I found my agent online. She had a beautiful website - very "warm" and inviting.....she had a list of 10 authors posted and although she had no sales to her credit she had been in business only a year - which really is about when you'd expect a brand new agent to at least BEGIN to have a sale or two. She also was very friendly, conducted a once a week chat with all of her authors, and made a LOT of promises.

My publisher I found online too. There are some wonderful websites with great information available - my favorites are "Preditors & Editors" and "Writers Beware". There you can find out the inside info on agents who have been reported for various problems by their former clients - AND ditto on publishing scams, unscrupulous business practices, etc.

Before I pursued the query letter process with the list of publishers I formulated from my internet research, I checked the "watch dog" websites to see if there was any negative information out there......that's what I meant about educating ourselves and checking to see if other authors signed up with an agent or a publisher are happy with their experience.

There are some really GREAT agents out there who are happy to work with newcomers....and there are publishers who will accept unagented submissions. You just have to do your "homework".

Pam