Three personal qualities literary agents look for in authors

Which personal qualities do literary agents look for in authors? This is a question I’m asked frequently. Usually by authors who are feeling a little bit nervous about securing representation and think agents might only want to represent a certain type of person. And I get it; agents are gatekeepers and there’s a lot resting on finding an agent to take on your book and you.

As I will go on to show though, there are really only three aspects that the agent will truly care about. And most authors nail these!

If you want further confirmation on this, I spoke to literary agents Sally Ekus and Abigail Fenton too, for their take on which personal qualities they look for in an author. You can read what they had to say further down.

Without further ado, here are the three personal qualities agents look for in authors.

I’ve put this quality first because it comes first in an agent’s reasoning; agents are considering the pitch from the very first line in the query letter, long before they get in touch with the author to have ‘the call’. Publishing is a business and if the book doesn’t have a clear pitch, the agent won’t be offering representation. Therefore, as an author, you need to think about making your pitch as clear as possible. Writing and understanding the industry are two different types of work – but both need to happen before you submit to agents. And as an agent, it’s easier to work with an author who understands the industry they want to break into: they will understand the market, understand (and hopefully share) the vision for the book that the agent presents and also understand what is expected of them as an author.

As Abigail Fenton says, ‘Above all I’m looking for authors who are looking to build a long-term career as an author. That means being open to editorial feedback, understanding that publishing is a business, and full of ideas.’