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Back to Advice.
Literary agents work for you. They will submit your manuscript to publishers, negotiate contracts, and go to bat for you ...provided they like your book and take you on as a client.
Editors like to receive manuscripts from agents. Agents will only send books they are excited about and are well written. In fact, some publishers will not consider manuscripts from John Q. Public unless he has an agent.
This is how the process works - you write a book (agents won't touch articles or short stories) and you decide if you want an agent (or submit to publishers directly - see Part 2 for advice on that one - and I have some advice in the essay title, The Publishing Labyrinth). Some agents charge reading fees, which is okay, but there are plenty that don't and I would suggest you start with them. Once an agent decides to represent you he/she will begin sending your book to publishers/editors and if they sell it - that's when they make their money. Usually 15% of the advance money and 15% of all royalties earned for the book.
So how do you find an agent? First find a copy of the 2009 Guide to Literary Agents either at the library or go to Borders or B&N and look in the writer's reference section (Writer's Market online also has agents listed). You can look through the book while sipping coffee if you don't want to buy it (Amazon.com has it, too). Find all the non-fee charging agents that live in New York City that represent books that are similar to yours. In other words, if you have a fantasy genre novel, look for agents who represent fantasies. (Why NYC? Because that's where most of the editors are and your agent can meet them in person).
Once you find these agents, write all those names, addresses and phone #s down - write down exactly what their submission requirements are. Then call all those agencies to make sure the agent you want to send your query to still works there and that the address is still current. You don't need to talk to an agent - just the receptionist - even though the book says 2009 - it's still about a year out of date!
You can also look in the acknowledgements of books that match your genre and see if the author has thanked their agent and query that agent (mention this is the cover letter - "I really enjoyed X's book and have a novel similar in style..."). Also if the agent is a member of AAR (Association of Authors' Representatives) that's a good sign (but not required).
Going to writers conferences is a great way to meet agents and some even have appointments so you can pitch your book to an agent. Pennwriters.org hosts a good one every year.
I would send queries out to about 10 agents at a time (make sure the package has exactly what they want to see) - and keep sending them out at 10/time to agents until you've went through your whole list!
I couldn't find an agent for Poison Study (after 40 queries), so I sent it out to all the major SF/Fantasy publishers and happened to see that Harlequin was starting a new Fantasy line. I found my agent for another project (still not sold!) and she was happy to negotiate the Harlequin contract for me, which is another benefit to having an agent.
REMEMBER - if anyone is ASKING you for money for your writing - that's a BAD sign! Reading fees are acceptable, provided the agent is reputable. There are many bad agents out there - so make sure you check out SFWA's Author's Beware site - sfwa.org and Predators and Editors site for agents to avoid: anotherealm.com/prededitors
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