Two weeks after Jill Carroll's dramatic release from hostagedom in Iraq, the rumors of book deals were, to say the least, rather rampant. Probably because various agents came a-calling, as they often do around the stars of sensational news stories.

David Vigliano -- whose client list includes a number of notable celebrities, victim-based or otherwise -- offers various reasons why to the Observer's Sheelah Kolhatkar. "She may feel like there are things that happened that she wants to share,” Mr. Vigliano said, slipping into his pitch. "She may feel that if people understand what was going on in that situation, they might have more understanding of the conflict in the Middle East. There are all kinds of reasons that she might do it beyond money."

So how do people get in touch with the clients of their choice? In a variety of ways, as it turns out. As Kolhatkar says, "sometimes, cable-TV news outlets make use of freelance scouts or 'fixers' who can deliver entire families of kidnapped or missing children, trial jurors or victims of other crimes for interviews, movies and book contracts." Says Larry Garrison, described as "having everyone's phone numbers as soon as they might be needed" (to paraphrase), "I'm not only an executive producer in film and television, but I'm a journalist. I produce news segments, true stories, and I do both sides of the story."

But there are some dramas that even agents wouldn't dare to touch -- like the Jared Paul Stern affair. "I have studiously avoided sticking my nose in there," said one literary agent. "Is that a book - and if so, do I want to be affiliated with it? It's a very tricky business with that. Some agents don’t want to dirty themselves."