I got my first agent through my lawyer.
I had written a play which he had read and liked and offered to give it to her. She liked it, took me on, never did a single thing and eventually I fired her. (Soon all your readers will be writing in, "How do I get my next agent?")
I had a lawyer already because, in a freak hiring, I had been given a job right out of college at Saturday Night Live and needed someone to review the contract.
It seems like the short answer inevitably has to be contacts. I don’t know anyone who got an agent by just picking a name out of a book and submitting.
Douglas McGrath wrote and directed NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, COMPANY MAN and EMMA. He also wrote BORN YESTERDAY and BULLETS OVER BROADWAY, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.