Preparing for an agent

Early on in the design of your book you should be thinking about finding representation. What this means is finding an agent.
The first thing to think about when finding an agent is thinking about what the book is really about. Do you know the core story line and are you able to break that down into a few sentences? It's not only good to be able to do this for the cover letter and synopsis that you would send out to the agent, but it is a great way to help you stay on course while writing the book.
When you get to the point that you are looking for an agent, one thing to be extremely careful of, is any agent that would, Literary agent or otherwise, ask for a fee upfront. Run fast and don't look back if you the agent asks you to pay for a reading fee or any other type of fee.
Finally, while looking for an agent, you should send out as many letters as possible to agents. Just be sure to do your homework and make sure it is an agent that represents the genre that your writing in.
You can find agents that are willing to represent you in many different areas. The first place to look is the old stand by, "The Writers Market." You can't go wrong by starting here, although once you get beyond this, doing a general search on the web will bring up enough to keep you busy for a long time.
Good look in your search.