10 Agents Looking for Literary Fiction
Where to Query This Week (7.16.25) | Agents seeking bold voices, feisty protagonists, cool girl vibes, and more
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to Query This Week!
Thank you all so much for participating in our literary experiment last week, where I gave you an agent to query based on one line about your manuscript. I really enjoyed reading about your projects, and I hope they all find homes very soon!
I noticed a lot of you were pitching literary fiction, so I put this list together to help you keep going with your search. Lit fic is my favorite genre to read, but let’s be real: It can be a tough one to sell. When I was querying, I pitched my novel as both upmarket and literary fiction, and honestly, the line between them felt super thin.
Still, a bunch of my friends who are querying lit fic right now keep getting similar feedback: Agents love the writing, but they want more plot up front, or they just don’t have a clear vision for how to sell it. And yet, there are so many literary novels getting published and read! As you’ll see below, plenty of agents are asking for it.
So don’t get discouraged. Keep querying. And if the rejections keep rolling in, it might be worth exploring whether your book could also fit into the upmarket or commercial space, just to cast a wider net.
I would also say this: Don’t lose track of your vision just to make it more sellable. It might take longer (who are we kidding—this whole process takes forever!!), but there are agents who love this genre, and we know there are a ton of readers who do too.
If you’re still feeling stuck in the literary fiction query letter department, you can check out
’s annotated query letter we published back in May. You can also read the exact letter I used to land my agent, which I just shared in my newsletter here.If you’re querying and want a curated list specially made for your manuscript AND help with your query letter, be sure to check out my Personal Agent List service!
»» Get your own agent list here ««
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Laura Zats
Agent | Headwater Literary Management
Seeking: The primary distinction between literary fiction with speculative elements and general SFF is usually a matter of sales, not content. I’m separating this section out only in the event that you, the reader, haven’t considered querying agents who rep SFF!
I’m looking for a wide range of speculative elements here—from something as fantastical as the Cthulhu monsters in LOVECRAFT COUNTRY to something as subtle as the earth’s slowing rotation backdrop in THE AGE OF MIRACLES.
To query: Send query through QueryManager.