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Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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How to Find a Literary Agent

How to research a literary agent

June 5, 2017 by Nathan Bransford 22 Comments

So. You have a finished and polished manuscript for fiction or a finished and polished nonfiction book proposal for nonfiction. You want a book deal. You need an agent. Now what? It’s tough out there for an author. There are literally hundreds of agents. Some are incredibly powerful and can transform your destiny with a […]

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Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent

What Do Literary Agents Do?

April 9, 2017 by Nathan Bransford 104 Comments

Literary agents fulfill a crucial function in the publishing process. Here are the ins-and-outs on what they do. For context, I was a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. from 2002-2010, so posts that I link to that were written during that time will sound as if I’m currently an agent (which, again, I’m not). […]

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Filed Under: Literary Agents Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent, literary agents, publishing industry, Why Do I Need A Literary Agent?

In defense of personalized queries (and five tips!)

November 1, 2016 by Nathan Bransford 8 Comments

Agent Janet Reid recently posted a rant about one of the frequent flash points in the “This process is too freaking hard” camp of agent-seekers: the personalized query. Essentially, Janet believes personalized queries are pointless. In one sense I do agree with Janet. Is a personalized query, by itself, proof that the author has written […]

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Filed Under: Query Letters Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent

How to get over writer’s block

October 31, 2013 by Nathan Bransford 21 Comments

Here’s an excerpt from How to Write a Novel: 49 Rules for Writing a Stupendously Awesome Novel That You Will Love Forever, on sale now! Rule #34: You don’t have “writer’s block” The most important thing you need to know about writer’s block is this: it doesn’t exist. Seriously. Writer’s block does not exist. It is […]

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Filed Under: Writing Advice, Writing Novels Tagged With: Guide to Writing a Novel, How to Find a Literary Agent, NaNoWriMo

Traditionally published short story collections

October 23, 2013 by Nathan Bransford 8 Comments

I get a lot of questions about short story collections. How do you write a query letter for a short story collection? Do publishers want them? Well, it’s complicated. Short story collections do get published, usually by the cream of the crop of the literary fiction world. (Note that I’m not talking about anthologies with […]

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Filed Under: Publishing Industry Tagged With: How to Find a Literary Agent

This Week in Books 2/25/12

February 25, 2012 by Nathan Bransford 16 Comments

Books! This week! Lots of heads were shaking about a story in the New York Times this week: Veteran author gets rejected by 13 publishers, then she adopts a pen name and the book sells in three days. Now, it’s easy to chalk this one up to the fickleness/stupidity of publishers, as lots of people […]

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: E-books, How to Find a Literary Agent, Libraries, Publishing Economics, publishing industry

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About Nathan

Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m the author of How to Write a Novel and the Jacob Wonderbar series, which was published by Penguin. I used to be a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. and I’m dedicated to helping authors chase their dreams. Let me help you with your book!

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My Books

How to Write a Novel
Cover of How to Publish a Book by Nathan Bransford
Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapo
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

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