Does anyone know of any reliable literary agents? I never know who to chose in The Literary Agents Market book.

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I can tell you from experience that finding a quality agency is time consuming, irritating and frustrating. First, don't waste time or money on books listing agents. Run a search on Google instead. All major agencies worth their salt have a web presence now. Once you find some agencies that seem to handle your type of manuscript AND have published books to prove it, send them a knockout query letter (sample upon email request). If you have previously published material, mention that. It helps. Make sure you query the agent that seems most likely to read your genre. Some agencies have a dozen agents, but only one may handle fantasy (for example). Now, here's a piece of advice you can take or leave. It's the accepted norm that a new author approaches only ONE agency at a time. Multiple submissions are still frowned upon. I held to that tradition and it took eight months to hit the jackpot--and that was with a book already in hardcover with glowing reviews in the national media! The good news is, with email queries, you don't have to wait 3 months to hear back from someone. Typically, you'll get a 'no thanks' in about ten working days. Then you can move on to the next prospect. Also, and this was HUGE in my efforts: have an eBook version of your manuscript uploaded and ready to send in email as soon as someone says, "Please send it." Don't send out printed manuscripts if you can avoid it. Look for agency listings that say, "Accepts email queries." Trust me, you'll save months and lots of stamps using email. Make sure the agency accepts electronic submissions as well. Some websites say so, most do not. If you're asked to submit a partial, inquire if it's okay to send your partial as an attached file (preferably in Word or Adobe) instead of hard copies. Again, most agencies now will do that, even if they don't particularly like email. Why? It speeds up their processing. Three days after sending any files, follow up to make SURE the agency got the email. Many email filters are set up to block files larger than an ordinary letter would be. Follow up is absolutely vital when querying online because agents get a ton of email and if you don't remind them to go read yours, you're dead in the water. Job one is persistence. Big agencies are far more flexible because they have more profit centers, more contacts, and more junior agents to handle new authors. Okay, that's the gist of my advice. Hopefully it will serve all of you well. Good luck with your books. See you at the movies! Jon F. Baxley (Author, Editor, Ghostwriter and Proofreader) THE SCYTHIAN STONE (eBook only) THE BLACKGLOOM BOUNTY (eBook and hard cover) THE REGENTS OF RHUM (coming fall '07) (For a FREE four chapter illustrated demo of The Blackgloom Bounty, email me at FiveStarAuthor@aol.com). My author blog: http://the-blackgloom-bounty.blogspot.com/ My Shelfari Shelf: http://www.shelfari.com/FiveStarAuthor/shelf