It's as important to keep an eye out for them as it is to find a good one.

Here, Miss Snark relates a very sad story of a very bad agent, and a writer who probably should have gotten out much earlier: "If an agent starts telling you how lucky you are to have her, it's time to bail. Seriously."

It's important to know how bad agents act, but it's also good to know who in general to avoid by name. Writer Beware presents a list of the bottom twenty.

The ladies of the blog are also putting out a call to editors, asking for their point of view on bad agents: "The few editors whose houses accepted unagented manuscripts also told us that unagented writers get more consideration than known bad agents--that is, very, very little consideration compared to that given to established writers or writers repped by top agents (remind me to do a post on why you shouldn't submit unagented to a major publisher, even where the guidelines say you can)--but at least not an automatic trip to the reject pile."