In the book business today, an unsolicited submission to a commercial trade publisher is seldom considered or read. The literary agent then is usually the first reader of an author's work and an agency like ours receives scores of queries, proposals and manuscripts each week.

If you're new to the book business, we urge you to read one of the many publishing primers which describe the process from book concept to marketplace distribution.  It will be an extremely valuable exercise to prepare yourself for the marketplace by buying one or more of these books. One of the best of these primers is one in the Dummies series, Getting Your Book Published; one of the authors is an executive at the Penguin Group. Among the other fine "writers' guides" are:

Agents, Editors and You: The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published
(Writers Market Library)

How to Get Happily Published, Fifth Edition : A Complete and Candid Guide

Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents 2004:
 Who They Are! What They Want! and How
 to Win Them Over!

How to Write a Book Proposal
 by Michael Larsen

We require queries to be delivered by email. Our email address is: query[at]sagalyn.com. Please include your query and cover letters in the text of your email as for security reasons we often do not open attachments. We regret that we do not accept submissions by snail mail unless specifically requested.

We consider a cover letter to be an especially important tool in presenting your work.  In two or three paragraphs, you should articulate the key aspects of the book, including theme, style and approach. A brief synopsis of the book and author credentials should be included.

We are members of the AAR (Association of Author Representatives) and do not charge reading fees in consideration of new book proposals.

Please note that we specialize in quality non-fiction and mainstream fiction. We do not represent authors in a number of categories, e.g. romance, westerns and science fiction, and we do not represent poetry, children's books, or screenplays. Because of the volume of email we receive, we cannot respond to every query.