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How to Land a Literary Agent
Written by a veteran literary agent, this informative article offers a wealth of information--from a literary agent's perspective--on how to land a literary agent. Packed with practical tips and numerous resources, the advice given here has already helped numerous authors land literary agents and launch their careers. Mr. Lukeman, author of several bestselling books on the craft of writing and the publishing industry, is giving away this article for free, as a way to give back to the writing community.
16 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 11, 2008
83 people are currently reading
221 people want to read
About the author
Noah Lukeman
25 books115 followersIn addition to being an active literary agent, Noah Lukeman is also author of the best-selling The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying out of the Rejection Pile (Simon & Schuster, 1999), which was a selection of many of Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers and is part of the curriculum in many universities. His The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (St. Martins Press, 2002) was a National Bestseller, a BookSense 76 Selection, a Publishers Weekly Daily pick, a selection of the Writers Digest Book Club, and a selection of many of Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers. His A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation (W.W. Norton, 2006 and Oxford University Press in the UK, 2007) was critically-acclaimed, a selection of the Writers Digest Book Club and the Forbes Book Club, was profiled on NPR, and is now part of the curriculum in over 50 universities and writing programs. His e-book How to Write a Great Query Letter, which he gives away for free as a way of giving back to the writing community, was the #1 Bestselling title on Amazon Shorts for many months. His most recent book geared to help aspiring authors is How to Land (and Keep) a Literary Agent. To help aspiring authors, he has also made available free chapters from all his books, which you can read by clicking here.
Noah has also worked as a collaborator, and is co-author, with Lieutenant General Michael “Rifle” Delong, USMC, Ret., of Inside Centcom (Regnery, 2005), a selection of the Military Book Club. His Op-Eds co-authored with General Delong appeared in the Sunday New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News. He has contributed articles about the publishing industry and the craft of writing to several magazines, including Poets & Writers, Writers Digest, The Writer, the AWP Chronicle and the Writers Market, and has been anthologized in The Practical Writer (Viking, 2004).
Creatively, Noah is author of The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II, (Pegasus Books, 2008) an original play written in blank verse, which aspires to pick up where Shakespeare’s Macbeth left off. Macbeth II was critically-acclaimed, and featured as recommended reading in New York Magazine’s 2008 “Fall Preview.” He has also written several screenplays, one of which, Brothers in Arms, was chosen as one of Hollywood’s 100 Best Scripts of the Year on the 2007 Black List and is currently in development at a major studio.
Noah Lukeman has been a guest speaker on the subjects of writing and publishing at numerous forums, including Harvard University, The Hotchkiss School, The Juilliard School, the Wallace Stegner writing program at Stanford University, the Writers Digest Panel at Book Expo America, the MFA at Northern Michigan University, the National Society of Newspaper Columnist’s annual Boston conference, and Riker’s Island Penitentiary. He earned his B.A. with High Honors in English and Creative Writing from Brandeis University, cum laude.
Noah has also worked as a collaborator, and is co-author, with Lieutenant General Michael “Rifle” Delong, USMC, Ret., of Inside Centcom (Regnery, 2005), a selection of the Military Book Club. His Op-Eds co-authored with General Delong appeared in the Sunday New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News. He has contributed articles about the publishing industry and the craft of writing to several magazines, including Poets & Writers, Writers Digest, The Writer, the AWP Chronicle and the Writers Market, and has been anthologized in The Practical Writer (Viking, 2004).
Creatively, Noah is author of The Tragedy of Macbeth, Part II, (Pegasus Books, 2008) an original play written in blank verse, which aspires to pick up where Shakespeare’s Macbeth left off. Macbeth II was critically-acclaimed, and featured as recommended reading in New York Magazine’s 2008 “Fall Preview.” He has also written several screenplays, one of which, Brothers in Arms, was chosen as one of Hollywood’s 100 Best Scripts of the Year on the 2007 Black List and is currently in development at a major studio.
Noah Lukeman has been a guest speaker on the subjects of writing and publishing at numerous forums, including Harvard University, The Hotchkiss School, The Juilliard School, the Wallace Stegner writing program at Stanford University, the Writers Digest Panel at Book Expo America, the MFA at Northern Michigan University, the National Society of Newspaper Columnist’s annual Boston conference, and Riker’s Island Penitentiary. He earned his B.A. with High Honors in English and Creative Writing from Brandeis University, cum laude.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 8, 2018
I've grumpily realized, th as his to this book, that I really should create an author website...never mind that I have no idea how and little patience with technology.
June 7, 2017
Exceedingly helpful for prospective authors, with clear advice and insight into the submission process, what to expect at every stage, and bonus sections on writing query letters and Q&A. An inexpensive buy with consolidated advice that will save you Googling for hours (days... weeks...) Includes helpful links to additional resources and industry databases.
July 5, 2018
This guide is brief and helpful. It's great to get an insider's perspective on the agent -writer relationship, and I think it will help me during the querying process. The edition I downloaded also contained Lukeman's query ebook, which was handy (although I already downloaded that one separately).
June 13, 2019
There is A LOT of information in this book, which makes it well worth getting, but I must say the reason I am giving it 3 stars and not 4 or 5 is because the part where the author answers questions he has received gets a little long.
July 14, 2024
It gave some great advice, but is dated. There was no mention of Query Tracker in it and most of the agents I’ve found no longer want physical copies. It’s all email.
