Agent Business Models May Be Shifting: What I Fear Will Happen

However you measure it, I find more literary agents operating today than in decades prior. The Guide to Literary Agents directory, published since 1995, started with about 400 listings. The most recent edition, released in 2021, had about 1,000. According to my own reporting, the number of new agents announced per year in 2023, 2024, and 2025 was at least double the number announced in 2022. If you look at the number of contacts in Publishers Marketplace that carry the agent label, there are more than 3,000, although not all of them have reported deals. The number of Publishers Marketplace editors? About 3,800.

What’s driving the increase? It’s probably some combination of the following: Anyone can and does call themselves an agent, more people are agenting as a side gig, and consolidation among major and mid-size publishers has led some industry professionals to take up agenting. For career agents who’ve been in the business for the last couple decades or more, this is probably not a welcome development. It increases competition and creates more submissions for editors to sift through; for years now, agents and authors alike have complained of increased editorial response times. Some part of that is due to increased workloads for editors, but reportedly they’re also getting more material to consider. Longtime agent Kristin Nelson cited this as one reason agenting is harder today, and the situation is not improving. 

The surest sign the profession is under pressure: changes at the Association of American Literary Agents. In 2022, the AALA loosened membership requirements. Prior to that year, membership required selling at least 10 books in an 18-month period. Now, anyone working in the field of author care at a literary agency can join. This isn’t in and of itself a bad thing—the organization is moving toward a more equitable and inclusive membership. But it definitely attracts more members unlikely to make a living by selling books. 

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