Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors

Aspiring authors routinely ask me to recommend an agent. This is more difficult than you might think. For starters, we work with numerous agents and enjoy good relationships with all of them.

Second, it’s often just as difficult to find an agent as a publisher. Many agents are not accepting clients. However, if your project is good and you are persistent, you will eventually find one.

Rather than recommend a specific agent, I hoped to able to point authors to a list of agents on the Internet. However, I couldn’t find a list that represent Christian authors. Bummer. So, with the help of Vicki, my assistant, I compiled one.

This may not be all the agents that could be listed, but these are the forty or so we work with at Thomas Nelson. While all of them represent Christian authors, they themselves may not necessarily be Christians or represent exclusively Christian authors. If you want to check out an agent or get the opinions of other writers, you might visit ChristianWriters.com or The Absolute Writer Water Cooler, two discussion forums for authors.

Keep in mind that agents typically charge a 15 percent commission. This is standard in the industry. However, you shouldn’t have to pay them until they actually sell your book to a publisher.

Note: If you are one of the agents listed below and want your information edited or removed, please send me an email. If you want to be added to the list, send me an email with your contact information and the names of at least three of your clients who have been published. (I don’t want to list inexperienced agents.)

LITERARY AGENTS Last Updated: 04/16/2008

Mike Atkins Atkins Entertainment 1025 16th Avenue South, Suite 103 Nashville, TN 37212 Website | Email

Matt Bialer Sanford J. Greenburger Associates 55 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10003 Website | Email

Bruce Barbour Literary Management Group 4238 Morriswood Drive Nashville, TN 37204 Website | Email

Mary Chappell Zachary Shuster Harmsworth 535 Boylston Street, Suite 1103 Boston, MA 02116 Website | Email

Rick Christian Alive Communications 7725 Wildflower road Colorado Springs, CO 80920 Website | Email

Jonathan Clements The Nashville Agency P.O. Box 110909 Nashville, TN 37222 Website | Email

Chaz Corzine Blanton Harrell Cooke & Corzine 5300 Virginia Way, Suite 100 Brentwood, TN 37027 Website | Email

Claudia Cross Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. 65 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10012 Website | Email

Greg Daniel Daniel Literary Group 1701 Kingsbury Drive, Suite 100 Nashville, TN 37215 Website | Email

Jan Dennis Dennis Literary 19350 Glen Hollow Circle monument, CO 80132 Website | Email

David Dunham The Dunham Group 2000 Mallory Lane, Suite 130–228 Franklin, TN 37067 Website | Email

John Eames Eames Literary Services, LLC 4117 Hillsboro Pike, Box 103–241 Nashville, TN 37215 Website | Email

Danielle Egan-Miller Browne & Miller Literary Associates 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Suite 460 Chicago, IL 60605 Website | Email

Chris Ferebee Yates & Yates, LLP 1100 Town & Country Road, Suite 1300 Orange, CA 92868 Website | Email

Jennifer Gates Zachary Schuster Harmsworth, A Literary & Entertainment Agency 1776 Broadway, Suite 1405 New York, NY 10019 Website | Email

Joel Gotler Intellectual Property Group 9200 Sunset Blvd. Suite 820 Los Angeles, CA 90069 Website | Email

Steve Green Anvil II Management 12175 Network Boulevard, Suite 150 San Antonio, TX 78249 Website | Email

Joyce Hart Hartline Literary 123 Queenston Drive Pittsburgh PA 15235 Website | Email

Kathryn Helmers Helmers Literary Services P.O. Box 50737 Colorado Springs, CO 80949–3004 Website | Email

Judy Hilsinger Heartfelt Books & Films, Inc. 6100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1660 Los Angeles, CA 90048 Website | Email

Lee Hough Alive Communications 7680 Goddard St. Suite 200 Colorado Springs, CO 80920 Website | Email

Greg Johnson WordServe Literary Group 10152 S. Knoll Circle Highlands Ranch, CO 80130 Website | Email

Beth Jusino Alive Communications 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200 Colorado Springs, CO 80920 Website | Email

Natasha Kern Natasha Kern Literary Agency P.O. Box 1069 White Salmon, WA 98672 Website | Email

Deidre Knight The Knight Agency 570 East Avenue Madison, GA 30650 Website | Email

Janet Kobobel-Grant Books & Such Literary Agency 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170 Santa Rosa, CA 95409-5370 Website | Email

Steve Laube The Steve Laube Agency 5025 N. Central Avenue, #635 Phoenix, AZ 85012–1502 Website | Email

Wendy Lawton Books & Such Literary Agency Central Valley Office Post Office Box 1227 Hilmar, CA 95324 Website | Email

