A literary agency championing new, diverse and important voices from South Asia and beyond.
Writer’s Side was set up by Kanishka Gupta in 2010. Since then, it has grown to become the largest literary agency and consultancy in South Asia, representing more than 1,000 writers across different genres from all over the world.
Our roster of clients includes internationally bestselling authors and illustrators, award-winning on-screen talent, leading writers and directors from theatre, film and TV, and high-profile speakers. Our first author Anees Salim has won three of India’s most prestigious literary prizes: the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Crossword Book Award and the Hindu Literary Prize. More recently, Avni Doshi made it to the shortlist of the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction for her debut novel Burnt Sugar (aka Girl in White Cotton), and Daisy Rockwell’s translation of Tomb of Sand won the 2022 International Booker Prize. Writer’s Side has also worked closely with the 2022 Man Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka, and represents his forthcoming books in South Asia.
Other notable clients include: Windham–Campbell Prize winning author Jerry Pinto; investigative journalist Josy Joseph; NDTV founder Dr Prannoy Roy; lawyer and legal activist Indira Jaising; bestselling author, columnist and opinion maker Shobhaa De; acclaimed poet and cultural theorist Ranjit Hoskote; celebrated actor Pankaj Kapur; singer Shubha Mudgal; indie filmmaker Onir; the late Bangladeshi author Numair Atif Choudhury; businessman and Fabindia chairman William Nanda Bissell; award-winning journalist and writer Ashutosh Bhardwaj; Jayaprakash Narayan’s biographer Sujata Prasad; and many more…
Submissions
The Writer’s Side team prides itself on its swiftness and efficiency, the personal feedback and attention it gives to every author, and fair and transparent dealings. The representation never comes with hidden costs, nor do we charge a fee for reading. We sign a standard, uncomplicated agent–author agreement, and we base our fees on earnings from the book and subsidiary rights sales arising from it.
We welcome submissions in all genres, from literary fiction and well-written commercial fiction to narrative non-fiction and business books.
Guidelines
We recommend going through this article by founder Kanishka Gupta on how to do it best.
Please email us the synopsis, your bio, and the first three chapters of your work in Microsoft Word (.docx) format.
Please don’t send us rejected, previously published, or self-published manuscripts.