Just wanted to say thanks for the answers. I went to the LMP website – they only want $389 (or so) to sign up for their full service. Gag! I think I’ll see about finding it in the library as was suggested.
(sighing patiently)
Did I SAY “go to the LMP website” ?
No, but don’t you know that EVERYTHING is done online these days? You didn’t actually expect me to GO to a library without at least checking first, didja?
Other ways to find an agent:
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Authors sometimes acknowledge their agent in their books. Find books similar to the material you’re writing, look up the agents. Chances are, they’ll be likely to look at your material.
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Writers conferences. Agents go there looking for potential clients. There are five coming to this conference.. Some conferences, like this one, offer the opportunity for a fee to have a section of the manuscript looked at by an editor or an agent. Conferences also help you understand what the publishing industry’s about, who the people are, and a chance to network.
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Check out Donald Maas’ “The Career Novelist.” Good book on the nuts and bolts of actually making a living out of fiction writing. (Best advice he gave: don’t quit your day job until you have at least five novels published. If you can reach that level, you stand a pretty good chance of staying in the business).
Here’s my agent-meeting story. Not surprisingly, Maas is an agent. I reviewed his book years ago for a newspaper, and a few years later, at the Bouchercon mystery convention, I was standing next to a well-dressed man looking around the book room. Instead of the convention badge that identified him as someone, it just said, “Donald Maas.” We chatted awhile, and I got his business card.
At this point, the story should end with the note that he represents me, but it doesn’t. I haven’t finished anything worth shopping. But it does show that investigating the field, getting to know the names, and getting out of the house can make a difference.
- One more thing: get something published. It doesn’t have to be a book. Just anything that brings in a little money. A book review in the newspaper, an article in a magazine or newsletter. Building up credits builds your credibility as a writer. Obviously, self-publishing, Web publishing or SDMB posts won’t count.
Hmmm…I always thought that to get an agent, you had to sell your first novel yourself. Or something like that. But, yea Pesch’s #4 is fairly accurate.
Hmm…would small press magazines count? ehehehehe…I’ve had poetry published in a couple of those…mwhaah…
It would depend on the mag’s reputation and how tough it is to get your poems placed there.
pesch, better look at that business card again. It’s Donald Maass.
Well, one of them had issues with writings by Lynn Machanohay(SP??? Worked with Andre Norton) and Jackie Kennedy(worked with Marion Zimmer Bradly), I guess that would be the only one that would qualify. It was known as “Shadowsword” and the company was known as “Stygian Vortex Publications”. Too bad it fell apart because of problems with U-Haul while moving to Atlanta…
However, my poems were eventually published when it became an e-zine known as “Genrezone.com”.
But, it was just a few poems. But, I got to be the “Featured Poet” for September of 98, so that was cool! 
Don’t think that would do much to get an agent though, but I just have to get off my butt and start submitting stuff again. ehehe
You may or may not want to go this route but:
The writer of Anonymous Rex, who visited one of my writing classes at USC, told us the rather…unorthodox manner in which he found his agent. What he did was find authors whose books he liked and were, presumably, in a similar vein as his own. He then called the publishers of those books claiming, IIRC, that he worked for some Hollywood studio or other and wanted to option those books for movies, and wanted the name and phone numbers of the authors’ agents.
Hey, it worked for him. (Of course, he could’ve just been feeding us a piece of fiction. )