"The literary agent toils at a mysterious alchemy, impossibly combining words and dollars in the ever-hopeful pursuit of forging the bright ore of a writing career that will serve to the mutual benefit of all the parties involved. It is an enigmatic profession involving a complex brew of relationships among author and agent and publisher and public."
-- David Lindsey, Rules of Silence (Warner Books, 2003), p. ix.
Illustration by Monika Kruszewska