The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency—formally known as the Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency—is a New York boutique literary agency representing fiction and nonfiction. For writers, the important question is not simply whether the agency accepts submissions. It is whether a manuscript fits the agency’s editorial taste, commercial positioning, and rights strategy well enough to earn serious consideration.
Founded in 2002, the agency describes itself as a full-service literary boutique. It represents award-winning and bestselling books while working with co-agents on foreign, film, and other subsidiary rights. That combination matters because literary representation is not only about selling a manuscript to a publisher; it can also involve shaping a project, negotiating contracts, managing rights, and supporting an author’s longer career.
Elizabeth Kaplan Agency at a Glance
Here are the essential facts writers should know:
- Official name: The Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency, Inc.
- Founded: 2002
- Location: 138 West 25th Street, Suite 1018, New York, NY 10001
- Agency type: Full-service boutique literary agency
- Core categories: Literary fiction, upmarket women’s fiction, young adult, middle grade, memoir, biography, history, pop culture, practical nonfiction, and narrative nonfiction
- Submission method: Email query, with no attachments
- Rights support: Foreign, film, book-to-film, and other subsidiary-rights work through agents and co-agents
These details are listed on the agency’s official website and current submission page. Writers should always treat the agency’s own guidelines as the controlling source because third-party literary-agent directories can become outdated.
What Is the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency?
The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency represents the best of both worlds: a large corporate agency and one talented representative. The boutique nature of the company implies having a reduced number of employees, but the main page states an emphasis on fiction and nonfiction representation.
This division is essential as literary agents usually perform various functions associated with book publishing besides representing authors’ interests. For instance, a competent agent assists in negotiating advances and contracts, offering professional advice on story structure, conducting market research, choosing suitable book genres, and identifying the target audience.
The company’s website mentions such elements several times, highlighting its expertise in editorial and developmental editing, as well as finding the right publishers for clients’ manuscripts. Overall, Elizabeth Kaplan Agency advertises a wide range of services provided to authors. It works with children’s books, young adult fiction, and the main page lists several types of nonfiction books. Therefore, the company appears to be small but not limited to one genre, which makes the business intriguing and attractive to authors who seek inspiration in multiple niches.
Who Founded the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency?
Elizabeth Kaplan founded the agency after developing experience on both the editorial and agenting sides of publishing. She graduated from the University of Michigan, moved to New York, and began her career as an assistant to Summit Books founder Jim Silberman.
Kaplan later worked as an editor at Summit, assisted influential literary agent Sterling Lord, and held agent roles at Sterling Lord Literistic and the Ellen Levine Agency. She established her own firm in 2002.
This background helps explain the agency’s apparent emphasis on editorial judgment rather than dealmaking alone. An agent who understands how editors evaluate manuscripts can often identify structural, narrative, or positioning problems before a project reaches publishers.
Kaplan’s stated interests include literary fiction, young adult fiction, issue-driven narrative nonfiction, history, biography, memoir, food writing, and cookbooks. In an interview with Kirkus Reviews, she emphasized strong stories, memorable characters, transformative experiences, and books that deepen understanding or create community.
Those comments offer useful clues for prospective authors. A manuscript may fit a listed genre but still struggle if it lacks a compelling narrative engine, an emotionally meaningful perspective, or a clear reason readers should care.
Meet the Current Elizabeth Kaplan Agency Team
As of July 2026, the official team page lists four people with distinct responsibilities.
Elizabeth Kaplan, Founder
Kaplan leads the agency and is presented as an editorially engaged agent with experience developing critically acclaimed and commercially successful projects. Her interests cross adult nonfiction, literary fiction, young adult books, memoir, history, biography, and food-related publishing.
Benjamin Kravitz, Literary Agent
Benjamin Kravitz graduated from Brown University with a degree in English. His background includes work as a freelance writer, editor, and co-writer of fiction and nonfiction.
His stated interests include:
- Literary fiction
- Essay collections
- Cultural criticism
- Military history
- Intellectual history
- Narrative journalism
These categories suggest an interest in ideas-driven projects that remain readable and narratively engaging.
Madeline Riske, Assistant
Madeline Riske graduated from the University of Iowa’s creative writing program. According to the agency, she is especially interested in women’s fiction, young adult fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Although assistants do not necessarily maintain independent client lists, their tastes can still influence reading, evaluation, and editorial conversations inside a boutique agency.
Brian McGuffog, Foreign Rights Agent
Brian McGuffog handles foreign rights and book-to-film work. His role signals that the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency considers international markets and adaptation possibilities as part of representation rather than as an afterthought.
