firstwriter.com's database of literary agents includes details of 2,398 English language literary agents and agencies that don't charge reading fees. The database is continually updated: there have been 53 listings added or updated in the last month. With over a dozen different ways to narrow your search you can find the right literary agent for your book, fast.
News
We all remember the story of how Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was rejected by numerous publishers before finally being picked up by Bloomsbury for £2,500. What you may not remember is the literary agent who took on the job of trying to sell the manuscript. That agent, Christopher Little, deserves some of the credit for the Harry Potter series gracing your bookshelf today.
When the former cofounders of Foundry Literary + Media parted ways in September to launch their own literary agencies, the partners said that thousands of existing contracts would still be handled by Foundry. It appears that payments to some authors with contracts residing at Foundry have been stalled.
According to multiple sources, a number of authors have either not been paid royalties owed, or have had checks for those royalties bounce. Sources also indicated that some former agents of the firm may also be owed money.
Amazon.com and the “Big Five” publishers – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster – have been accused of colluding to fix ebook prices, in a class action filed by the law firm that successfully sued Apple and the Big Five on the same charge 10 years ago.
The lawsuit, filed in district court in New York on Thursday by Seattle firm Hagens Berman, on behalf of consumers in several US states, names the retail giant as the sole defendant but labels the publishers “co-conspirators”. It alleges Amazon and the publishers use a clause known as “Most Favored Nations” (MFN) to keep ebook prices artificially high, by agreeing to price restraints that force consumers to pay more for ebooks purchased on retail platforms that are not Amazon.com.
The lawsuit claims that almost 90% of all ebooks sold in the US are sold on Amazon, in addition to over 50% of all print books. The suit alleges that ebook prices dropped in 2013 and 2014 after Apple and major publishers were successfully sued for conspiring to set ebook prices, but rose again after Amazon renegotiated their contracts in 2015.
The Association of Authors’ Representatives (the professional organization for literary agents) has changed its name to the Association of American Literary Agents. They say the new name “better reflects the membership and aligns the organization with its core mission of empowering and educating literary agents.”
Articles
J. B. Bergstad recently acquired an agent using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.
Charlie Carroll recently signed a deal with the esteemed Paterson Marsh literary agency, as a result of searching firstwriter.com's database of over 850 literary agents. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.
Adrienne Schwartz recently acquired an agent using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked her about her writing, and how she found success.
Rae Phillips recently acquired an agent using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked her about her writing, and how she found success.
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