Jeana Ledbetter Yates & Yates, LLP 1100 Town & Country Road, Suite 1300 Orange, CA 92868 Website | Email

Chip MacGregor MacGregor Literary 2373 NW 185th Avenue, #165 Hillsboro, OR 97124 Website | Email

Jan Miller Dupree, Miller & Associates 100 Highland Park Village, Suite 350 Dallas, TX 75205 Website | Email

Kelly L. Mortimer Mortimer Literary Agency 52645 Paui Road Aguanga, CA  92536 Website | Email

Tamela Hancock Murray Hartline Literary 10383 Godwin Drive Manassas, VA 20110–2740 Website | Email

Dan Raines Creative Trust, Inc. 5141 Virginia Way, Suite 320 Brentwood, TN 37027 Website | Email

Leslie Reed Nunn Communications 1612 Ginger Drive Carrollton, TX 75007 Website | Email

David Robie Big Score Productions 1986 Pickering Trail Lancaster, PA 17601 Website | Email

Richard “Bucky” Rosenbaum Rosenbaum & Associates Literary Agency P.O. Box 277 Brentwood, TN 37024-0277 Website | Email

David Sanford Sanford Communications, Inc. 16778 SE Cohiba Court Damascus, OR 97089 Website | Email

Karen Solem P.O. Box 374 24 Park Row Chatham, NY 12037 Website | Email

Ann Spangler Ann Spangler & Company 1420 Pontiac Road, SE Grand Rapids, MI 49506 Website | Email

Les Stobbe Literary Agent 300 Doubleday Road Tryon, NC 28782 Website | Email

Mark Sweeney Mark Sweeney & Associates 28540 Altessa Way, Suite 201 Bonita Springs, FL 34135 Website | Email

David Van Diest Van Diest Literary Agency P.O. Box 1482 Sisters, OR 97759 Website | Email

David Vigliano Vigliano & Associates 405 Park Avenue, Suite 1700 New York,, NY 10022 Website | Email

Frank Weimann The Literary Group International The Stanford Building 51 East 25th Street, Suite 401 New York, NY 10010 Website | Email

Terry Whalin Whalin Literary Agency, LLC 23623 N. Scottsdale Road Suite D-3 #481 Scottsdale, AZ 85255 Website | Email

Etta Wilson Books & Such Literary Agency 1114 Oman Drive Brentwood, TN 37027 Website | Email

Andrew Wolgemuth Wolgemuth & Associates 8600 Crestgate Circle Orlando, FL 32819 Website | Email

Erik Wolgemuth Wolgemuth & Associates 8600 Crestgate Circle Orlando, FL 32819 Website | Email

Robert Wolgemuth Wolgemuth & Associates 8600 Crestgate Circle Orlando, FL 32819 Website | Email

Curtis Yates Yates & Yates, LLP 1100 Town & Country Road, Suite 1300 Orange, CA 92868 Website | Email

Matt Yates Yates & Yates, LLP 1100 Town & Country Road, Suite 1300 Orange, CA 92868 Website | Email

Sealy Yates Yates & Yates, LLP 1100 Town & Country Road, Suite 1300 Orange, CA 92868 Website | Email

Wes Yoder Ambassador Agency P.O. Box 50358 Nashville, TN 37205 Website | Email

Marian Young The Young Agency 156 Fifth Avenue Suite 617 New York, NY 10010 Website | Email

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Comments

[Bonnie Engstrom]

Brandilyn ~ This is very enlightening. I've never heard of many of the agents. I will be excited to check out their websites. Thank you for such valuable information.
Bonnie

[Damon]

Mike, what a great list, as an aspiring author I have more success contacting and engaging Publishing Editor's than I do Agents. I have Editor's who suggest one or two good Agents, but the Agents won't accept unsolicited works. It seems sometimes like I need to hire an Agent to represent my books to an Agent. I look forward to working through your list. Thanks!

[Robert Treskillard]

Thanks, Michael, for sharing this list.

[Joe Tye]

Don't even think about contacting an agent if you haven't developed a quality proposal. There are excellent books by Michael Larsen, Peter Miller, Jeff Herman and others, and also read Michael's article at http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/Downloads/WritingABookProposal.pdf .

[David]

Mike--now THAT is an incredibly useful post. I will be able to recommend it to the "aspiring" authors I so frequently come in contact with. I will clip this page. Thanks!

[Diane Stortz]

Mike,
This is a great list, and I know at least one person I’ll be telling about it.

One addition you might want to make: Etta Wilson. Doing acquisitions I worked with Etta before she became my agent. After quietly and faithfully running her own agency for many years, she recently joined hands with Books and Such. Etta represents children’s writers, primarily, to both Christian and general-market publishers. She’s smart, all class, and a humble servant. I hope she finds a place on your list.

[Sue Dent]

As a debut novelist, I queried a few agents, some on this list. I realized right away that I wouldn't be getting anywhere anytime soon by doing this. I had more luck soliciting small publishers directly. I did so with a professionally edited MS and a professional Query/Synopsis and with God on my side. Worked out well too. I'd not recommend using an agent to anyone who has a debut novel though but that doesn't mean I don't think your list is a good idea. However, there are several out there. I got my first publisher from Writers Market.com and they were Christian. Writers Market had an entire section of Christian publishers. I'm really not sure why you couldn't find a list. Writers Market even has a list of Christian agents. Sally Stuart has a book out with Christian publishers and agents but it has at least one flaw already. It list a certain vanity publisher as traditional. No big deal I guess. You can't catch them all. But Writers Market does a fine job of it as does Absolute Write.com. Also Absolute Write.com is an excellent source for many things, as you stated. Bad/Good publishers, Bad/Good agents.

Just my two-cents,
Sue Dent

[Michael Hyatt]

Sue,

Thanks for your comments. Yes, there are plenty of lists. But as I said in my post, I couldn't find one on the Internet. I wanted to be able to send an email with a link.

Thanks,

Mike

[Sue Dent]

Awwwww, Mike, all the list I referred to I found on the Internet. But again, yours is nice too. :)

[Michael Hyatt]

Sue,

We'll then I'll have to kick myself! Can you share the links. I'd like to see what I missed.

Thanks,

Mike

[Sue Dent]

It's been some time since I looked at any of these lists but the one that was most helpful to me was, again, writersmarket.com They have all publishers and agents listed and seperated by market, sub-market, genre, sub-genre, those accepting MS's, queries, synopsis etc. Agents are listed the same way. However, I think there may be a small fee to join but it is a very small fee. In fact, at the time, all I had to do was buy a copy of Writers' Market magazine to get a free one-year subscription. Lucky me, I didn't need it past the one year! :)

Don't know why you'd kick yourself about your list though. Hey, it's free AND informative!

[Jeremy Myers]

Thanks! I've been looking for something like this for a long time.

[Golden Keyes Parsons]

As a debut author with Thomas Nelson, I was delighted to see my agent, Mary Beth Chappell of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary/Entertainment Agency, on your list. I couldn't imagine negotiating these contractual waters without her, much less even receiving an offer in the first place. I can't help but think this list will be incredibly helpful to aspiring Christian authors. Thank you for posting it.

[Katherine Hyde]

Thanks so much for this terrific list, Mike! There are a number of names on here that have not come up in any of my searches of other sources.

I can't believe I've only just found out about your blog! I'll be visiting regularly from now on.

[Larry Shallenberger]

Brilliant! Thanks for this information.

[SolShine7]

Thanks for making and sharing the list!!! I appreciate it.

[Deb K]

Happy for Golden that she's with Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, but their web site says they do not take unsolicited submissions. One wonders how they find new clients?

[Herman Villanueva]

Mike,
Thank you for the agent's list. This list helps me mine the agent that may represent me. One agent is now looking at my proposal.

I am reading more books now, about three a month. The books I am reading help me chisel and polish my manuscript. Three patterns I see that makes a book effective and transforming book are: 1) it speaks from the heart and has heart warming stories, 2) it is not squimish about presenting the truth, 3) it points to Christ as solution to mankind's problems.

Writng is an almost never ending endeavor. Finding the right word in proper order is fun and challenging. Thank you for making my journey easier by providing the list.

[Abigail Stokes Palsma]

Thanks so much for this list - truly helpful. I wanted to let you know that Kelly Mortimer's website link from this blog is incorrect. I googled her agency's name and was directed to this site: http://www.mortimerliterary.com/.
Thanks again,
Abbi

[Michael Hyatt]

Thanks, Abbi. I have now fixed it.

[Robert Jacoby]

Hi Mike,
Thanks for this list. It's very much appreciated. I only discovered your blog recently, I've been searching around it, but I can't find what I'm looking for: information on what I think is being called in the last few years a revival of "new Christian fiction" and agents/publishers willing to take on new talent in this area.

I've written professionally my entire career. My first novel is complete, I've completed a memoir-through-interview of a life-long merchant marine (two excerpts to be published in literary journals), started a second novel, and have plans for two or three more books. I must not be reaching the right agents for this genre. Do you have any pointers on seeking those agents/publishing houses particularly interested in writers who write realistic Christian fiction (think Flannery O'Connor meets Cormac McCarthy and Michael Ondaatje)?