You can get a publisher’s attention a lot more quickly—and some people believe you can get a much better deal—if you have a literary agent. A literary agent is someone whose job it is to take people’s manuscripts and try to place them with the appropriate publisher. A good agent will never charge a fee for her work on your behalf.

However, if an agent agrees to take on your work, when she places it, she will earn a 10-15% cut of whatever money you make from the sale. So if a publisher offers you $10,000 for your book, your agent will get $1,500 of that money. You will get the rest.

You can get an agent the same way you get a publisher: by finding a book on how to get them (such as the one by Jeff Herman) and sending them query letters.