Updated as of May, 2017
Links to the submission page of all of the Publishing houses and Agencies, big, small, medium and minuscule, that I know about.
They must accept unsolicited manuscripts to be on this list, but be aware that some will have submission windows that open and close. I’ve included a brief summary of what they publish and any pertinent information. Updated as often as I have time, but please do let me know if any links are inactive, publishing house has folded, rampaging Chimeras have burned down their building, whatever. This list is not meant to be taken as a guaranteed how-to, they are suggestions only.
As always, please read each and every submission guideline from each house before you hit send.
- Dijkstra Literary Agency. West coast. They take Fiction and Non-Fiction, most genres. Read each agent’s bio to decide who you should query. No reply means you’re rejected.
- Seymour Literary Agency. New York based, founded in 1992. They take just about everything in Fiction and Nonfiction. Read each agent’s bio before querying.
- Bradford Literary Agency. Based in San Diego. Fiction and Nonfiction, most types, their “About the Agency” page lists exactly what they’re open to. Read all bios before querying.
- Stonesong Literary Agency. Started out as a book printing/packaging business in 1979 and has branched out into a book printing, custom publishing and literary agency. Fiction and Nonfiction, all types. They have a lot of experience. Read each agent’s bio and then query. No reply means rejection.
- Nancy Yost Literary Agency. New York based. Accepts Fiction and Nonfiction. They use the Query Manager system, a link can be found on each agent’s bio page.
- Soulmate Publishing. New York based. Hybrid publisher for Romance only, they start out with Ebook and include the option of printing. From my own experience I can say their turnaround time on queries is fast and they reject with suggestions, always a plus.
- Omnific Publishing. Founded in 2009, they now have a partnership with Simon & Schuster to distribute. They publish all genres of Romance in Ebook and print. Submissions are through a form on their website.
- Harper Collins. New York based. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that Harper Collins is one of the Big Five publishers. They have tons of little imprints that publish everything from erotica to Anthony Bourdain approved cookbooks, and the imprints accept un-agented submissions. Read all guidelines carefully. No reply=no.
- Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Based in California. They take pretty much everything in Fiction and Nonfiction.
- Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency. Based in New York. Still accept snail mail queries, if you’re so inclined for some strange reason. They take Literary and Commercial Fiction and Nonfiction. Pretty much everything but poetry and screenplays. No reply if you’re rejected.
- Donald Maass Literary Agency. New York based. Fiction and Nonfiction. Print only and they seem pretty proud of representing only “professional novelists”, by which I assume they’re snooty about what they take. They try hard to reply to every query.
- Kimberly Cameron & Associates. California based, they take Fiction and Nonfiction but seem to lean towards Mystery, Sci-Fi and Romance a lot. They take the author-agent relationship very seriously and are extremely respectful even with their rejections.
- Irene Goodman Literary Agency. New York based. They take Fiction and Nonfiction. Read each agent’s bio before submitting, and a no reply means no.
- Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. Offices in New York and Los Angeles. They want Fiction and Nonfiction. Read each agent’s bio and then stalk them a little bit on Twitter. No reply=no.
- Entangled Publishing. Hybrid publisher that specializes in all genres of Romance. They have multiple imprints focused on different niche books and best of all they accept novellas. Their site blog contains special calls for plots they really want and it’s updated regularly.
- Red Sofa Literary . Based in Minneapolis. Fiction and nonfiction, they make a real effort to respond to each query and they’re super active on social media. Check out Laura Zat’s #10queries tweets, she’s pretty funny.
- Bookends Literary Agency. East coast based. Fiction and Nonfiction, they use the query manager database with a link to it under each agent’s bio. Which you should read carefully before submitting. They reply to your queries.
- Transatlantic Agency. Based in Toronto with offices throughout the U.S. also. They take Fiction and Nonfiction in both adult and children’s books. Read each agent’s bio and no reply means a rejection.
- Trident Media Group. New York. They accept Fiction and Nonfiction, use the form on their website. They don’t even want to see your manuscript, just your pitch for it in the form. No reply is your rejection.
- Annie Bomke Literary Agency. San Diego based. She accept everything but picture books, poetry, screenplays and Romance (!) and she will take queries online or through snail mail. She replies to every query and is nice about rejections.
- Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. New York. They represent Literary and Commercial Fiction, Nonfiction and children’s books. No reply is a no.
- Fuse Literary. Based in the Silicon Valley, CA with offices all over. An up and coming hybrid publisher. Fiction and Nonfiction for adults and children. Read each agent’s bio and click on their link to submit.
- Inklings Literary. Fiction and a small amount of Nonfiction, no children’s books. They try to respond to queries but often can’t, and ask for a 3-4 month window for responses. Closed to submissions until March 1, 2017.
- The Bent Agency. New York based boutique publisher for Fiction and Nonfiction. They reply to every query.
- McIntosh & Otis Literary Agency. New York agency established in 1928. Fiction and Nonfiction in adult and children’s books. They are pretty selective about what they take. Read each agent’s bio.
- Writer’s House Agency. New York and satellite office in San Diego. Fiction and Nonfiction, adults to illustrated children’s books. They will accept snail mail queries and try to respond to every query.
- P.S. Literary Agency. Fiction and Nonfiction, read each agent’s bio and stalk them on social media before submitting. No reply is your rejection.
- Corvisiero Literary Agency. Boutique agency based in New York. Fiction and Nonfiction, they try to reply to every query and it can take up to 3 months.
- The Knight Agency. Old, established agency from Georgia. Fiction and Nonfiction, except for children’s books. They reply to every query within 3 weeks (ballsy claim, I’ll be interested to double check that when I query them myself.)
- Wolf Literary. New York agency for Fiction and Nonfiction, they are all about the quirky rule-breakers. They try to reply to every query.
- DeFiore Literary Agency. Mid-size publisher in New York. Fiction and nonfiction, read their agent bios.
- Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. New York agency founded in 1932. They accept everything but screenplays. They try to respond to every query but if you haven’t heard from them in 6 weeks it’s a no.
- Liza Dawson Associates.. New York agency with an office in Los Angeles. They want Fiction and Nonfiction. Read each agent’s bio for their submission guidelines.
- Prospect Agency. New Jersey. Fiction only, in everything from adult’s to children’s. They have a specific submission form and page. They ask for up to 3 months to respond and try to respond to each query.
- KT Literary. Based in Denver. Fiction only, in many different genres. These ladies are all active on social media, stalk them a bit and then read their bios to tailor your query. They strive for a two week response time for all queries.
- 3 Seas Literary Agency. Fiction and some Nonfiction from picture books on up. They strive to respond to every query, but don’t promise. Check out their “Writing Tips.”
- The Ahearn Agency. Based in New Orleans, it seems to be a small agency manned by one lady, Mrs. Ahearn. Adult Fiction only. She promises a 2 month reply on queries and accepts snail mail as well as emailed submissions.
- Book Cents Literary Agency. “A full service literary management company” based in West Virginia. *They are NOT accepting queries as of April 2017* so check in with the page to see when they re-open. They focus hard on upmarket Women’s Fiction.
- Books and Such Agency. Based in CA these ladies maintain an agency blog which I, personally, really like to see. From MG to Adult they take both Fiction and Nonfiction. You start by submitting a one page Query only and if they like what they read they will ask for a synopsis and the first 3 chapters.
- Curtis Brown Ltd. Established in 1914, offices in New York and San Francisco. Check out each Agent’s page, they have different guidelines and different genres they represent.