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How to get a literary agent (process overview)

Getting a literary agent means querying someone who represents your category, and sending only what that agent asks for. Many large US trade publishers expect the introduction to come from an agent. An agent is not required on every publishing path, and Association of American Literary Agents members may not charge a reading fee to decide whether to represent you.

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The short answer

  1. The AALA's 2026 Canon says member agents manage and support a writer's career and counsel business decisions about the writing. They must put the client's interests first and account for the client's money.[225]
  2. You do not need an agent to self-publish. Penguin Random House US describes an agented route. Some publishers, including houses in India, publish direct-submission instructions.[67][68][69][228]
  3. The Authors Guild says to query fiction with a finished manuscript, and nonfiction with a proposal, at least one sample chapter, and an outline. Send only what that agent requests.[228][67]
  4. Build a genre list from agency sites, QueryTracker, and Manuscript Wish List, then confirm the instructions on the agency's own site. A directory listing is not an offer of representation.[4][241]
  5. The 2026 Canon does not say how long a query takes. A 25 April 2017 Authors Guild article suggests waiting six to eight weeks before querying the next group.[225][228]

01

What does a literary agent do?

The AALA Canon of Ethics, revised for 2026 and effective 1 September 2026, says member agents manage and support the writing careers of their authors and counsel business decisions related to that work. A member agent must act as a fiduciary: put the client's interests first, keep client matters confidential, handle the related business affairs with professional care, and disclose what was done for the client. The Authors Guild article of 25 April 2017 describes the relationship as a business one. It calls the agent an advocate, a negotiator, a counselor, a reader, and an editor, and it says the point is the sale of the book. Checked 6 October 2026.[225][228]

  • The 2026 Canon does not set a commission percentage. Compensation for agency services is whatever the member and the client agree.
  • The Authors Guild article says a typical agreement takes 15 percent of US sales and 20 percent of foreign sales. That article is not the Canon, and it does not say every agent uses those rates.
  • Members may pass along costs they incur for the client, such as copyright fees or postage, only with the client's approval, and they must account for those charges in writing.
  • Members may not charge a reading fee to evaluate a query, outline, proposal, or manuscript when deciding whether to represent the work.

02

Do you need a literary agent for every path?

No. Self-publishing does not use an agent, because you arrange editing, design, identifiers, and distribution yourself. An agent is the usual gate at many large US trade publishers. Penguin Random House US publishes guidance on getting published through an agent, and on sending the fiction manuscript or nonfiction proposal materials it requests. That is not a rule for every house. Penguin Random House India and HarperCollins India publish direct-submission routes. The Authors Guild article says selling a book without an agent is possible, and that this is generally limited to a small press. Check the current instructions for the exact publisher, imprint, and market.[67][68][69][226][228]

  • The path chooser is the place to compare who pays, who produces the book, and who keeps the rights.
  • A directory listing is not a statement that a publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts.
  • Writer Beware says the AALA was formerly the Association of Authors' Representatives, the AAR, and that the name change was made in 2020. The Canon binds members. It does not say a non-member is automatically illegitimate.

03

What materials do you send an agent?

Send what that agent requests, and do not add a full manuscript unless it is requested. The Authors Guild article says fiction writers should query after the manuscript is finished and as strong as they can make it. It says nonfiction writers should query with a proposal, at least one sample chapter, and an outline of the rest of the book. Some agents want the query alone, some want pages and a synopsis, and some want the full manuscript. Penguin Random House US tells writers to follow the requested materials for an agented submission.[67][228]

  • The Authors Guild article does not give one rule for memoir. Confirm whether that agent wants a proposal, a manuscript, or both.
  • A query is the letter. A synopsis, sample pages, and a proposal are separate documents.
  • The query-letter answer describes the usual parts of the letter. It does not replace an agency's own guidelines.

04

How do you find agents who represent your genre?

Start from books already near yours. The Authors Guild article says to use acknowledgements, author sites, and agency sites to see who represents writers in that area, then query one small group at a time. QueryTracker is a database for researching literary agents and tracking queries. Manuscript Wish List publishes agent and editor profiles of the manuscripts they hope to see. Both are directories. Neither is an offer of representation, and neither replaces the instructions on the agency website.[4][225][228][241]

  • The literary agents and publishers directory collects those associations, directories, and submission resources.
  • Match category and genre, and check whether the agent is open. An old profile is not a current invitation.
  • AALA membership means the member agrees to the Canon. It is not a ranking of who will sell a particular book.

05

How long does querying take?

The AALA Canon does not state how long an agent takes to answer, how many queries a member receives, or what share of queries become offers. The Authors Guild article of 25 April 2017 says some agents reply within a week, some take a month, and some do not reply. It suggests allowing six to eight weeks, then querying the next group. That is one article's suggested wait, not a current AALA deadline.[225][226][228]

  • The same article says an agent may later ask for a partial or a full manuscript, and sometimes for a period when you do not query other agents. The Canon does not set that period.
  • No cited page states how many queries to send, or a month by which a book should have an offer.
  • If a reply asks you to pay before anyone agrees to represent you, compare it with the Canon's ban on reading fees and with Writer Beware's account of the AAR and AALA rules.

06

What happens after an offer of representation?

An offer is a conversation and then an agreement, not a publishing contract with a house. The Authors Guild article says interested agents often ask for a call. It lists questions about recent sales, how the agent submits to editors, which subsidiary rights the agency handles, and whether the manuscript is ready to send. The agreement should say which work the agent may sell, and how the relationship can end if the book is not sold.[225][226][228]

  • Where a member controls the agency accounts, the 2026 Canon requires client funds to be kept apart from operating funds, and paid to the client promptly after the money is received and attributed.
  • The agreed commission is the pay for representation. Section 9 of the 2026 Canon says member agents may not charge a client for editorial work done to prepare a publisher submission.
  • A member may sell services to a non-client only with advance written notice that the service does not mean representation. A member may not answer a representation query by telling the writer to pay the member, or someone financially tied to the member, for services.
  • Writer Beware's 13 May 2022 article describes an earlier Canon revision. The text that binds members as of this check is the 2026 Canon, effective 1 September 2026.

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