frequently asked questions

1. Who is Writers Representatives, LLC?
2. What does Writers Reps do?
3. What do you mean by "trade books"?
4. What publishers have you sold books to?
5. Do you have a specialty?
6. Do you represent original screenplays?
7. Why not?
8. Do you charge fees to read manuscripts or proposals?
9. How long does it take for you to respond to over-the-transom submissions?
10. Can I call to ask for a status report on whether my material has been read and what you thought about it?
11. Why did you reject my book proposal?
12. Why won't you give me feedback on what I should do to improve my writing or how to construct a proposal?
13. I am going to be in New York. May we schedule a meeting?
14. What kind of manuscript material should I send you for you to consider, and how should I send it?
15. Will you send me back my manuscript if you are not interested?
16. What if I have submitted or am simultaneously submitting my material to other agents or publishers?
17. What are your commissions?
18. On what legal basis do you represent a work and what is the extent of your agency?
19. What expenses am I responsible for?
20. Do you sell magazine articles?
21. How can I reach you?
22. Do you accept queries by email?
23. Why didn't I hear back from you about my electronic query?

1. Who is Writers Representatives, LLC?
   We are a literary agency founded in 1985 by Lynn Chu and Glen Hartley. Glen Hartley's wide experience in book publishing includes top marketing and publisher positions at The University of Chicago Press, Cornell University Press, Simon & Schuster, and Harper & Row (now HarperCollins). Lynn Chu holds a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and is a member of the New York State Bar. Together we provide high-caliber literary representation for writers of nonfiction and fiction. We have sold works to every major, and numerous minor, book and periodical publishers and film companies around the world.
2. What does Writers Reps do?
   We represent authors of trade books in the sale or licensing of rights to appropriate publishers (and other copyright licensees) on the best possible terms and in all media.
3. What do you mean by "trade books"?
   Trade books are books sold in retail bookstores (and, these days, internet bookstores) to ordinary readers — the general reading public who read for pleasure.
   
   Technically, trade books are books sold at publisher's "trade discounts," (i.e., sold at retail discounts from the books list price), in contrast to "short discount" books (ie, books printed in very small quantities, at very low to no discount from list price). Short discount books are usually books published by university presses or other small specialized presses, often nonprofit, which the publisher expects to sell in relatively low numbers to dedicated target audiences.
4. What publishers have you sold books to?
   We have sold works to most major publishers in the U.S. and abroad and many smaller publishers (as well as rights to numerous film and television producers, magazines and newspapers, syndication outfits, audio houses, book clubs, etc.) including Addison-Wesley, Avon, Ballantine, Bantam, Basic Books, Bloomsbury USA, Broadway Books, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, City Lights, Collier, Crown, Crown Forum, Cumberland House/WND Books, Dell, Doubleday, Dutton, Encounter Books, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Grove/Atlantic, The Free Press, Harcourt, HarperCollins, HarperSanFransisco, Henry Holt, Houghton-Mifflin, Hyperion, Alfred A. Knopf, Little Brown, Macmillan, University of Michigan Press, William Morrow, University of Nebraska Press, New Republic Books, W.W. Norton, Overlook Press, Oxford University Press, Pantheon, Penguin, Perseus Press, Pocket Books, Portfolio, Prima, Public Affairs, Putnam, Random House, Regnery-Gateway, Riverhead, Rugged Land, Scribner, Sentinel, St. Martin's, Simon & Schuster, Times Books, Viking Penguin, Villard, Vintage, Warner Books, Watson-Guptill (Billboard Publications), Westview Press, and Yale University Press.
5. Do you have a specialty?
   We are best known for serious or literary non-fiction and fiction. While we are open to various non-literary or non-"serious" genres such as self-help, humor, reference, science fiction, mysteries, and cookbooks, our tastes usually run to high quality writing with some sophistication or literary aspiration, and to history, sociology, biography and current affairs (where the writer's aspiration may be more scholarly or polemical than specifically literary).
6. Do you represent original screenplays?
   No.
7. Why not?
   We're book people dedicated to reading over watching. Screenwriting is a very different art.
8. Do you charge fees to read manuscripts or proposals?
   No, we do not. Our policy is that we will read material that comes in "over-the-transom," as soon as we can get to it.
9. How long does it take for you to respond to over-the-transom submissions?
   A while. Possibly a long while. Or possibly not long at all. Depending on the amount of material we have received, a response can take from from one to two months.
   
