FYI: This is what I learned about the non-fiction agent and book selling process.  Fiction works in a different manner.

You will need three things before you can have meaningful contact with an agent:  a query letter, a book proposal, and a sample chapter or chapters.
The query letter is a brief (usually no more than two pages) description of you and your book.  Crafting the two pages may take many revisions to refine and present yourself and the project in engaging ways.

The book proposal is an exhaustive description of the project. It is often divided into sections that describe the book in a narrative form, present the  proposed chapters with brief description, and define the niche that your book will fit into.  (I have seen proposals range anywhere from thirty to fifty pages or more.)

The sample chapter is drawn from the book and should be pretty well polished before you hand it over.  Obviously, no typos, etc., but also a polished and incisive piece of work.

In my experience, it was best to have prepared the proposal and the sample at the same time as the query letter.  True, you wouldn’t submit them until an agent expressed interest and asked for them.  But when they ask you want to able to send them right away.

But how do you even get access to these agents to submit a query letter?  How do you get them interested enough to request the proposal and chapters?

Read on.

I asked writer and poet friends of mine about their agents. Sometimes this was an illuminating conversation, other times it was like walking on an ice cap.  You see writers are often cagey about their agents.  They are valuable relationships that they can’t afford to compromise.

I discussed my project with lots of people and asked people how they got their agents. (Note:  Asking about the process of procuring an agent is very different than asking, “Who is your agent?”) Understand that you are asking a writer to disclose the identity of a person critical to making their living.  Don’t be surprised if they are reluctant or at last protective of that relationship.

I sat down with three friends who had sold their projects to hear their stories.  Those stories yielded lots of great information. In some cases agents sought them out, in others the writer made he first contact.

I’ll try and wrap up this process in another post.  But when I was searching for detailed information on the web, it was a real struggle.  So I’m trying not leave much out.