Articles: Nathan Bransford: A literary agent worth visiting

Just a quick blog post to say that writers, if you haven’t already come across Nathan Bransford you should definitely check out his blog.

Not only is he aa great blogger who manages to make all his posts entertaining, he also offers lots of really useful, honest advice to writers about the way that literary agents look at their work. And, even if you are not interested in getting an agent, he offers some excellent tips on how to improve your writing so that it is more appealing to your audience.

Nathan wrote this article in the New York Times entitled The Rejection Letter of the Future Will Be Silence (And Why This is a Good Thing).
He makes a lot of really great points around the way that the publishing industry is changing. In his opinion, it is no bad thing that digital publishing and self-publishing means that there are lots more books available. He doesn’t like the fact that he has to ‘reject’ many manuscripts because they are not commercially viable for him to take on (and therefore trample on the dreams of many an aspiring writer). The fact is that they may have an audience out there, and now it is possible for an author to try and reach that audience themself:

“The very nature of commercial viability in the publishing world is changing quickly with the transition to e-books, and I think it’s ultimately a change for the better.”

I would definitely recommend that you read the entire article. Nathan Bransford is clearly a very forward thinking literary agent, and although there are exceptions, it often feels like these are in seriously short supply. The sooner literary agents figure out how both themselves, writers and ultimately readers can benefit from the changes taking place around them, the better.

Follow Nathan Bransford on Twitter and takea look at his blog too.