It gets easier and easier. Some people, like Miriam Katin and more and more authors, have their own websites. You can email or write to addresses found there, though usually the snail mail ones are for publishers or agents. (Who will hopefully pass the missives along.)

Some of my best results, though, have been when I find out through her bio that an author is also a professor. I then contact her through her department at the school. I actually met a writer in person through this method!

A really interesting one lately was finding a contact for an author my sister wanted to write to. She has actually passed away, and her first short story was published posthumously through the efforts of her husband. I looked up their names in conjunction and found a reference in one of his books to her death, and it also told where he teaches. So she’s going to write to him there.

If you’d like help finding a contact, I’d be happy to oblige. I do research for a living, so it’s just a little side fun for me.