How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Questions for the resident (former) agent
Post Reply
JadePhoenix
Posts: 71
Joined: May 12th, 2010, 1:26 pm
Contact:

How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Post by JadePhoenix » September 27th, 2010, 7:10 pm

Hi Nathan!

I was wondering how to go about becoming a literary agent? I've been researching online and all the research I can find says, "be an intern". The ony problem is I can't find anything on HOW to go about becoming an intern. I'm sure blanketing agencies with unsolicited resumes will do little more than annoy them and, looking on agency websites, I can't find anything about internship opportunities. How would you suggest going about it? How did you go about it?

Thank you for any advice/tips! :)
Last edited by Nathan Bransford on September 27th, 2010, 9:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Edited title

User avatar
Nathan Bransford
Posts: 1553
Joined: December 4th, 2009, 11:17 pm
Location: Pasadena, CA
Contact:

Re: Question About Agenting

Post by Nathan Bransford » September 27th, 2010, 9:30 pm

JadePhoenix wrote:Hi Nathan!

I was wondering how to go about becoming a literary agent? I've been researching online and all the research I can find says, "be an intern". The ony problem is I can't find anything on HOW to go about becoming an intern. I'm sure blanketing agencies with unsolicited resumes will do little more than annoy them and, looking on agency websites, I can't find anything about internship opportunities. How would you suggest going about it? How did you go about it?

Thank you for any advice/tips! :)
The best places to search for intern/assistant openings are the Publishers Marketplace Job Board and the MediaBistro job board (I feel like there's one more that I'm forgetting). Otherwise I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to e-mail your resume to agencies, you never know who might be hiring, though my understanding is that things have tightened up considerably in the last few years. If you're sure this is the career for you, I would find any publishing related job you can and try to start working your way in.

My post on how to become an agent and how the apprenticeship process works is here: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2006/10 ... agent.html

Also I modified your question title to be a bit more specific, hope that's ok.

JadePhoenix
Posts: 71
Joined: May 12th, 2010, 1:26 pm
Contact:

Re: How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Post by JadePhoenix » September 27th, 2010, 9:58 pm

Your title is a lot better than mine so that's fine. Thank you for the information! :)

jkmcdonnell
Posts: 84
Joined: January 14th, 2010, 10:23 pm
Contact:

Re: How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Post by jkmcdonnell » September 28th, 2010, 12:16 pm

Hi there,

I know your question was for Nathan, but you should check out the (paid!) internship program at Curtis Brown UK: http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/internships.aspx

Good luck!

Harper Karcz
Posts: 68
Joined: December 6th, 2009, 5:20 pm
Location: Atlanta
Contact:

Re: How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Post by Harper Karcz » September 29th, 2010, 9:08 pm

Also, just want to throw in that I've seen several agents advertise internships on their blogs and on Twitter. If you haven't made a Twitter list (a twist?) of agents, I recommend that you do!
Having just the vision's no solution
Everything depends on execution.

-- Stephen Sondheim

JadePhoenix
Posts: 71
Joined: May 12th, 2010, 1:26 pm
Contact:

Re: How to Become an Agent/Find an Internship With an Agency?

Post by JadePhoenix » September 29th, 2010, 10:13 pm

That's a great idea, thanks! :)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests