Nathan Bransford - The Forums

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! :)

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.

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

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!

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!

That's a great idea, thanks! :)