How do literary agents go about helping you get your book published? Must they personally like your story as a publisher would, to want to help you?

All Answers To Questions

They absolutely have to love your work and believe it will sell. They usually get thousands of query letters for every new client they take on. If an agent signs you, he or she will then work with you to get your book ready to be seen by editors, then attempt to sell your book to an editor. If the book sells, the agent normally keeps 15% of the sale. A legitimate agent will not charge you anything else, unless he or she has unusual copying or postage costs (rarer these days).

They don't have to like it. They just have to feel it's publishable material. If you can establish a following, writing for magazines for example, they'll be more interested in a full manuscript.