Now let us go back to the question of literary agents, what they do, and how you get one. A literary agent is someone who helps the author to sell their book to a publisher. In other words, you give the agent your manuscript and they do the work of finding a publisher for it, presenting your book, and negotiating a contract.
Do you need an agent? Not necessarily, but a good agent can be very helpful. In fact, finding a good agent can be the making of your writing career. You can approach publishers on your own, but, as I have already mentioned, many of them only accept manuscripts from agents, not authors, so there is basically no other way to have them consider your work. Experienced agents know all the ins and outs of the publishing industry, they have established reputation. The problem is, getting a good agent to represent you can be just as hard as getting published.
The first thing to remember as you search for an agent is that there shouldn’t be any upfront charges. No reading fees, reviewing fees, submission fees, or whatever they call it. If the agent wants money to read your work, chances are, that’s how they are making their money instead of earning commission from selling books. As you approach an agent, ask them about it, and if they want you to pay something upfront, move on. There shouldn’t be any monthly bills for representation, either. Agents are supposed to be paid when you are paid – that is, when they have found you a publisher and you have signed a contract. You receive your advance payment, and the agent receives their commission from it (usually 15%).
Unfortunately, there are also incompetent agents as well as dishonest ones, so another thing you should do is to take a look at the agent’s professional background and accomplishments. How long have they been in the business? Who are their other clients? How many books have they sold? To what publishers?
To get an idea of what a good agent should offer you, check out the Canon of Ethics of AAR, the Association of Author Representatives (http://www.aar-online.org). You will see that, among other things, AAR prohibits its members from charging any reading fees. I am not saying that any agent who is not an AAR member is questionable, but if their terms do not follow similar guidelines you need to be careful.