h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One way of actually seeing your name in print is becoming an "expert." This sounds difficult, but isn't. I, for example, used to write for a magazine as an "expert" on Fantasy Games. What made me an expert? I said I was one. Try it, just make sure you have the basic knowledge of the subject, and write to the magazine, citing some vaguely relevent article, and you're in. Then when you send your novel to the assas - agent, you can say in your covering letter, "you will probably have seen my articles in xxx magazine". However please note that certain publications have more cache than others. Being the rubber experts for fetishists weekly will probably not work.