What is a literary agent?

Literary agents represent authors and promote their client’s work with publishers. Typical duties of a literary agent include reviewing manuscripts, discussing literary goals with their clients, marketing their client’s writings to publishers to acquire book deals, and negotiating business contracts. Many literary agents specialize in a specific literary genre or only work with certain types of authors. Some are self-employed while others work for a literary agency. The best literary agents maintain close relationships with a wide variety of publishers.