Marilyn Allen is a literary agent and founding partner in the Allen O’Shea Literary Agency. She has culminated 25 years of experience by doing sales and marketing for various publishing houses. She served as Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing and Senior Vice President to Harper Collins, as well as Vice President to both Penguin and Simon & Schuster. She has directed sales and marketing teams for Penguin Books, Simon & Schuster, and Avon Books.

Marilyn has had the pleasure of working with authors such as Stephen King, Ken Follett, Barbara Kingsolver, John Gray and Mary Higgins Clark, but currently represents many nonfiction authors including several New York Times bestselling writers. Her focuses are nonfiction, cooking, health, parenting, crafts, self-help, pop culture and business. She herself has co-authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Book Proposals and Query Letters (Penguin Books) with her partner Coleen O’Shea.

She is also the literary consultant and co-founder for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She has taught publishing courses at NYU and for Gotham University. She frequently conducts publishing seminars and gives speeches at writing conferences.