The best advice it gives is if you want success put in the work. If you put in zero effort you will get zero results.
The best advice it gives is if you want success put in the work. If you put in zero effort you will get zero results.
January 23, 2020
Helpful Insight Into the World of Publishing
Very well written. I learned much mor than I expected to. I highly recommend this book to any one who's thinking about writing a book.
Very well written. I learned much mor than I expected to. I highly recommend this book to any one who's thinking about writing a book.
April 6, 2021
I thought this was a great book, full of terrific, but the fact I've decided to stick to self-publishing after reading it surely must speak for itself
March 28, 2025
An incredibly helpful guide for anyone seeking a literary agent. At times the book was redundant, but overall Lukeman addresses each agent/publisher topic very thoroughly. 10/10 would recommend!
February 5, 2017
Good info!
August 29, 2021
Your Personal Literary Advisor
One of the things that makes it so difficult to find a literary agent , is the fact that you only hear back about your submission , if they are interested. When a writer is unaware of the mistakes that they are making, it is unlikely that they will land an agent,because these mistakes do not get corrected. In this book, How To Land And Keep A Literary Agent by Noah Lukeman, Mr Lukeman act as Your Personal literary advisor. He points out common mistakes New writers sometimes make. He give you first insight on what a literary agent looks for in a submission, and he guides writers in how to find agents who are representing their genre. This is a necessity for every serious novelist's library.Thank you Mr. Lukeman for writing this book! It is just what I needed!
One of the things that makes it so difficult to find a literary agent , is the fact that you only hear back about your submission , if they are interested. When a writer is unaware of the mistakes that they are making, it is unlikely that they will land an agent,because these mistakes do not get corrected. In this book, How To Land And Keep A Literary Agent by Noah Lukeman, Mr Lukeman act as Your Personal literary advisor. He points out common mistakes New writers sometimes make. He give you first insight on what a literary agent looks for in a submission, and he guides writers in how to find agents who are representing their genre. This is a necessity for every serious novelist's library.Thank you Mr. Lukeman for writing this book! It is just what I needed!
March 18, 2013
I'm muddling through revisions now, hoping to query agents in the next six to eight months. There's a lot of great info in here about how to prepare for querying, what to expect when you sign with an agency, and the likely time frame for seeing your books on the shelves if your agent sells your work. My book is fiction, but there's also great info in here on querying nonfiction and memoirs, too, since those tend to be handled differently. (I had no idea!)
There were a few things that seemed dated to me (though this book is not even five years old). He suggests that a snail mail query (don't forget the SASE!) could be better than e-mail, since e-mail tends to be in 10pt Arial font, as opposed to a nice 12pt font that you print. Wha? You can change the font in most e-mail interfaces. Some agencies do not accept electronic queries, however, so all the advice surrounding the preparation of a paper query letter is still certainly relevant.
There was a section, too, encouraging blogging, podcasting, and basically building an audience before you query. I'm wondering if this was more relevant to the nonfic crowd, though I suppose it can't hurt for fiction writers, too, if you happen to build a substantial following. I see more and more advice saying that it's not essential for writers to blog and have a strong social media presence, however, because prospective agents are going to care a lot more about your work than your 10,000 twitter followers. Views on this sort of thing are bound to change or even just vary from agent to agent, I'm sure. Lukeman acknowledges this, and of course that there is no magic formula for success.
Still, there's loads of great advice here. It's well worth a look if you're planning to pursue representation and traditional publishing. It's so generous that he's made it free for download, too!
There were a few things that seemed dated to me (though this book is not even five years old). He suggests that a snail mail query (don't forget the SASE!) could be better than e-mail, since e-mail tends to be in 10pt Arial font, as opposed to a nice 12pt font that you print. Wha? You can change the font in most e-mail interfaces. Some agencies do not accept electronic queries, however, so all the advice surrounding the preparation of a paper query letter is still certainly relevant.
There was a section, too, encouraging blogging, podcasting, and basically building an audience before you query. I'm wondering if this was more relevant to the nonfic crowd, though I suppose it can't hurt for fiction writers, too, if you happen to build a substantial following. I see more and more advice saying that it's not essential for writers to blog and have a strong social media presence, however, because prospective agents are going to care a lot more about your work than your 10,000 twitter followers. Views on this sort of thing are bound to change or even just vary from agent to agent, I'm sure. Lukeman acknowledges this, and of course that there is no magic formula for success.
Still, there's loads of great advice here. It's well worth a look if you're planning to pursue representation and traditional publishing. It's so generous that he's made it free for download, too!
October 9, 2014
I enjoy this agent's work on the inductry and the was helpful to understand the industry from the agent's perspective. Kind of a "What to Expect If You're Expecting" view on writer-to-agent relationships, the publishing timeline, and everything in between. Highly recommend.
March 16, 2012
Very informative. I got to 60% complete, and the book went to "How to Write a Great Query Letter," which I've already read.
June 10, 2013
A free book with some good tips on how to prepare for a query and what to expect once you get an agent (including timelines).
December 19, 2013
Lukeman offers a valuable rescource for emerging writers, based on a wealth of experience.
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June 7, 2015A truly helpful and common sense guide to the do's and don'ts of this tricky business of landing a literary agent. Noah Lukeman knows his stuff and conveys his information well.
October 30, 2012
A well-composed, valuable resource. It's awesome that is was free. Thanks, Noah!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews