“Just 25 literary agents represent more than half of all prizewinning novelists in the 21st century. The agent is the unacknowledged legislator of the literary field.” — Laura McGrath

We think of publishers and editors as the ultimate tastemakers. As those godlike gatekeepers controlling what we read. But if you’re looking for literary gods, Laura McGrath argues, then you need to look at literary agents rather than publishers or editors. Her ten-year project, Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction, is the first serious scholarly account of the literary agent’s Bismarckian role in shaping what America reads. Except, of course, the Middlemen are actually Middlewomen — since 80% of literary agents are women.

The numbers are striking. Just 25 literary agents represent more than half of all prizewinning novelists in the 21st century. McGrath interviewed 75 of them over ten years. Shelley called poets the unacknowledged legislators of the world (he would, wouldn’t he). But McGrath’s agents are the unacknowledged legislators of the literary field. They shaped postmodernism (Candida Donadio and Pynchon, Heller, Gaddis). They launched the debut novel as a literary form. They made the short story collection viable. And 25 of them control more than half of the literary prizes (the thing that money can’t buy).

So will AI replace the agent? In operations, perhaps, McGrath acknowledges — the slush pile is overwhelming and any smart machine assistance will be welcome. But in creative work — in the business of writing, editing, translation, cover design, and above all taste — she thinks not. No algorithm will ever learn the Catch-22 of publishing — separating the Thomas Pynchon or Joseph Heller from all the dross. And no bot (she, he or they) is ever going to host a three-martini lunch in Manhattan.

Five Takeaways

• The Literary Agent as the New Gatekeeper. Publishers used to be tastemakers: Cerf, Knopf, Perkins. Now publishers are conglomerates. Into the vacuum: the literary agent, operating exactly as the great publishers once did. The primary tastemaker. The first and most consequential gatekeeper.

• 25 Agents, Half the Prizes, 80% Women. Just 25 literary agents represent more than half of all prizewinning novelists in the 21st century. 80% of agents are women. 73% white. Agents tend to represent authors who resemble themselves. One answer to ‘why is literary fiction so white?’: because agents are.

• The Unacknowledged Legislators. Sterling Lord and Kerouac’s On the Road. Candida Donadio and Pynchon, Heller, Gaddis, early Roth — she built postmodernism. The debut novel, the short story collection, the New York novel: all partly agent-made.

• Can White Male Writers Not Get Published? No. McGrath: I think it’s silly. The number of books published each week is staggering. Seeing success for writers of colour does not diminish white men. The complaint circulates every ten years. We are in another round.

• Will AI Replace the Agent? In operations, maybe. In taste, no. An algorithm is built on priors — it narrows the window endlessly. A good agent is looking for books that surprise, frustrate, thrill. No algorithm has learned to take an author out for a three-martini lunch.

About the Guest

Laura McGrath is an assistant professor of English at Temple University and the author of Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction (Princeton University Press, April 28, 2026). She writes the textCrunch Substack.

References

Middlemen by Laura McGrath (Princeton University Press, April 28, 2026): press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691256160/middlemen

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:

00:00:31 Bennett Cerf and the real power in publishing
00:01:39 Comparing publishers and agents
00:03:47 80% of agents are women
00:05:24 Andrew’s Cult of the Amateur
00:10:21 Fiction vs nonfiction
00:33:44 White male writers who say they can’t get published
00:34:00 No. I think it’s silly.
00:35:46 Will AI replace the literary agent?
00:37:31 Advice: be primarily writers