If you are a novelist, finding a literary agent to represent your work to publishers is the best way to go about finding a commercially viable publisher for your work. Submitting your manuscript directly to large publishers (such as Penguin or Little, Brown) is unlikely to be a rewarding experience.

Mslexia magazine’s how to get published pages are an up to date source of information on what literary agents do and how to approach one. You can read them at www.mslexia.co.uk/getpublished/getpublished_agents.php.