For authors, that distinction can become commercially significant. A book’s English-language publication may be only one part of its potential value.
Genres the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency Represents
The agency currently welcomes new authors in several clearly identified categories:
- Narrative nonfiction
- Practical nonfiction
- Biography
- History
- Memoir
- Pop culture
- Literary fiction
- Young adult fiction
- Middle grade fiction
- Upmarket women’s fiction
This list reveals an important pattern. The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency appears drawn to projects that combine a strong narrative structure with intellectual, emotional, cultural, or practical substance.
Narrative and Practical Nonfiction
Narrative nonfiction uses storytelling techniques to explore real people, events, ideas, or social issues. It often combines reporting or research with character, conflict, setting, and progression.
Practical nonfiction makes a promise to help the reader understand, improve, or accomplish something. The strongest projects usually offer more than general advice. They present a distinctive method, useful framework, credible authority, and identifiable audience.
For both categories, expertise alone is rarely enough. A competitive proposal normally needs:
- A clear target reader
- A fresh central argument
- A strong chapter structure
- Relevant author credentials
- Evidence of market demand
- Comparable books
- A realistic promotion or platform plan
Literary and Upmarket Fiction
Literary fiction generally prioritizes voice, language, psychology, form, or thematic depth. Upmarket fiction tends to combine polished writing with a highly accessible premise and stronger commercial momentum.
The two categories can overlap. A novel may contain sophisticated prose and serious themes while still offering suspense, romance, mystery, family conflict, or book-club appeal.
For fiction, the fit is likely strongest when a manuscript offers:
- Polished prose
- Sharply observed characters
- Emotional or psychological stakes
- A premise that can be communicated clearly
- Narrative movement from the opening pages
- A recognizable audience
“Literary” does not mean plotless. Calling a slow manuscript literary will not compensate for missing tension, unclear character motivation, or an unfocused opening.
Young Adult and Middle Grade Fiction
The agency has a documented history in children’s and young adult publishing, including work connected to E. Lockhart and Emily Jenkins. Kaplan has also spoken positively about the willingness of younger readers’ literature to experiment with style, subject, and form.
A strong young adult manuscript still needs a convincing teenage perspective. Middle grade fiction requires its own age-appropriate voice, emotional framework, themes, length, and level of independence for its central characters.
What the Agency Does Not Represent
The current submission guidelines state that the agency does not represent:
- Screenplays
- Poetry
- Science fiction
- Fantasy
Writers should take these exclusions literally. Sending a clearly excluded genre does not demonstrate ambition or confidence. It demonstrates that the instructions were not followed.
Genre labeling also requires care. A novel containing one unusual or speculative element may still be positioned as literary or upmarket fiction. An unmistakable epic fantasy, however, will not become a suitable submission merely because the author labels it “literary fiction.”
The manuscript’s dominant reading experience should determine how it is pitched.
Notable Authors, Books, and Market Credibility
The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency has been associated with a broad range of recognized authors and titles. Kirkus identified represented projects including:
- E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
- Michael Ruhlman’s The Making of a Chef
- Jean Edward Smith’s FDR
- Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson’s Animals Make Us Human
- Chris Gardner’s Start Where You Are
These works cover young adult fiction, biography, food writing, animal behavior, personal development, and narrative nonfiction. That range supports the agency’s description of itself as a fiction-and-nonfiction boutique rather than a specialist in only one subject.
E. Lockhart and Long-Term Career Development
E. Lockhart’s publishing career offers a particularly visible example of sustained representation. The agency has been connected to We Were Liars, Genuine Fraud, Family of Liars, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and other projects.
The agency reported that We Were Liars reached three million copies sold worldwide by September 2025. Its screen adaptation also generated extensive coverage across major entertainment publications.
The agency additionally reported that We Fell Apart debuted at number five on a New York Times series bestseller list in November 2025. In July 2026, We Were Liars was selected as Prime Book Club’s book of the month.
That matters because literary representation should not be evaluated only by isolated deals. Backlist growth, adaptations, sequels, media coverage, international editions, and future projects can all contribute to a sustainable author career.
Recent Agency Activity
The agency’s public news section continued to feature releases, adaptations, awards, bestseller placements, media appearances, and forthcoming titles through 2026.
Recent updates included recognition for Mind Drama, coverage of Hope Edelman’s Motherless Daughters, an announced Nancy Drew-related project involving E. Lockhart and Sarah Mlynowski, and promotion for forthcoming fiction and nonfiction titles.
