suggest creating one that is 150 words, 500 words, and then one that is just a total synopsis of the whole novel. Just in case they ask for it, it'd be good to have it all ready and lined up. And obviously, it's probably best having a completed manuscript.

FWIW hope it is helpful, and wishing you the best of luck!

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Wassim Al-Adel
23/12/2025

Hello Mark.
Slightly disappointing the lack of response here. I have found there is a lot of information online and in the Yearbook. Try sending a few queries out. Let us follow your progress.

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Fenwick
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Fenwick McKie
11/12/2025