12 Agents Looking for Narrative Nonfiction and Cultural Criticism
Where to Query This Week (2.12.25) | Plus an agent breaks down the complexities of negotiating cookbook and full-color book deals
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to Query This Week!
Today, I’m excited to welcome
, a literary agent and author of the newsletter, ! In today’s essay, Sally shares a behind-the-scenes look at the unique complexities of negotiating cookbook and full-color book deals. She shows us how to align your creative vision with the realities of publishing, budgeting, and securing the right support for your book’s success.
Behind the Scenes of Cookbook Deals: Navigating Costs, Contracts, and Creative Vision
There are a lot of great posts about what an agent does, how to query one, and what’s important about the agent/author relationship. Accordingly, let’s discuss a particular nuance to the work I do as an agent who specializes in cookbooks.
99% of cookbooks have some sort of highly visual element, whether it be photography, illustrations, or a combination of the two. That means that cookbooks are expensive to produce, which adds an extra layer when it comes to negotiating their deals.
How does representing full-color books impact how I agent?
Cookbook deals usually have a lot of moving parts to negotiate. Heading into signing a client, I like to ensure that we are aligned in our expectations around their financial goals and the many expenses involved. This includes, but is not limited to, potentially hiring a food photographer, stylist, and outside recipe testers, as well as renting a studio space to shoot.
Let’s say an author signs a book contract with one of the Big Five Publishers—Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, or Macmillan—and their payment schedule is in quarters since the deal is for over $150k (six-figure advances often mean quarterly payments). The first two installments are paid on 1) the signing of the publishing contract and 2) the delivery & acceptance of the material, including all the images.
This means the author must be able to hire and pay a LOT of their expenses out of their first two publisher payments. Thus, when I am negotiating the deal, I need to ensure that the first two payments can cover outside collaborators AND ideally leave some money for the author themselves to develop recipes and write.
Wait, the author pays for the photography?
It depends. But generally speaking, most of the Big Five structure their contracts in the US market so the author has to earn out the photography component of their book deal. That is either through their advance or through a portion of the advance that the publisher reserves to pay directly to a photographer. Either way, it is charged against the author’s advance account.
Every now and then a publisher will commission and pay for photography directly, without charging it against the author's advance account. For a deep dive into these nuances, check out the newsletter I wrote called Bites Camera Action.
Whoa, this feels like a lot to think about ahead of time. What’s the best way to map out what I want my book to look like visually?
It’s true, navigating the art component of your non-fiction book is complex. You don’t have to be an expert in how you will secure images or illustrations, but you should know what you want your book to look and feel like.
The best way to stand out to a cookbook agent, or any agent you are querying in the non-fiction genre, is to work on a comprehensive book proposal. I go into detail about the “why” behind each section of a book proposal here, including what goes into your vision section.
My advice is to do your homework, write a great proposal, and pitch the book you want to write. Leave the details of how it will all come together to your agent. Look for agents who are experts in the genre you want to write. You can find them in the acknowledgment section of your favorite books or in newsletters like this one! See here for insight about how I sign new clients.
Sally Ekus is a Senior Literary Agent at JVNLA where she spearheads The Ekus Group, a boutique culinary division specializing in cookbook and lifestyle titles. She represents a wide range of culinary, health, wellness, and lifestyle talent, from first-time cookbook authors to chefs, restaurant owners, professional food writers, bloggers, online creators, and journalists. On the non-culinary side, Sally represents books about caregiving and parenting, and is expanding into select other non-fiction genres. From concept to contract, she has brokered over 300 book deals with top publishers including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and numerous indie publishers. Sally hosts an online community called How to be a Cookbook Author and writes the Not So Secret Agent newsletter.
Sally loves cooking and conceptualizing new spicy dishes. She is a dedicated supporter and previous board member of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society New England Chapter and currently sits on the board of Happier Valley Comedy. She is an active member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Women’s Media Group, The Association of American Literary Agents, and the Cherry Bombe Bombesquad among other organizations. She is a mom, taco lover, and improviser.
If you want to ask a question in our Query Hotline, fill out the form here with any questions you might have about querying—whether that’s around agents, indie presses, book contests, formatting, genres, or if you just need someone to tell you you’re doing just fine.
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12 Agents Looking for Narrative Nonfiction and Cultural Criticism
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