Finding the right literary agent or publisher who publishes what you write and who shares a similar set of beliefs can be a challenge. It's not that you need to agree on everything, but you do want to feel connected, like-minded, and equally yoked on the things that matter most as you fulfill the assignment God has called you to.
The first thing you need to do as a steward of your gifts and assignment is to be ready to put in the necessary work to research your options. Who is publishing what you are writing? Do they accept unsolicited book proposals or manuscripts? If not, you need a literary agent to help get you in the door. So now you need to discover which literary agent represents authors who are publishing books like yours.
I am providing some resources that group Christian publishers and literary agents in one place to make your job a bit easier.
A Comprehensive List of Christian Book Publishers
For starters, self-publisher WestBow Press put together a comprehensive list of Christian book publishers that you can go through in batches to make a list of publishers who publish what you are writing. Use their online catalogs and new release lists to see what they publish. You can also search them out on Amazon.com to see what books and authors are listed under their name.
For my Spirit-filled author and writer friends, here is a short list of Spirit-filled Christian traditional publishers:
If you know of more, please add them to the comments below.
Submit Your Book Proposal Directly to Christian Publishers
“ChristianBookProposals.com (formerly ChristianManuscriptSubmissions.com) is a service of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) and was initiated at the specific request of ECPA member publishers looking for new authors and desiring an efficient way to review unsolicited manuscript proposals.” (From ChristianBookProposals.com/about-us)
Lists of Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors
Next, here are a few resources for literary agents who represent Christian authors:
Reedy’s list of “The Best Literary Agents Seeking Christian Submissions”
Lists of Literary Agents of Color
Literary agents of color (includes agents who serve the mainstream publishing market not only Christian)
Black literary agents (includes agents who serve the mainstream publishing market not only Christian)
CAUTION: DO NOT CONTACT AGENTS ON TWITTER OR ANY SOCIAL MEDIA. FIND THEIR SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ON THEIR WEBSITES, AND FOLLOW THOSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONNECTING WITH THEM.
Lists of Christian Writers' Conferences
Writers' conferences are the best places to meet with a fabulous cross-section of editors and agents and pitch them your book ideas. They are also some of the very best places to take book writing classes, get help with crafting a fantastic elevator pitch and book proposal, as well as get help and one-on-one mentoring for the book project you are work on.
Westwind Communications' List of Christian Writer’s Conferences for 2023
The Christian Writer’s Market Guide keeps an updated list
Search Google for “Christian Writers Conferences”
How to Get a Publisher to Consider Your Book Ideas
I'm going to leave you with these quick tips on how to get publishers to consider your book ideas, so that you have the basics in one place for what you need to keep in mind as you seek out a publisher and literary agent:
Do your homework and put together an outstanding book proposal.
Build an outstanding author platform (speaking engagements, social media engagement, website/blog).
Research publishers' manuscript submission guidelines (most often found on their websites), and see if they publish books like yours. Then follow their instructions for submitting your book proposal/manuscript.
Get a literary agent to pitch your book to publishers that don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. Find an agent that represents books like yours and send them a query or book proposal based on their submission guidelines found on their websites. Agents can be found via Google search, at writers' conferences, and by recommendation/referral.
Meet with the publishers' acquisitions editors at writers' conferences/publishing trade shows and pitch your book idea.
Additional Helps and Resources
Here are several other articles I've written that may also help you:
On Crafting a Great Book Proposal
The Secret to a Great Book Proposal
On Developing Your Target Audience
Who Are You Writing For? How to Discover Your Target Audience
Not Cleary Establishing Your Target Audience Will Ruin Your Writing
On Building Your Author Platform
The New Author Platform Is About Building Community
On Publishers
All Things Being Equal, Does It Matter Who You Publish With? About choosing the right publisher
The Secret Life of Acquisitions: The heart behind the acquisitions process
On Agents
5 Reasons I Love Working With Literary Agents: My perspective of working with agents as an acquisitions editor
On Persistence, Waiting, and Dealing with Rejections
The Gift of Gentle Persistence: On the art of the follow-up
7 Ways to Win at Waiting: On waiting for responses from editors, agents, and publishers
Celebrate the Nos in Your Life: On dealing with rejection
10 Ways to Make Rejection Work for You
On Being a Christian Author
15 Websites to Help Writers Keep Up With Christian Publishing Trends
Guest Post: Simple Tips for the Christian Writer
Guest Post: 5 Tips for the Christian Writer
On Writers Conferences
6 Things Writers Should Not Say to Editors or Agents at Writers Conferences
What Happens to Writers After the Writers Conference? Here are 7 things that should NOT happen
General Tips for Submitting Great Book Ideas
7 Questions Every Author Must Be Able to Answer About Their Book
Basic Word Processing Tips for Writers Submitting to Publishers
Free E-Book: GET PUBLISHED: Seven Secrets to Getting Your Manuscript Accepted
The Time Is Now to Take Your Publishing Dreams to the Next Level
Let me know if this helps.
Updated April 26, 2023