How to find an agent?

What makes a good agent? To quote Uncle Jim, a good agent is one who's sold books to publishers you've heard of. "Big" or "small" isn't the issue: track record is the issue. You want an agent who has a strong record of selling books to commercial publishers large and small, and is selling plenty of books on a regular basis.

Yes, you do want an agent who has sold books like yours. This doesn't necessarily mean exactly like, but broadly similar. So if you've written a self-help book, it's a good idea to look for an agent who has sold self-help books, and who lists self-help books as an area of interest.

There's an article on my personal website that suggests a research procedure designed to screen out the many questionable and marginal agents you may run into: http://www.sff.net/people/VictoriaStrauss/agentsearch.html.

I do think that if you want to approach the larger publishing houses, trying to find an agent is a better time investment than submitting to the publisher directly. But if it's a smaller, independent publisher you're interested in, you may be able to submit yourself--a lot of smaller publishers are willing to work with unagented writers.

- Victoria