Get specific (2008)
The example Derek uses in this post about looking for a booking agent reminds me of an anecdote he told several years ago (as I recall, it was part of a speech or a Q&amp;A he did at Berklee College of Music) about how he went about reverse engineering the process for getting into Rolling Stone -- he phoned Rolling Stone masquerading as someone working for a label trying to find a new publicist, and asked if they had any recommendations.  From this he got a list of publicists that Rolling Stone liked, which were the publicists who were most likely to be capable of getting him written up in Rolling Stone.<p>I actually put a version of this into practice several years ago when I was a looking at how to break into the world of trade publishing -- I had a manuscript for a fantasy novel, and decided my ideal outcome was to get published by Tor (a name that appeared on the spine of many of my favorite fantasy novels growing up).  I went to the bookstore and compiled a list of books that had Tor&#x27;s name on the spine, then went through the books and identified the ones that were most similar to my own manuscript in terms of subject matter&#x2F;tone, length, and target demographic.  Then I opened each book, flipped to the &quot;acknowledgments&quot; section, where most authors take the time to thank their agent.  This game me a list of agents who A) represented books similar to mine, and B) had successfully sold books to Tor.<p>I think the lesson is that if you don&#x27;t know the specific way forward, it&#x27;s often as simple as starting at the goal and working your way backward -- want to know which publicists are on good terms with Rolling Stone?  Ask Rolling Stone.  Want to find out which agents have sold books to a specific publisher?  Grab some books by that publisher and open them up.