Here are twelve UK literary agents actively seeking clients. All are from reputable literary agencies with solid track records. They are seeking a wide variety of genres, including literary fiction, memoir, narrative nonfiction, scripts, fantasy, children’s literature and much more.
Always check the agency website and agent bio before submitting. Agents can switch agencies or close their lists.
You can find a full list of agents actively seeking new clients here: Agents Seeking Clients
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Ms. Laura McNeill of Peters Fraser & Dunlop
Laura McNeill is an Associate Agent in the Books Department at Peters Fraser and Dunlop. After completing a degree in Classics at Oxford University, she worked with pre-1650’s books and manuscripts in the antiquarian book trade, and briefly as a magician’s assistant, before joining PFD in 2015. She works closely with Tim Bates and Annabel Merullo across all their titles, and looks after the UK & Commonwealth rights for New Directions, the New York based independent publishing house, on behalf of Tim.
What she is seeking: She is currently building her own list and is on the look out for new voices and ideas. She is particularly interested in non-fiction, but encourages submissions of all types and genres.
How to submit: Please send the first three chapters of your novel or non-fiction project, as well as a full synopsis. In the body of the email, please write a covering letter, including brief details about your writing career. lmcneill@pfd.co.uk
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Ms. Megan Carroll of Watson, Little Ltd
Megan graduated from Goldsmiths with a BA in English and American Literature in 2013 and worked as an intern at Watson, Little and Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency before returning to the agency as the assistant in July 2014. She is now an Associate Agent and is building her own list.
What she is seeking: Megan is looking for commercial fiction & reading group fiction with original voices and an interesting hook, YA with realistic themes and characters, memoir and good narrative non-fiction writing on film, popular culture and issues from a female perspective. She’s especially keen on finding debut authors as well as growing a list of talented illustrators. Megan is also interested in discovering new, diverse, quirky and imaginative voices across all ages in Children’s Fiction.
‘I’d love to find a regional family drama with multiple voices, generations and realistic characters — think East is East meets Parenthood — and I’m keen for more stories about sisters or mothers and daughters. If you’re writing funny, female focused MG, I would love to read it. Psychological thrillers are not for me but I’d love to see a female led police procedural or a Big Little Lies-esque mystery.’
How to submit: Send all queries to submissions@watsonlittle.com. For fiction, send approximately 10,000 words or the nearest equivalent. Please send this as a single document, taken from the beginning of the book. For non-fiction send a proposal.
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Ms. Florence Rees of A.M. Heath & Co. Ltd
“I love that feeling of having to read one more chapter. Characters (real or fictional) can stay with me for years. I’ve spent memorable hours weeping over the last pages in the beautiful, heart-wrenching memoirs of Paul Kalanthi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Cathy Rentzenbrink’s The Last Act of Love. It’s not limited to non-fiction though. Marian Keyes’s character, Amy, from The Break had me imagining my life had my (non-existent) husband of twenty years left me for a gap year. I read Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams recently and felt such empathy for Queenie, who is just trying to live her life as best she knows how. Aren’t we all?”
What she is seeking: Fiction, memoir, fantasy.
How to submit: Use their online submission form HERE.
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Ms. Charlotte Seymour of Andrew Nurnberg Associates Ltd
After graduating from Oxford with a degree in French & Italian, Charlotte worked as a literary scout at Eccles Fisher Associates. In April 2015, she joined Andrew Nurnberg Associates, where she handles English-language rights and is actively building a list of fiction and non-fiction.
What she is seeking: In fiction, Charlotte is looking for stories that grip and move her, be they nail-biting and suspenseful, funny and uplifting or heart-breaking. She loves beautiful writing that crosses boundaries, whether geographic or linguistic or in bringing a twist to a genre. She has a penchant for the dark and haunting, and occasionally a hint of the speculative or uncanny. She is always on the hunt for a great love story.
In non-fiction, she is looking for accessible, engaging writing on a range of subjects including popular science, social and environmental issues, linguistics, social and cultural history, nature, food and cookery, and popular culture. She especially loves hybrid books, for example, when in a memoir, the personal is interwoven with a bigger story or subject.
Charlotte enjoys working editorially with her authors, bringing existing projects to fruition and helping come up with new ideas. As well as championing literature in translation, she is eager to see more submissions from new and original voices in English from around the world.
How to submit: Please send your query letter and a 1-page synopsis (attached) and the first three chapters or 50 pages (attached); For non-fiction proposals, please send an overview, chapter outlines and three sample chapters. Send to: submissions@nurnberg.co.uk
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Ms. Meg Davis of Ki Agency
Meg worked in the theatre and in bookselling before becoming an agent. After some years at MBA, she started Ki Agency in 2011 to represent authors and scriptwriters. Meg’s work for her clients is informed by her involvement behind the scenes, previously as co-Chair of the Dramatists’ section of the PMA, on the management board of Public Lending Right, and as the external examiner for the MA in Scriptwriting course at Sheffield Hallam. She is currently Chair of the Writers’ Organisations Advisory Group, and serving a third term on the committee of the Association of Authors’ Agents.
What she is looking for: Meg is happy to consider scripts in all genres, and books in some genres, especially genre fiction. Not a good bet for fiction that might be considered to be wearing a cardigan, or which is narrated by an animal.
How to submit: Please send scripts for film, TV and theater as a PDF file. For books, send a full synopsis and the first 3 chapters/50 pages as a doc file or PDF to meg@ki-agency.co.uk.
