I represent books for the Christian market (CBA), which means that the content of your book concept should include and be specifically targeted for a Christian market.
As one of six agents with Books & Such Literary Management, I collaborate with hopeful and established authors to create the most marketable, appealing manuscripts that will build lasting careers and influence readers.
I’m currently looking for these types of projects to represent:
NON-FICTION: Women’s Issues, Christian Living Issues, Devotionals, Race & Culture, Memoirs, Narrative Nonfiction. Your platform is important, so be prepared to include information about your mailing list, social media reach and number of speaking events.
There are lots of possibilities to write about! I’m looking for books that address marketable felt-need with a fresh perspective.
FICTION (CBA Adult Fiction ONLY): Women’s, Romantic Suspense, Suspense/Thriller, Historical, Romance, Legal and Family Issues. (Limited representation spots)
I’m looking for hope-filled books with interesting characters, a layered plotline and a redemptive message. This is a highly competitive market, so I only have a few representation spots available.
PLEASE NOTE: I do not represent the following: Fantasy, cookbooks, sci-fi, YA books, poetry, children’s, pandemic/Covid-theme fiction or non-fiction related or picture books.
“My heartbeat in life is to help others achieve their goals. I know what it’s like to wonder if someone like me could publish a book. I’m ready to partner with publishers and authors to offer marketable, well-crafted books that inspire others.”
–Barb Roose, Literary Agent | Books & Such Literary Management
Frequently Asked Questions About Writing a Book and Publishing
- "What Do I Need to Know about Writing a Book?"
- "What Do Literary Agents Do?"
- "Do I Need a Literary Agent?"
- "What is a Literary Agent Looking For?"
- "How Can I Talk to a Literary Agent?"
- "Will a Literary Agent Help Me Sell My Book?"
Writing a book is a great life adventure! Whether you’re writing a novel, your memoir, devotional or book to help others. You’ll learn so much about yourself in the process!
You can check out my literary agency’s award winning blog for hundreds of blog posts about getting started on writing a book.
A literary agent is an author’s best friend in the traditional publishing process.
Traditional publishers receive countless numbers of submissions from hopeful authors every day. They are looking for trusted voices to help them locate the most promising prospects.
That’s where literary agents come in.
Literary agents serve as trusted voices and gatekeepers that provide marketable and saleable proposals to traditional publishers.
Literary agents perform functions such as:
1. Negociate contracts;
2. Liasion between author and publisher;
3. Collaborate with authors on their careeer.
As a literary agent, I love working with authors and traditional publishers to bring great projects to market!
Great question!
First, literary agents work with traditional, royalty-paying publishers. If you are self-publishing or indie-publishing, you don’t need a literary agent because there isn’t a contract or royalties to be negociated.
Here are a few times when you do want to reach out to a literary agent:
1. When a traditional publisher expresses strong interest in your proposal or manuscript;
2. If you’ve received an offer for your proposal or manuscript from a traditional publisher;
3. You’d like to establish a career in traditional publishing and you have a marketable and salable idea.
HOW TO CONTACT AN AGENT:
a. Make sure that an agent represents projects in your category. Check the agency website to confirm.
b. Pay attention to the agent or agency submission guidelines. If you don’t follow the guidelines, you will likely not receive a response.
c. Writers conferences are a great way to make personal connections with a literary agent.
As a literary agent, I am looking for three essential ingredients in a potential client and project:
1. “WOW” Concept – I’m looking for fresh book ideas with unique and universal appeal to the writer’s target audience. This means that novels must have a strong hook and non-fiction proposals must have a strong unique selling proposition. You can read more here.
2. Compelling Writing – You should have a defined audience and specific message or genre that connects with them. (Just for clarification, your audience should not be everyone.)
3. Platform – In order for a publisher to feel like they can be successful with a book, they require an author to have an established audience, also known as a platform.
If you have written a proposal, novel or memoir, you will need to have established an email list and social media before submitting a query or proposal to me.
Here is one of many articles on our Books & Such agency blog on the topic of platform.
Here are the most common avenues that create opportunities to connect with a literary agent:
1. Submit a query or proposal via email. (If you aren’t familiar with how to write a query or proposal, click the links for more information.)
2. Attend a writer’s conference. This is one of the best ways to introduce yourself face-to-face to a iterary agent. Here is an article on how to pitch yourself to an agent during an in-person appoirntment.
3. Join a writer’s collective. There are writer groups that often invite literary agents to visit and address the members. You can check out membership groups like Write That Book, Red House Writer Collective, Hope Writers, Compel Writers and Flourish Writers.
There are other ways to meet literary agents, but this list is a good place to start.
Literary agents sell unpublished manuscripts and proposals to publishers, but literary agents do not take the lead role when it comes to marketing an author’s book.
How to request representation:
- Visit the Books & Such Literary Management submissions page to review representation guidelines. It is important to read the guidelines carefully.
- If you want to send an email, address your query/request to representation@booksandsuch.com. If you’d like to specifically request me to represent you, indicate that in the subject line (Example: For Barb Roose)
- You’ll know that your email was received because an automatic response will be sent to you.
- Based on requests for representation, it can take up to 60 days for the agency to decide on representation. Be patient, keep learning and keep writing!
- This process can feel intimidating and overwhelming, especially if you aren’t familiar with publishing language and procedures. Good news! You can educate yourself by reading blog posts at the Books & Such website. That’s where I learned much of what I needed to know!
Finally, writing a book is a worthy dream. It takes courage to engage in the process and incredible commitment to see it through. At the beginning of my journey, I didn’t know anything at all about the publishing industry.
Thankfully, I developed relationships with other authors who helped me find my path. Thanks to my Books & Such agent, Rachelle Gardner, I’ve experienced the dream of publishing multiple books.
I love great books. I love helping people succeed. My goal is to bring those two together as often as I can!