Marilyn Allen is a literary agent and President of the Allen Literary Agency and co-founding partner in the Allen O’Shea Literary Agency. After more than 25 years of experience running marketing and sales departments at major publishing companies she decided to set up a literary agency to work more closely with writers and help make their dreams come true. She had served as Associate Publisher, Executive Director of Marketing at Harper Collins, as well as Vice President to both Penguin and Simon & Schuster and brings passion and extensive marketing experience to her agenting work.

Marilyn currently represents many nonfiction authors including several New York Times bestselling writers. Some of the titles she has placed include: Smart Plants: Power Foods and Natural Nootropics for Optimized Thinking, Focus and Memory (Sterling-7 titles) from New York Times Bestselling Author, Julie Morris; Dead Rabbit Drinks Manuals (Houghton Mifflin-4 books) by Sean Muldoon and Jack McCarry, winners of 8 Spirit Awards from “Tales of the Cocktail Conference” including Best Bar in the World and Best Cocktail Book; The Japanese Art of the Cocktails (Houghton Mifflin-2021) by Masahiro Urushido, Creator of Katana Kitten, crowned Best New American Cocktail Bar for 2019; BE: A No Bullshit Guide to Increasing Your-Self Worth and Net Worth (Sounds True-2021) by Jessica Zweig, Forbes Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Allen Literary Agency focus is on well-written narrative nonfiction and practical nonfiction titles including mind-body-spirit, business, health, parenting, pop culture, activity and puzzle books, quality lifestyle titles including food, cocktails and crafts titles. She loves working with ambitious authors with aggressive marketing goals and lots of passion for their work.

She herself has co-authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Book Proposals and Query Letters (Penguin Books). She is also the literary consultant and co-founder for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, now the largest not-for-profit book award contest in North America. She has taught publishing courses at NYU, Emerson College, Fairfield County Writers Studio, and Publicity Summits. She frequently attends writers conferences, conducts publishing seminars and gives speeches on creating effective book proposals and query letters. She loves to travel and of course read.