How To Use

Whether you’re writing and beginning to search for Literary agents, wanting to find out more about UK Publishers or looking to reach out to someone about the prospect of Self-Publishing, a W&A Listings subscription means you can access the information and contact details you need with just a couple of clicks.

Read the information below for tips on how to search, filter and sort to narrow in on the exact search results you are looking for, and also on how you can further personalise this subscription-only area of the site to make it work in a way that best suits you.

Types of Subscription

There are now several ways to access our ultimate publishing database.

Our core Listings subscriptions are updated in accordance with our bestselling Yearbooks and boast 1000s of contacts from across the publishing industry, plus a host of online-only entries. Three types of core Listings subscription are available, and 12-, 6- and 3-month subscription lengths can be selected:

WAYB: all the contacts from the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook
CWAYB: all the contacts from the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 
WAYB+: all the contacts from both Yearbooks

An Agent Pages subscription can also be added to a Core subscription. Agent Pages goes above and beyond the data included in our bestselling Yearbooks by providing subscribers with access to individual pages for over 500 literary agents. This is an additional resource to encourage writers and illustrators to engage in the appropriate level of research before querying agents about representation, while we've also taken this opportunity to introduce different subscription lengths in order to help make our range of subscription products more affordable. Pricing starts at just £11.10 for 3-month access to one of our core subscriptions, with an accompanying one-month Agent Pages subscription just £2.80.

Not Sure?

Click ‘Just browsing’ to see the full list of categories available within each of our Core subscriptions. However, this page does NOT display the 500+ individual agent pages made available to Core subscribers that choose to bolt on this additional database of contacts

A full breakdown of what's included in each subscription - as well as pricing information - can be found by clicking on the Subscriptions landing page.

Core Listings Subscriptions: Features

  • Search the database by name, location, and/or keyword e.g. 'horror'.

  • When you run a search or apply a filter, the search results pages display the number of results at the top of the list (e.g. Page 1 of 197 results, as in the image below).

Listings - search results display
  • Annotate entries by using the ‘My Notes’ feature. Did you note down the date you submitted to that agent or entered that competition? What was the name of the person you met from that publisher? Access your notes to self by going to the ‘My Profile’ tab within your W&A Dashboard.

  • Sort entries alphabetically or by relevance. Entries are sorted alphabetically by default, but when you have run a search (rather than simply applying a filter), sorting by relevance uses the contents of the entry to determine how relevant each entry is to the search terms you’ve entered, and sorts the entries accordingly. This sorting option can be found on the right-hand side of the page along with…

  • … if you are a WAYB+ subscriber, the number of entries that appear within each yearbook (CWAYB or WAYB). This display and the related filter will help you more easily identify and narrow in on entries which relate to children’s writing, as opposed to more general entries.

Listings - filter by subscription
  • Filter entries via our useful lists, making it easier to browse within categories of interest, from literary agencies to Societies, prizes and festivalsClick on the up/down arrows to open/close the list of available filters as required, before pressing ‘Apply’. Filters can either be removed individually (by clicking on the cross next to the individual filter) or across the board (by clicking the ‘Clear all’ button).

Listings - applying and clearing filters

 

  • If you're searching within Literary Agencies, answering some top-level questions about the format, target market and genre in which you're writing will help refine your search. e.g. ‘Writing for adults' > 'Fiction > Historical’ or ‘Non-fiction > Travel’ 
     
Agencies - filter
  • It’s also possible to filter by entry type and by sub-category across the database. For example, this means you can focus in on ‘Regional newspapers UK and Ireland’ in Scotland, or ‘Literary agencies overseas’ in the USA, or specifically on ‘Major regional libraries’. (Note: if you are filtering by a sub-category, e.g. ‘Literary agencies UK and Ireland’, there is no need to tick the top-level ‘Literary agencies’ box. Just tick the category/sub-category you actually want to review and press ’Apply’.)

  • Bookmark favourite entries. Whether you're making a list of literary agents to target or researching publishers to send job applications to, our ‘Bookmark’ feature makes it easy to return to pages by saving them all within the 'My Profile' area of your W&A Dashboard.

Agent Pages Subscriptions: Features

  • Agent Pages subscribers can further research and identify literary agents likely to be interested in offering representation. Begin filtering over 500 literary agents by telling us a bit about the format, target market and genre in which you're writing.Image removed.
  • As well as detailed profile information for each agent listed (what they're looking for, what they're not looking, the number of clients they represent, submission guidelines and contact information), clickable genre tags mean subscribers are never far from an appropriate list of alternative suggestions.
Agent pages - areas of expertise
  • And these clickable tags have been carried across to Literary Agency pages, too. A 'Meet the Agents' section has been added to each literary agency page, allowing Agent Pages subscribers to click through to individual agent pages.Agent pages - Meet the agents

     

Do let us know by email (writersandartists@bloomsbury.com) if anything’s unclear, or if you have any suggestions for further improvements.