   The old line "don't call us, we will call you" isn't a put down — it's just a reality for over-the-transom or walk-in submissions. Because the agency is small and our existing clients come first, it can take time for your book to levitate to the top of the heap. If it's taking too long for your taste, just remember — you're not paying us to read your stuff; reading takes time; and you're always free to send your work to anyone you like. If you don't hear from us, you should simply assume we're not interested. If we are interested, we will call you. If you have found another agent in the interim, ç'est la vie; we salute you with heartfelt best wishes for success.
10. Can I call to ask for a status report on whether my material has been read and what you thought about it?
    Try not to telephone to ask us whether we have read your material yet if you are an over-the-transom writer and not one of our established clients, someone personally referred by one of our established clients, or someone we have solicited and whose work we know. There is so much material in the office at any one time it can be hard to track yours down, especially on a phone call. If we are interested in you based on what we have read, we will call you. If not, you will eventually get your stuff back in your self-addressed stamped envelope with either a rejection slip or, perhaps, a letter containing whatever comments, criticisms, encouragement, or advice happened to strike the person who read your work.
11. Why did you reject my book proposal?
    The agency is small and highly selective. Because we give intensive, personalized, sophisticated services to our existing clients, we must be careful of what we take on.
12. Why won't you give me feedback on what I should do to improve my writing or how to construct a proposal?
    We only have the time to advise our clients, not authors of over-the-transom material whom we have not yet agreed to represent. Like doctors, lawyers, carpenters, and plumbers, our advice and counsel has professional value which we render on a professional basis.
13. I am going to be in New York. May we schedule a meeting?
    Again, unless we are already familiar with your work and have asked to represent you, please do not call and ask to come in to the office to meet us. After we have asked to represent you would be the appropriate time to ask to meet.
14. What kind of manuscript material should I send you for you to consider, and how should I send it?
    We prefer to see at least a few chapters of your work, not a synopsis. You may send a "proposal" if your work is non-fiction and you feel that your proposal summarizes your book usefully, but remember, if you are a novice, over-the-transom writer, you must send finished chapters and an outline of the full book. We have to read what you have actually written, not descriptions of what you promise to write. Sending your complete manuscript is fine. Indeed we prefer to receive the full manuscript to a query or synopsis, so long as you have enclosed a large enough self-addressed stamped envelope or prepaid FedEx packet, or the like, for the material's return.
    
    We do not currently accept email queries or email submissions by attachment. When virus protection becomes foolproof, this may change, but for the time being, snail mail only, please.
    
    You also need to detail your professional experience, preferably in a CV or resume, emphasizing background about yourself which is relevant to your book, and a complete list of your previously published works.
15. Will you send me back my manuscript if you are not interested?
    We will, but only if you have originally sent the submission together with a self-addressed stamped envelope sufficient to accommodate its return. If you have not done so, the material is thrown away immediately upon rejection. Please do not call asking us to locate your as yet unreviewed material and to send it back. Also, we do not accept checks for postage sent with the original submission — you must send pre-paid packaging. Nor will we schedule a pick-up by a messenger. Checks for postage sent with the original manuscript material are thrown out along with manuscript material.
    
    This is standard agency policy because tracking and mailing back rejected materials is too onerous an administrative task to do without charge. We will return your materials only if you make it easy for us to do so at the same time the manuscript is reviewed.
16. What if I have submitted or am simultaneously submitting my material to other agents or publishers?
    You must advise us upon submission if a project has been sent to another agent or agents, so that we can decide if we want to spend the time and energy to review it. We may not. It depends on our schedule at that particular time, and our interest.
    
    You must also tell us if your project, in any form, has been previously submitted to publishers and what their response was, precisely. In general, we will not represent any work which has been previously marketed to publishers in any form whatever.
17. What are your commissions?
    Our commission is 15% of all proceeds of a work we represent including all subsidiary rights.
    
    If we negotiate screenwriting or other consulting services agreements for you, our commission is 10%.
    
    Co-agents are sometimes used to effectuate subsidiary rights sales in specialized markets. Their commissions are in addition to the agency's and are usually 10%.
18. On what legal basis do you represent a work and what is the extent of your agency?
    We only agree to represent works on an exclusive basis and as to all rights in the work. This is known as "an agency with an interest" in the work. If we undertake to represent you, we do so on the basis that that the agency is to be your sole and exclusive agent for sales, licenses, or other forms of disposition ("sales") of the project and any project that may be derived from it, such as rights retained for the author from the initial sale; that our interest in the work upon undertaking to represent it is irrevocable and non-terminable; and that the agency is entitled to receive all proceeds from its sale and to deduct its commissions and expenses before any balances are remitted to the author. Exclusivity means an author may not submit a work the agent has agreed to represent to another agent or make an independent deal omitting the agent. Potential buyers approaching the author directly should always be referred to the agent. After the agency undertakes to sell a project, we would have the right to receive all proceeds from any sale, and to commission it, regardless of who contacted whom, or who made the final sale. The agency has the exclusive right to appoint co-agents for the sale of subsidiary rights.
19. What expenses am I responsible for?
    We may charge clients the costs of out-of-house photocopying or for buying books or galleys for manuscript or proposal submissions, messengers, long-distance telephone and long-distance courier services such as FedEx. Any other expenses must be approved by the author. We do our best to minimize all expenses.
20. Do you sell magazine articles?
    For authors we currently represent we may, when requested by the author, handle articles for publication in national periodicals, subject to our standard 15% commission. We do not otherwise commission any regular income from an author's journalism, except for sales of serial or syndication rights of books we represent, or by special arrangement if we negotiate or present the opportunity.
21. How can I reach you?
    Visit our contact us page.
22. Do you accept queries by email?
    Yes, we accept emailed queries. If we like what we read, you'll hear from us.
23. Why didn't I hear back from you about my electronic query?
    Due to the high volume of queries we receive by email, we cannot reply to each one. If you haven't heard back from us after two months, please assume that we aren't interested.

Back to Top