I have 2 manuscripts - a childrens book & a cookbook. I applied w/ one & never heard back - not even a denial.

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Try this site for helpful information http://www.writers.net/agents.html

Lit agents are super-hard to get, and they aren't exactly the most polite people... given, they get like jillions of people begging for representation, so I can see why they'd be sorta rude/cold. ANYWAY websites are ok, but sooo much crap on websites is either misinformed or outdated or just misdirected to an incorrect audience... sigh. If you can, go over to Barnes and Nobles or Borders or wherever and there should be a small section on "How to get published" or Lit agents... i know one book in particular is published every year, with updates, but i don't know what it's called off-hand. there should be a pretty nice selection. there you can find solid info on lots of agents and agencies, who they typically represent (you'll want one that plays in the cookbook market and the childrens book market... a lot of agencies do both), how "elite" they are, how to apply, how you should go about getting their attention, etc. there's a lot of info, and the published stuff is totally more reliable than website info. i think these are in the reference section of your bookstore, but the sales people can look up some titles for you too. (also, if you can't drop $30 or however much they cost, just take it over to the cafe and read the parts that you need and copy down info. i've done that before... ) good luck!!

Check out the links in My Starred Questions and the About Me section of my profile. You'll notice that many of the links are blogs written by professional agents and editors. I particularly like the blogs written by Nathan Bransford and BookEnds, LLC. You'll also find links on how to verify the legitimacy of agents, editors and publishers, links on how to write query letters and links that will tell you what questions you should ask a potential agent if they do respond to you. Finding an agent takes more than just having a completed manuscript. You need to research each potential agent and you /must/ write a query letter tailored to that specific agent. Agents receive thousands of queries every year. Most of them are written very poorly. In order to stand out you need to write one that shows them that you did your homework. Only query agents that deal with your genre. Even more specifically make sure that your manuscript falls into the sub-genre that they mostly deal with. Read some of the books that they represented in the past and see if you feel like they are right for you. If your book deals with deep emotions and love and the like and the books they have represented in the past deal with very shallow emotions and superficial characters then you already know that they will probably reject your work. For some agents being an avid reader and posting comments on a regular basis gives you a one-up on other authors querying that agent. I know for sure that Nathan Bransford likes it when one of his regular blog readers queries him--even if he rejects them. Anyways there's so much more to say that I can't even type it here. Spend the next month or two just learning about the publishing business; the pet peeves (Bransford /hates/ rhetorical questions, for example), the etiquette, etc. All these things will help you stand out above the others who don't put in the time. Books will help, but I think reading the blogs will give you a lot of great insight. Good luck.

http://bookbindingyear.blogspot.com/ is a blog I've got going. It's got some good links that might be useful, even if you never read the blog itself. Go to the library and check out or buy (amazon.com has good used prices) copies of Writer's Market and Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market. They are published annually and have agent contact information as well as publisher details and contact procedures. It can literally take years to get published through traditional means, but the financial rewards are greater than publishing on line or self-publishing. If you don't depend on it for a living, self publishing or on line publishing has a much quicker time line. Good luck.