A reader named Scott recently wrote me with the following question: How do you get published? I am working on a book proposal, but publishers don’t take unsolicited manuscripts or proposals and agents don’t seem to want unpublished writers. The book is nonfiction, about living and working in Russia for the last two years. I…

Why you need an agent These days, book editors want to deal initially with agents, not authors. An agent is your best intermediary to the book world. A committed agent will work to help you through the legal aspect of contracts, and help manage your career. Your agent will be your initial editor, as you…

by Rolf Potts When my Vagabonding column debuted in Salon.com, lots of readers wrote to ask me how they, too, could get jobs as travel writers. This, I’ll admit, was a tough question to answer. After all, travel writing is not really something you can study for in college, and there are certainly no travel…