Amanda Harris

About

Amanda is a literary agent at Maven Literary Management.

She trained with a Masters in Comparative English Literature and began her publishing career at Routledge before moving into publicity and editorial roles at Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Orion Publishing. In 2019 she moved to YMU, where she founded their literary division and built her own list of fiction authors. She won Literary Agent of the Year with Maven at the British Book Awards 2025.

Genres

Looking for

• fiction and non-fiction
• writing that makes readers feel less alone and more connected
• a novel exploring the challenges and beauty of life
• non-fiction that sheds light on aspects of the human condition
• ambitious and sweeping storytelling
• strong characterisation
• convincing and engaging dialogue
• quality commercial fiction
• authors whose voices and ideas would work across series or multiple standalone titles
• THE book in the chosen subject area, the title that will become core stock in bookshops, sell on for years, and be the benchmark against which others are measured
• authors who use their expertise, life experience or academic standing to become explainers or problem solvers

Agency submission guidelines

Send a cover letter in the body of your email, with your name and manuscript title in the subject line. Include a one-page synopsis and the first three chapters (approx. 10,000 words), preferably in Word but PDF is also accepted. Manuscripts should be 12 point font and double-spaced. Submit by email to submissions@mavenliterary.com. No postal submissions, and no scripts or screenplays are considered. Fiction: only submit when you have a full manuscript completed. Non-Fiction: include a covering letter ideally no longer than a page, a full outline setting out the aims of each chapter, and if possible, a sample chapter.

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