It occurs to me I promised a post on agents and never delivered. So here goes.

First, people are sometimes confused about what a literary agent does. Agents in this business aren't managers. They don't handle your appearances or bookings -- conferences, bookstore events, etc. That's done by the publicity people at your publishing house, or often, by the author him/herself. Sometimes authors hire their own publicists for those things, because your publisher's publicist works for the publishing house and has other authors to worry about. Your agent works for you. For a percentage of what you earn (standard these days is 15%, though some still take 10%, as they used to) your agent sells your work. A good agent will know what editors at which houses are likely to be interested in the kind of thing you've written. He/she will have in mind a ballpark figure of what this kind of book is going for. An agent knows the ins and outs of a publishing contract -- royalties, trade vs. mass market, how to structure a payout -- and also will have contacts ("co-agents") in foreign countries and in Hollywood. I've never, for example, met my Hollywood agent, but my literary agent has been doing business with him for years and is satisfied that the decisions he's made for me -- so far, all involving saying no to offers -- have been the right ones. Because I trust my agent, I'm satisfied too. My agent also negotiates contracts with magazine and anthology editors for short stories, though I do the submission of those myself. (For his percentage of the tiny amount those markets pay I don't ask him to do that.) There's a blurry line here: sometimes requests for me to speak come through him because people find it easier to contact him than me. He'll pass those on but not get involved with them. Since email a lot more requests come directly to me.

My agent is also a good first reader, but not all agents are or need to be. A first reader is someone to whom you'll give a ms. just completed, to get feedback: what works, what doesn't. It's like a first editorial review. My agent is great at that, and I always take his suggestions seriously, often rewriting based on what didn't work for him. He doesn't do more editing than that, and many agents don't edit at all. Their job is the business end of the business, and if they do that well, that's what you need.

That, and a little hand-holding, or sometimes, a lot. My agent does that well, too.