If you’re a writer of color it can be hard to navigate the vast sea of agents out there: Which ones are sharks, cutthroat and mercenary, interested only in making a (big) buck off whatever cultural moment we’re in and trying to see a way of doing that using your particular identity? Which ones are jellyfish, those who have good intentions and claim to be allies but who, at the end of the day, don’t really have much of a spine at all when the current is strong? The range of the types of agents can feel overwhelming to someone beginning their search for representation—but here is where you might start in determining which of the many fish in the sea is the one for you.
Start by wading in and seeing what’s out there. For writers of color interested in working with agents of color, some great resources already exist that can help you navigate the industry and identify agents who might align with your values and who you are as a writer and as a person. One I would recommend is the Equity Directory, which was created by Literary Agents of Change, a nonprofit organization that sprouted out of the Association of American Literary Agents. This directory leads you to dozens of profiles for agents of color, across the spectrum of background, expertise, and genre specialization. There is also a page on the Black Writers Collective website of Black literary agents that can help you make an even more targeted search.
Additionally, there are opportunities to meet and engage with some of these agents when they happen to be speaking on conference panels or participating at events. If a free event is happening in your area, check the program schedule to see if there’s an opportunity to hear an agent speak or possibly meet them in person. If it’s an event geared more for writers, with featured authors on the panel, use your discretion, and if they seem like a good source, ask them about their experience with their agent—you’ll usually be able to tell right away if that author and agent have a good working relationship and if they might be someone to add to your list of agents to consider.
If you have the means and ability to attend paid events like conferences and retreats, check out who the organizers are and who they’ve invited to be a part of their program. Read the event’s mission statement. Some may not explicitly spell out their intentions, but you can tell by the people they’ve asked to be guests or keynote speakers who and what they value—literally and figuratively, as the agents asked to participate in these conferences or retreats are compensated to be there. For instance, last year I was invited to be a guest agent at the lovely, intimate Northern California Writers’ Retreat, during which real connections were made between writers, and between writers and the guest agents. This retreat offers scholarships to subsidize the cost of the registration for those who otherwise might not have the means to attend, and the organizer, Heather Lazare, puts a lot of thought and effort into bringing in a diverse group of agents and writers for each session.
There are also specific conferences geared to writers of color. Ones that I have participated in in the past include Anaphora Conference & Pitch Fest (this organization also has many other cool programs to check out) and the [margins.] conference and book festival, organized by The Word, another great organization that champions people historically excluded from the publishing and bookselling industries with wonderful program offerings.
Once you’re at the point where you are beginning to have conversations with potential agents, of any identity, who might represent you, here are a few questions that might be helpful to ask, particularly about their approach to the marketplace and their values around diversity, equity, and inclusion:
What about my project, and me, stood out to you? Any good agent will already start here, gushing on a call about your book and writing; the key is to follow up with why? What about XYZ resonated with you? Why would you be excited to advocate for it? Hopefully this gives the agent an opportunity to share a bit more of their values and what their stake is in representing you, to show you that they’re engaged and invested beyond the short-term or whatever reactionary zeitgeist-y moment we may happen to be living in at the time.
What comp titles came to mind when you were reading, and how do you imagine positioning me and my work when the time comes to submit the project to publishers? The answers to these questions can tell you a lot: What books and authors is the agent familiar with? What do they read or consume media-wise in their spare time? Are they knowledgeable about contemporary authors of color, or are they comparing you with Latin American magical realist authors from decades ago? Or to an author that is writing in a completely different genre and space than you but with whom you might share some similar background in an oblique way? Conversely, do they see your book in conversation with books that aren’t written by authors of color but that are hugely successful? And how will they be talking about and pitching your book to editors and other publishing professionals? What aspects of the book or about your identity as an author might they be leaning on, and does it seem problematic to you? Ultimately do their comp titles and positioning lead you to believe that they genuinely see merit in the work itself and believe that it can be just as, if not more so, successful as other books currently out there?
Finally, look at the agent’s client list overall and ask them what is the commonality among the writers they represent or the main drive behind why they have chosen to represent the people and the books that they do. How did they find these clients, and what drew the agent to them? Sometimes an agent just happens to represent an author of color whose book takes off and becomes absolutely huge—are they still riding on that author’s coattails however many years later? Do they represent authors from similar backgrounds simply because they are this author’s agent? Do they take on clients only by referral (from their clients or industry contacts), thus keeping up a somewhat exclusionary barrier for authors of other backgrounds or those without means or connections? The answers to these questions can be telling in how much intentionality the agent puts in their work and their efforts and what their values are as a publishing professional and even as a person.
I would also recommend self-evaluating and thinking deeply about what you’re looking for in an agent. Some questions to ask yourself before speaking with an agent might be:
What are my values, both as a human and as a writer, a future published author?
How important is it to me that my agent shares those values? How would I want to be able to work and communicate with my agent around difficult subjects, both in life and in my work?
Do I genuinely enjoy the work of this agent’s clients? Would I feel proud of being able to be “agent-siblings” with many of their clients?
How do I want my work and myself as an author to be presented to the world? In what ways would I want my agent to advocate for not just me, but for those in my community and the wider publishing world?
While there is a lot of concern for the ways in which our current political environment is swinging backward on diversity, equity, and inclusion, it may be too early to tell how the next few years of publishing will shift and evolve, as the publishing industry works slowly, on a scale of years rather than mere days or weeks as compared with other media industries. But these discussions are vital and happening within agencies and publishers alike, among colleagues and peers officially and unofficially across every stage of an author’s career and a book’s life—from query to publicity and marketing to launch and sales.
We may see small shifts at first, in what language is used to position a book to how much a publisher is able or willing to acquire certain books. But with these coming changes, I anticipate there will be unlikely heroes—the cuttlefish of an indie press, who is nimble and adept at change and swimming under the radar, who can and will take risks that the larger conglomerate publishers cannot and will not. And there will always be the readers who, though small as individuals, can swarm to make waves, making their voices heard and their choices clear—resisting book bans, advocating for libraries, and reaffirming the value of books that are important to us and that we don’t want disappeared.
And another silver lining, when it comes to querying writers searching for agents, is that the changing winds of our current political environment may serve to simplify your search for the right agent and agency: You will be able to tell much more quickly who is genuinely supportive of people of color and those from marginalized backgrounds versus those who are not. We’ve seen that already with the companies we used to buy from that have kowtowed to political and capitalist forces, and the ones we’re choosing to support moving forward—you as a writer have similar power in who you choose to work and engage with. Who are the agents who are sticking by their clients, by authors of color, and by their books? Who are the ones who are speaking out and resisting and advocating for change even in the face of these headwinds? They’re neither mercenary sharks nor spineless jellyfish—they’re the giants of the deep bringing about the publishing future we deserve.
Amanda Orozco is a senior literary agent at the Transatlantic Agency. She graduated from New York University with her master’s of science in Publishing: Digital and Print Media. Before joining Transatlantic, she worked in subsidiary rights at Little, Brown and at Park & Fine Literary and Media. While at NYU, she interned at the National Book Foundation, Shreve Williams Public Relations, and the Gernert Company. She lives in Los Angeles.
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