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Ms. Jennifer Christie of Graham Maw Christie Literary Agents
Jennifer worked in marketing and advertising for 12 years, and as a literary agent for 13 years. Starting in PR ( The Rowland Company, Saatchi & Saatchi), she moved into advertising (TBWA, Ogilvy and Mather) and then journalism (BBC and freelance). She has also worked as a ghostwriter.
What she is seeking: Memoir, autobiography, parenting and self-help to popular philosophy, science, food, creativity, history and smart thinking
How to submit: Please email your submission to submissions@grahammawchristie.com with the title of your work in the subject header and the word ‘submission’. See the website for details.
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Ms. Jane Gregory of David Higham Associates Ltd
After thirty years of running her own literary agency, Jane, her team and all her authors were delighted to join the like-minded agents and colleagues at DHA in January 2018. Before setting up as an agent, Jane was a Rights and Contracts Director for publishers. In the past, Jane has been on the Virago advisory panel; co-founded ‘Women in Publishing’; produced, directed and co-wrote several publishers’ pantomimes; and was a co-founder of The Women’s Prize for Fiction (previously Orange and Baileys Prize). She also co-founded, and is currently still on the committee of, the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate.
What she is seeking: Jane Gregory represents authors of crime, thrillers, psychological suspense, historical and literary fiction. She works closely on all editorial matters with Stephanie Glencross.
How to submit: Please send a one-page synopsis that gives a full explanation of the plot, and the first three chapters or up to fifty pages (double spaced). Read submission details HERE.
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Mr. Jamie Maclean of Coombs Moylett MacLean Literary Agency
Educated at Edinburgh College of Art, Jamie was fortunate enough to join the pilot scheme of the Sotheby’s Works of Art Course. Subsequently he worked for Sotheby’s and briefly ran the newly formed Victorian paintings department before moving to Michael Parkin Fine Art, a gallery specializing in modern British art. His next job was at Wildenstein & Co, the international art dealers. Three years later he set up his own dealership, the Maclean Gallery, holding exhibitions of paintings, drawings and prints from the 18th century to the present day, for which he produced several catalogues. In 1985 he curated the first exhibition of erotic art to be held legally in the UK.
What he is seeking: Jamie specialises in both fiction and non-fiction and is particularly interested in sexual politics, relationship, lifestyle how-to’s, erotica, thrillers, whodunit and historical crime.
How to submit: Use their online form HERE.
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Ms. Cara Lee Simpson of Jonathan Clowes Ltd
Cara Lee Simpson joined the agency in 2016, after working as a literary agent and a freelance literary scout. She is interested in submissions for bold literary and upmarket fiction — anything with a compelling narrative voice and a new way of seeing the world.
What she is seeking: At the moment she is on the lookout for memoirs by women with a feminist edge, books that explore gender politics and sexuality, and more fiction from BAME and working class perspectives. She’s also looking for nature writers who do something different with the genre, and for accessible psychology and popular science books. Adult submissions only please.
How to submit: Send a query, synopsis and three chapters (or an equivalent sample) to cara@jonathanclowes.co.uk.
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Ms. Sophie Gorell Barnes of MBA Literary Agents Ltd
Sophie studied theatre and television and worked as a researcher for several years on factual programmes and for the COI. She has written children’s books for Macmillan Education, reviewed theatre and worked on magazines as a sub editor. She joined MBA at the end of 1993 and moved to agenting original and talented children’s writers, working on picture books to YA fiction. She also agents writers for theatre, adult non fiction and handles audiobook rights for MBA.
What she is seeking: She is looking, in particular, for slick and humorous middle grade fiction.
How to submit: Please send the first three chapters and a synopsis as attachments and a covering letter in the body of the email. All attachments must be in Word, PDF or Final Draft format. Please e-mail all submissions to submissions@mbalit.co.uk marking your email for the attention of the relevant agent.
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Lucy Morris of Curtis Brown
Lucy Morris joined the Curtis Brown Books Department in September 2014 from Bloomsbury Publishing.
What she is seeking: She is actively building her list of reading group and literary fiction, narrative non-fiction and memoir.
“In fiction, I look for books with heart and humour, brilliant social observation and clever storytelling. I’m on the hunt for a great returning detective like Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie or Susie Steiner’s Manon Bradshaw. I’d also be keen to find some stylish suspense in the vein of Patricia Highsmith. Stories about families are guaranteed to pique my interest. I’m a huge fan of Liane Moriarty, and some other recent favourites include Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay With Me, Tin Man by Sarah Winman, and Katherine Heiny’s outstanding short story collection Single, Carefree, Mellow.
In terms of non-fiction my tastes are pretty broad, but I am always drawn to memoir, the professional and the personal, beautifully written stories told with wit, warmth and precision. I was entranced by Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm as the study of an expert nearing the end of his career but still in awe of his subject, and I often return to Nigel Slater’s utterly delightful Toast. Other favourites include Maggie O’Farrell’s I Am, I Am, I Am and Tara Westover’s Educated.”
How to submit: Use their online form HERE.
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Ms. Seren Adams of United Agents Ltd
Seren Adams worked at Granta and Foyles before joining United Agents in 2015. As well as assisting Anna Webber, she is building her own list. She is looking for excellent short fiction, unconventional literary novels, and narrative non-fiction.
How to submit: When submitting please send the following: 1) A cover letter introducing yourself and your work, 2) A one to two page synopsis, 3) The first three chapters of your novel or a non-fiction book proposal to SAdams@unitedagents.co.uk.
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