These updates indicate an active list rather than a dormant agency relying entirely on older publishing credits.
How the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency Submission Process Works
The agency’s current submission instructions are concise:
- Send a query letter to
- Do not send attachments.
- Fiction writers may paste the first ten pages into the email body.
- The agency replies only when interested.
That final point is important. Silence may function as a rejection, so writers should record the submission date and continue approaching other suitable agents unless an exclusive reading period has been specifically agreed upon.
The official submission page does not promise a standard response period.
A third-party tracker contains limited recent response data, but it warns that its statistics are submitted by users rather than confirmed by the agency. Response-time estimates from directories should therefore be treated as anecdotal.
How to Write a Strong Query for the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency
A query letter is not a complete summary of everything contained in a manuscript. It is a short decision document.
The letter should allow an agent to understand the project, audience, central conflict, market position, and author in a few focused paragraphs.
Query Structure for Fiction
Open with the protagonist, disruptive event, central goal, and consequences of failure. Focus on the main narrative rather than explaining every subplot or character.
The pitch should answer four questions quickly:
- Who drives the story?
- What does that person want?
- What prevents them from getting it?
- What happens if they fail?
After the pitch, provide:
- Book title
- Word count
- Genre
- Age category
- Two relevant comparison titles
- Short author biography
Comparisons should clarify the book’s readership, tone, structure, or market position. They should not be used to predict that the novel will sell as many copies as a global phenomenon.
Paste only the requested ten pages. Do not replace the opening with a synopsis, author statement, table of contents, or explanation of revisions you intend to make later.
Query Structure for Nonfiction
A nonfiction query should lead with the problem, promise, argument, or central discovery. Explain what the book helps readers understand or accomplish and why the approach is meaningfully different from existing books.
A persuasive nonfiction query should briefly establish:
- The target audience
- The book’s distinctive argument
- The author’s qualifications
- Existing platform or audience access
- Relevant comparable titles
- Current manuscript or proposal status
Kaplan has publicly discussed the importance of voice, marketplace awareness, dedication, sales history, and platform when considering certain previously self-published authors. That does not mean every writer needs celebrity-level reach, but evidence of real audience connection can strengthen a nonfiction pitch.
A platform may include professional authority, newsletter subscribers, speaking experience, media access, teaching, organizational partnerships, research credentials, community leadership, or a highly engaged social audience.
Numbers help. Vague claims such as “I have a large online following” are weaker than specific, verifiable information about subscriber totals, engagement, event attendance, or media reach.
Is Your Manuscript a Strong Fit?
Before querying the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency, assess the project honestly against the agency’s stated interests.
Strong-Fit Indicators
- The manuscript falls within a currently accepted category.
- Its intended reader can be described clearly.
- The central idea or story can be pitched in a few sentences.
- The writing is polished at the sentence level.
- The project carries emotional, intellectual, cultural, or practical value.
- The opening pages create immediate narrative momentum.
- The author’s expertise supports a nonfiction premise.
- Comparable titles demonstrate a realistic market position.
- The project may have meaningful international or adaptation potential.
Weak-Fit Indicators
- The project belongs to an excluded genre.
- The query relies on praise instead of explaining the premise.
- The word count falls far outside market expectations without a compelling reason.
- The author compares the book only to historic global bestsellers.
- The opening begins with extensive background rather than action, tension, or a compelling voice.
- The submission ignores the no-attachments rule.
- The nonfiction concept lacks a defined reader or author authority.
- The pitch hides the actual conflict to avoid “spoilers.”
The best strategy is not to distort a mismatched manuscript to attract one agent. Identify where the book naturally belongs, then approach agents whose interests, clients, and publishing activity support that category.
What Full-Service Representation Can Mean for Authors
The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency states that it works with co-agents to handle foreign, film, and other subsidiary rights. Its team page also assigns foreign-rights and book-to-film responsibilities to Brian McGuffog.
Subsidiary rights may include:
- Foreign-language editions
- UK or Commonwealth publication
- Audio rights
- Film and television adaptation
- Dramatic rights
- Merchandising
- Serial or excerpt rights
- Educational licensing
Not every project will generate activity in every category. Still, a coherent rights strategy can extend a book’s commercial life far beyond its first domestic edition.
Authors should understand which rights an agency intends to grant to a publisher, retain, or license separately. Those decisions must be considered contract by contract.
