- Work days for a literary agent vary depending on the agent's location and the size of the company. However, most literary agents spend their mornings talking to the overseas publishing houses. Due to the time difference, mornings are usually the only time that North American agents are able to conduct business with the foreign publishing houses. Agents will negotiate and finalize foreign rights and contracts with the overseas publishers. Once the agent is done with conducting foreign business the agent will begin to get caught up on email, check the literary trade publications and book blogs for the latest news and go to staff meetings.
- Most literary agents spend their lunchtime having lunch with editors from various publishing houses. Usually when an agent gets a manuscript, an agent will try to determine which editor would like this manuscript. The agent will then set up a lunch time meeting where the agent will chat with the editor and try and get a feel for what type of manuscript the editor is currently looking to publish. On those days that a literary agent has no scheduled lunches with editors he usually still spends his lunch working. The agent will read manuscripts, catch up on email and go through the trade publications, if she hasn't done so already.
- A literary agent may spend the afternoon catching up on email accumulated during lunch, attending staff meetings and go through the latest stack of query letters from authors seeking representation. An agent will also spend the afternoon communicating with the authors that they represent, keeping the author updated on rights negotiations with publishing houses, checking the author's progress on his latest work, or just being there to listen and support the author. A literary agent will also spend her time submitting hard copy manuscripts to editors and talking to editors about manuscripts that she has already sent over. For many literary agents, the work day continues on into the evening. He may spend his evenings attending a book launch. Book launches are important to agents, even if the author is not one that she represents. Book launches are an important networking opportunity as well as being a time to talk to editors about what type of books they are looking to publish. If an editor isn't attending a book launch he is usually busy reading manuscripts at home, since most editors are too busy at work to read new manuscripts at the office.
