Kristin Nelson

An agent with Nelson Literary Agency (see other agents at this agency).

About

My goal as an agent is simple: I want every client of mine to make a living solely from writing and 90% of my authors do without help from any other source of income. I established NLA in 2002 and over the last two decades of my career, I’ve represented over sixty New York Times bestselling titles and many USA Today bestsellers. Although I’m a very nice Midwesterner, I’ve heard through the grapevine that editors call me “a hard-working bulldog agent that will fight for you.” What a compliment!
When not busy selling books, I’m quite sporty. I enjoy tennis, pickle ball, and golf. I also love playing Bridge (where surprisingly I’m not the youngest person playing). My book club has been reading great non-NLA books together for 25+ years.

Country & Year Established

United States

Agent since 2002

Professional Associations

Member of AALA

AI Policy

Human-created work preferred, but limited AI use may be permitted in some circumstances (see their site for details)

149 members set this agent as a Favorite.

Statistics Synopsis

Faster: Kristin Nelson's overall average response time is faster than most agents.
Normal Acceptance: Kristin Nelson's overall acceptance rate is within a normal range for agents.
More Responsive: Kristin Nelson's overall rate of non-response is lower than most agents.

Learn more about our statistics

Fiction Temp Closed

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience, including: Adults, Young adults.

Genres:

General Open to all/most Subgenres
Action-Adventure Open to all/most Subgenres
Fantasy Open to all/most Subgenres
Horror Open to all/most Subgenres
Romance Open to all/most Subgenres
Science Fiction Open to all/most Subgenres
Suspense/Thriller Open to all/most Subgenres

Lengths:

Novel

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Literary, Mainstream.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics.

Submissions:

Method: QueryTracker.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

No recent cover image of a book represented by Kristin Nelson available.

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Submission/Query
Correction/Update
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Social:
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X (Twitter) @agentkristinNLA

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Link to Duotrope

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Kristin Nelson Submission Statistics

The statistics in this section are compiled from submission reports sent to us through our submission tracker. They are not provided by the agency or by Duotrope's admins. Information in this section is updated a few times per day. Learn more about the statistics.

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Accuracy

We have received 16 reports from 16 different members within the past 12 months. The more responses reported, the more accurate the information.

Days Reported

9 min | 20.1 mean avg | 17.0 median | 57 max days (35.9 std dev)

Responses

100 %

Acceptances:

0.00 %

Rejections:

100.00 % (17.5 avg. days per rejection) | 18.8 % personal, 75.0 % form, 6.3 % unspecified | 6.3 % partial MS requested, 6.3 % full MS requested

Non-Responses

0.00 %

Lost/Returned:

Never Responded:

Withdrawals

Other Information

The agent will try to make a decision within 21 days. (12.5 % of the responses reported to us for this listing have taken longer than 21 days.)
Most submissions are acknowledged on the same day.
Most recent response reported was received on 03 Aug 2026.
Responses have been received for submissions sent as recently as 15 Jul 2026.
Date compiled: 06 Sep 2026 22:50 UTC (less than a minute ago).

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Your Submissions

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Joanna MacKenzie

Before Submitting

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Dates

Last Updated: 20 Aug 2026

We check their guidelines for changes every four weeks, and we audit the listing twice a year.