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By far the best way to find an agent is to go to a writer's conference and pitch to as many of the agents in attendance as you can. This not only pretty much guarantees that the agents are legit (t...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25710 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25710 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
By far the best way to find an agent is to go to a writer's conference and pitch to as many of the agents in attendance as you can. This not only pretty much guarantees that the agents are legit (they have been vetted by the conference organizers) it also gets you to the top of their reading pile if they request material from you. From the agent's POV, writers who spend the time and money to attend conferences are much more serious about their craft than hundreds whose send their manuscripts in the mail. A shady agent, on the other hand, will probably prefer to keep their victims at arms length. The last thing most frauds want to do is to meet you face to face. A fraud with the brass to con you to your face is probably going to go after bigger fish than aspiring writers. There is only so much money you can con out of gullible writers; it is a volume business and the last thing you would want to do is spend the time and money on attending a conference where you con only can a few marks and have to look them in the eye while you do it.