Janet Benrey says, "Many of my literary-agent colleagues began their careers at large publishing companies; I followed a different path. I've worked in several different jobs that have had two common themes: marketing and publishing. My diverse background — including my work as a novelist — provides the wide-ranging experience I need to identify and successfully represent high-quality literary properties.

"The heart of my agenting style is to build strong working relationships with authors. I'm proud of my reputation as an accessible, responsive agent — an agent willing to chat with clients whenever time permits.

"Of course, my highly personalized agenting approach limits the number of authors I can represent. I must tightly control my client list so that I can effectively serve a small group of authors whose work I truly believe in."

Ron Benrey says, "I bring an unusual background to literary representation: I'm a highly experienced writer — of both fiction and non-fiction — who's also an attorney familiar with publishing agreements, rights and subrights issues, and copyright law.

"As an agent, I enjoy working with good writers to fine-tune their novels and proposals, to increase the likelihood of capturing an editor's interest. Alas, as Janet noted, this kind of personalized agenting means that I must limit my client list to a few authors. I'm especially interested in representing high quality mainstream fiction and non-fiction."

Information about Benrey Literary Agency and the agency's submission guidelines are available at: http://www.benreyliterary.com. Please note that the agency only accepts electronic submissions that meet posted guidelines and which are sent to the specific email address on Benrey Literary's website. Submissions sent to the Benrey+Benrey webmaster will be automatically discarded, as will unsolicited hard copy submissions sent to Benrey+Benrey's post office box.