Before signing a representation agreement, ask about:
- Editorial expectations
- Communication frequency
- Submission strategy
- Commission structure
- Expense policies
- Foreign-rights arrangements
- Film and television representation
- Accounting procedures
- Termination provisions
- Treatment of unsold rights
- Commission on deals completed after termination
The Authors Guild recommends examining the scope of representation, sub-agent authority, commission arrangements, and post-termination provisions carefully before signing an agency agreement.
Is the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency Legitimate?
Public evidence supports the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency as an established New York literary agency with a history dating to 2002, an identifiable professional team, official submission instructions, a public catalog, and documented connections to recognized authors, books, and publishers.
The agency also maintains current news about releases, bestseller placements, media appearances, awards, foreign rights, and adaptations.
Writers should still perform due diligence before entering any professional relationship. Verify that messages come from the agency’s official domain, research recent projects, request clarity about financial terms, and read the representation agreement carefully.
Leading publishing-industry guidance warns writers against agents who charge reading fees for evaluating work submitted for possible representation. The Association of American Literary Agents prohibits such fees for its members, while the Authors Guild advises writers to be cautious when an agent requests them.
Impersonation is another risk. Scammers sometimes use the names of genuine agents, authors, or publishers, so an unsolicited message should be verified independently through official contact information before documents or money are exchanged.
Common Submission Mistakes to Avoid
Writers often lose opportunities through preventable errors rather than weak concepts.
Avoid these mistakes when approaching the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency:
- Sending an attachment despite the explicit instruction
- Querying poetry, screenplays, science fiction, or fantasy
- Omitting the book’s genre and word count
- Writing a long autobiography instead of pitching the manuscript
- Describing the intended reader as “everyone”
- Claiming bestseller status is guaranteed
- Sending unedited opening pages
- Hiding the central conflict behind rhetorical questions
- Using comparison titles that are outdated or irrelevant
- Following up repeatedly when the agency says it responds only when interested
- Sending mass email addressed to multiple agencies
- Using an exaggerated or misleading platform claim
Professionalism is straightforward: follow the directions, research the recipient, present the strongest available version of the work, and make the evaluation process easier.
Final Verdict: Should You Query the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency?
The Elizabeth Kaplan Agency is most relevant to writers producing literary or upmarket fiction, young adult or middle grade books, memoir, biography, history, cultural criticism, narrative journalism, practical nonfiction, and issue-driven narrative nonfiction.
Its public record suggests particular strength in editorially ambitious books that also possess a recognizable readership. The agency appears interested in writing that combines substance with storytelling rather than choosing between the two.
Do not query merely because the agency has represented famous authors. Study its current interests, identify the most relevant agent, sharpen the manuscript’s positioning, and make sure the opening pages deliver the same promise as the query.
Your next step is concrete. Compare your manuscript against the agency’s accepted genres, revise the query until its hook is unmistakable, paste the requested sample pages into the email body, and submit through the official query address.
Then continue building a carefully researched list of suitable agents. A professional submission strategy should never depend entirely on one response.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency open to submissions?
Yes. The official submission page currently invites query letters for its listed fiction and nonfiction categories.
Writers should email , avoid attachments, and paste the first ten pages into the message body only when submitting fiction. The agency states that it replies only to submissions in which it is interested.
2. What genres does Elizabeth Kaplan represent?
Elizabeth Kaplan’s stated interests include literary fiction, young adult fiction, narrative nonfiction, history, biography, memoir, food writing, and cookbooks.
The wider agency also welcomes practical nonfiction, middle grade fiction, pop culture, and upmarket women’s fiction. Benjamin Kravitz has additionally expressed interest in essay collections, cultural criticism, intellectual and military history, literary fiction, and narrative journalism.
3. Does the Emerson normand carville represent fantasy or science fiction?
No. Its current guidelines explicitly exclude fantasy and science fiction, along with poetry and screenplays.
Authors working in those categories should target agents who specifically request speculative fiction. Renaming a fantasy or science-fiction manuscript as literary fiction is unlikely to overcome an obvious mismatch.
4. How long does the agency take to respond?
The official guidelines do not publish a guaranteed response period. They state that the agency can respond only to queries it finds interesting.
A third-party database contains limited, self-reported response information, but that data is not supplied or verified by the agency. Writers should therefore avoid treating directory averages as official deadlines.
5. What should a query letter include?
A fiction query should contain a focused story pitch, title, word count, genre, age category where relevant, comparison titles, and a brief author biography. The first ten pages may be pasted beneath the letter.
A nonfiction query should explain the central idea, intended reader, author authority, market difference, comparable books, platform, and proposal status. In both cases, clarity and specificity are more persuasive than hype.
