What do they do?

A working agent does five things that are hard to do from the kitchen table: they know who is buying, they can get the manuscript read, they can play editors off one another, they can read a contract, and they can sell the rights the publisher does not take. Everything else is conversation.

1. They choose what to take on

Before any of the romance, they reject almost everything. That is not cruelty. An agent who takes on more books than they can sell is running a hobby, not a list. Expect silence or a short no. A considered note is a gift; it is not an entitlement.

2. They prepare the submission

For fiction this usually means the full manuscript, a synopsis, and a positioning note: comparable titles, word count, the shelf it belongs on. For nonfiction it means a proposal — overview, chapter outline, sample, and the unfashionable matter of why anyone would buy this book from you rather than from a journalist with a larger following. A good agent will send you back to rewrite. That is them doing the job.

3. They submit, auction, and close

They send the material to editors they trust for that category. Sometimes this is a quiet one-to-one. Sometimes it is a multiple submission that becomes an auction. They negotiate advance, payout schedule, territories, formats, option clauses, reversion, and the definition of “out of print” in a world of eternal ebooks. You can learn this vocabulary. You will not have their relationships, or their sense of what a particular editor paid last Tuesday.

4. They handle the other rights

Translation, US/UK split, audio, serial, large print, and dramatic rights are often where a career becomes solvent. Many literary agencies either have a rights department or work with co-agents abroad and in Hollywood. A film agent at a talent agency is a different animal again: they package, they take meetings, they attach. Do not assume your book agent is also your screenwriter agent unless they say so.

5. They manage the aftermath

Payment chasing, contract amendments, the second-book panic, the editor who leaves, the cover you hate, the tour that clashes with your actual job. Some agents are superb at this. Some disappear once the deal is filed. Ask their authors, quietly, before you sign.

Film, TV, and theatre

Script agents live on credits, relationships with commissioners, and a pipeline of work. Many of the best do not read unsolicited screenplays at all. Theatre agents often want a complete play and a production history, even a modest one. If your aim is adaptation of your own novel, start with the literary agent and the book. The film conversation is easier when there is already something to adapt.

The directory in this guide tags agencies by type — book, film and TV, theatre, children’s, journalism, talent — so you do not send the wrong parcel to the right building.