Literary Agents

Our database of agents will give you names, addresses and submission requirements for Australian agents. Find the database beneath the "More Info" label on the left of this page.

There are a number of ways to get your work seen by an agent - some more successful than others. It could be as easy as looking in the phone book, although it is hard to tell who is a "real" agent and who is only trying to tell you they are.

The best way is to use the "network": attend as many writers' events, festivals, book fairs, and seminars as you possibly can.

Here are a few examples of how unknown writers made the connection, and later became very successful:

Popular fction author Brenda Little used the 'writers network' - readings, signings, writers' centre events, festivals - and made contact with an agent, who placed her first book with a mass market publisher. The first print run was 5,000 copies, then it was reissued in mass market size in a run of 8,000, and has since then been reprinted. Brenda Little was 85 years old when her first book was published.

Performance poet A.J. Rochester submitted her work to the mentorship program at the NSW Writers' Centre in 2002. The assessors felt she didn't need mentoring, she needed publishing! Agent Selwa Anthony, who was one of the assessors, signed her up as a client. A.J. has become a bestselling international success with her book "Confessions of a Reformed Dieter."

Get published overseas.

According to AB&P magazine, the most important conduits for Australian agents and publishers selling international rights are:

• London Book Fair - March
• Book Expo America - June
• Frankfurt Book Fair - October

The top markets for Australian rights sales are USA, UK, France, Germany, Korea, The Netherlands, Spanish language, and Japan.