We’ve spent twenty years building a personal and professional network of relationships with literary agents, and we regularly connect with them to discuss what they’re looking for, what the market it hungry for, and what editors are requesting.

These agents are kind enough to allow us to send them a manuscript recommendation when we find one we think could be a strong fit.

Does that mean a manuscript isn’t amazing if we don’t see a strong fit?

Not at all. We work with a TON of incredible authors who have gone on to land agents on their own, and others who’ve published independently and done beautifully. A fit is a specific book meeting a specific agent at a specific moment; it isn’t a grade on your writing, and it is never a verdict on a writer’s career.

So why can’t we personally recommend every writer?

Our network isn’t unlimited, and agents are specific. Each one represents certain genres—some romance, some book club fiction, some business nonfiction, some science thriller, some middle grade horror, etc. Beyond that, every agent has particular things they’re hungry for at any given moment, and that can shift. Sometimes a client’s manuscript lines up with what someone in our network is looking for right then. Sometimes it doesn’t.

When it doesn’t, that says nothing about the book. There are hundreds of wonderful agents outside our network, and the ones inside it may be looking for something very like your manuscript six months from now. It simply isn’t a match we can make today.

So how does it work?

If your manuscript has gone through the editing process with us, or you’ve come through the ICONIC Program, and we feel the story is ready and someone in our network comes to mind, we’ll make that agent introduction ourselves, free.

And if it isn’t there yet? We’ll say so, and we’ll be specific about what we’d want to see change. That conversation has saved writers a year of querying into silence.

Why don’t we offer introductions based on a proofread or query package?

Both the ICONIC Program and the editing process require us to delve into a manuscript at a foundational level and work with the author to get it ready for querying. That time and that approach let us know the manuscript, and know the author, well enough to recommend both when we see a strong fit.

If we don’t offer one

It isn’t a no, and it’s nowhere near the end of the road. Most authors who get agents get them by querying on their own, and you’ll have everything you need to do exactly that: the query letter, the synopsis, the agent list, and us in your corner while you send it out. You can also revise and come back to us. We’ve worked with writers who weren’t ready the first time and were absolutely ready a year later.

What we never do

We don’t charge for introductions and we don’t take a commission. Ever. If an agent offers you representation, you deal with them directly from that point.