If you’re an author who is fortunate to be living in the stunning Canadian province of British Columbia, and are looking for a literary agent to help you find a book publisher and negotiate a contract on your behalf, continue reading.
Below we’ve featured 3 top literary agents in British Columbia and have highlighted their backgrounds, the agencies they run, the types of book genres they represent and how they accept queries.
1. Morty Mint
Morty Mint is founder of Mint Literary Agency in Nelson, British Columbia. A veteran of the book industry with more than 50 years of experience in it, he’s worked in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. His background includes running large book publishers such as Penguin Books in both Canada and the US and also as owner of Mint Publishers Group, a book distribution organization. Morty represents commercial fiction, literary fiction, lifestyle books and also narrative nonfiction. Genres he does not work with include young adult fiction, science fiction, poetry, children’s books, picture books and screenplays.
If you’re an author from Canada and would like to make a submission to Morty, you need to start off by sending query email. If your query is of interested, you’ll be requested to forward a full manuscript. Your email query needs to be sent using the standard manuscript format style guide and needs to include a synopsis (1 page long with details of the genre and word count provided). If you’re making a query for fiction, then you also need to send the first 50 pages of your book, and for a nonfiction query, you need to include a book proposal that is 1 page long. Your query email also needs to include a short description about you and your writing experience, and your qualifications. You can find further details here. Monty usually takes 1-2 months to review submissions.
2. Carolyn Swayze
Carolyn Swayze heads up Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency, which is based in Surrey, British Columbia. Carolyn founded this organization in 1994, and before doing so, was a freelance writer and an author of both fiction and nonfiction. Carolyn and her agency since its inception has representing many Canadian authors (both established and first-time writers) and also assisted them in developing their careers as writers.
Genres of books represented by Carolyn and her team (Barry Jones and Kris Rothstein who work as associate agents at the agency) include commercial fiction, literary fiction, history of Canada, creative nonfiction, humor, memoirs, cookbooks and also a selection of books catered to young readers. Carolyn and her agency do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. They are currently closed to submissions due to focusing on their current client list. Having said this, if you’ve written a nonfiction book that you feel would be an excellent fit for Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency, you’re welcome to send a pitch for of your work.
3. Robert Mackwood
Robert Mackwood is Director and Principal Agent at Seventh Avenue Literary Agency, a business he acquired in 2005. He is a highly experienced individual in the publishing industry, and since 1997 has been a literary agent. Before he took over Seventh Avenue Literary Agency, he worked as Vice-President, Director of Marketing and PR at Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group.
Seventh Avenue Literary Agency (previously known as Contemporary Management) is a major Canadian nonfiction literary agency, and throughout its history, has represented high profile individuals such as Kim Campbell, the former Prime Minister and Pat Carney, former Senator, among many others.
If you would like to make a submission to Robert and Seventh Avenue Literary Agency, it is important that you already have some publishing experience, as they rarely work with new authors. If you’re already an experienced author and would like to make a submission for nonfiction (Seventh Avenue Literary Agency only represents nonfiction), it is best to email a brief query first; 2-3 paragraphs about your book and an additional paragraph about you. Do provide a link to your author website and/or links to websites where your previous published work can be found. If your initial mail is of interest, you will be asked to provide further information. Do read the submission guidelines carefully found at this page.
Do you know of other literary agents in British Columbia? Please tell us about them in the comments box below!
Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of Writing Tips Oasis.