Agency Desk
The author listings and agency pages in this archive are kept as the agency left them. The Agency Desk is where the people who keep the archive write about what those pages show: how writers approached an agent, how a whole book fits into a short synopsis, and how many of these authors came to fiction after another career.
Querying a Literary Agent, Then and Now
What the Harris Literary Agency's 2009 submission guidelines asked of writers, what a query letter does, how its first lines work, and how titles get chosen.
Writing a Synopsis: What 245 Listings Show
How the 245 book descriptions in the Harris Literary Agency archive compress a manuscript: protagonist, stakes and turn, common mistakes, and how to revise.
Starting to Write Later in Life
Authors in the Harris Literary Agency archive who came to writing after bank, court, clinic or farm, and what their biographies say to adults starting late.