But there are also good agents out there, and you might be lucky enough to snag yourself one. To help you navigate this labyrinth, I’d like to point you at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Association website and their Writer Beware page, complete with a top-ten list of agents to watch out for.
The page is chock full of great advice and things to be wary of, but my favorite quote jumped right off the page at me:
An agent should not solicit you.Sometimes a reputable agent will contact a writer whose work s/he’s seen and liked. But this not common, and where it does happen, it usually involves published work. Good agents don’t need to solicit: they already have more submissions than they can handle. If you subscribe to writers’ magazines or register your copyright, you may be a target–fee-charging agents often purchase lists of names and addresses from these sources.
So, when that big-name Hollywood Agency drops out of the blue, looking to possibly rep you, just be aware that it might not be the equivalent of getting discovered at the ice cream shop like you might be dreaming of. Caveat Emptor.
Good warning… I’ve always thought it would be good to have an agent but at the moment, I think my mom is going to become mine.
She’s getting really into my art. 
~L~
Oh lord!…scary stuff!…I want a agent more than anything in the world, but my dad gets very angry about these things. I think he really doesn’t like that I want to pursue directing films. But I mean, from the very beginning all I’ve ever been good at is drawing…I mean seriously, this is me for the rest of my life.
At the moment I’m using my mum too!…she’s great on the telephone, I’m terrified of the telephone and so this works very well…she’s been emergency producing for me.
Are you on the look out for a agent Og?…I really hope that all our dreams come true and that we end up making the films we want to make…The Rescue sure isn’t coming out the way I see it in my head.
Michael
Honestly, I’m changing my stance on whether or not I want an agent at the moment. As you might gather, I’ve had a run-in with a few. I’ve dealt with one incompetent wannabe agent, and one IP farm masquerading as an agency. Fortunately the IP farm was being too cool to deal with me. They called ME out of the blue, and then they wanted me to convince them why they ought to represent me. They were being all David Spade on me – “And you are…?” but… they called ME! What did they want to convince them they should stoop to represent a nobody like me? They wanted me to send them a bunch of pitches with an agreement releasing them from all liability should they wind up, say, making something eerily similar to one of my pitches.
The problem is that from a publishing standpoint, I’m not well-known. Long story short, I’ve decided to go it alone for a bit, until I’ve finished a few things. I am reasonably sure I can get my work published, and then we’ll see if things improve.
Dear me!…it’s a mine field out there!…I’m sorry to hear about that.
I’ve asked two people this year about the whole agent thing…I asked Markus Manninen about it, of which I got nothing…and I asked Pascal Campion who seemed to reckon that going to Comic-Con would be highly advisable and that a lot of good things came from his visit to it….Do you go to / have been to Comic-Con?…it is course a tad far away for me…lol….but maybe one day Og…maybe one day. But what does one do when one gets there?
Comic-con is great if you want to see what’s out there, attend talks by comics and film luminaries, or if you have something to pitch or a finished product to sell (could be a comic, or, inceasingly, anything. Movies, comics, posters, toys…)
But there are lots of comic conventions out there that are less fantastic, but could be a good way for you to get your feet wet. Attend one first, and the next time it comes around, maybe you could attend as an exhibitor? The difference between Comic-con and your local comic convention is the difference between World Soccer and your local school’s soccer. Same game, only one bigger and arguably more important to your career.