firstwriter.com's database of literary agents includes details of 782 English language literary agencies that don't charge reading fees. The database is continually updated: there have been 35 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
Sally Willcox, the longtime CAA literary agent who most recently oversaw acquisition and development at Tobey Maguire’s Material, has landed at Paradigm, the agency said Tuesday. She will oversee media rights and be based at the agency’s Beverly Hills headquarters.
“Sally excels at discovering and developing intellectual property and it is her passion to find inspiring opportunities for her clients, making her the perfect person to drive and expand our media rights division,” said Adam Kanter, co-head of Motion Picture Literary, and Andy Patman, co-head of Television Literary, in a release announcing the news.
Venerable entertainment talent and literary agency Abrams Artists Agency has been acquired, led by a group that includes two of the New York- and Los Angeles-based company’s longtime executives Robert Attermann and Brian Cho, and entrepreneur-producer Adam Bold.
Kaplan Stahler’s Cindy Mintz has been named head of TV Literary at the boutique agency. In her new role, Mintz will oversee a department of five agents.
Mintz joined Kaplan Stahler in 2013 after a brief stint at Abrams Artists Agency, where she was instrumental in launching their TV literary department. Prior to Abrams, she spent 15 years as a TV packaging agent at ICM Partners.
Multimedia publisher OWN IT! has launched a literary agency arm, signing author Courttia Newland as its first client.
Billed as a “storytelling lifestyle brand” spearheaded by founder Crystal Mahey-Morgan, the company already operates as a book publisher, a record label and an events arm. Mahey-Morgan will be OWN IT!’s main agent, helping to “diversify how it works with storytellers to include literary representation”. The company is currently negotiating with several sub-agents about a foreign rights partnership, according to a spokesperson for the organisation.
Mahey-Morgan's previous contract negotiation experience includes a year at PFD as well as a three-year stint in the contracts department at Penguin Random House between 2008 and 2012. She described setting up a literary agency as "an obvious next step for OWN IT!"
Articles
firstwriter.com
In last month's article, Avoiding literary agency scams (fwn 44), we identified the warning signs to watch out for in order to avoid bad agents. In this article I'll be reversing the question and providing tips on how to find good agents.
Frank Hotchkiss recently acquired an agent using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.
James R. Larson recently acquired an agent using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.
firstwriter.com
For as long as there have been writers eager to get published, there have been con artists ready to prey upon them for a quick buck. Nowadays, the internet is rife with phony literary agencies offering writers false hope in return for a small (or not-so-small) sum of money. In this article I'll look at some of the ways you can spot a dodgy agency, and avoid your time, money, and aspirations being abused. While none of the points below guarantee by themselves that an agency is dubious, together they can make a compelling case, and they should all make you tread a little more cautiously.
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