Designers might be the ones getting all the big press at New York Fashion Week. But all eyes, all week long, will be on the models, who will be scrutinized, dissected -- often even loved -- just about as much as the clothes.

Agyness Deyn. Chanel Iman. Lily Donaldson. They're the familiar and popular faces on the runways at almost all the big shows -- Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg. Half the fun of going to a show is marveling at their beauty and grace.

So just how easy is it to become one?

As it turns out, not as intimidating or costly as many are led to believe.

A new book by former model and agent Judy Goss says that while getting noticed is still a matter of proportions -- mostly how tall and thin you are -- it doesn't have to cost a lot of money.

Hence, the name of her book "Break Into Modeling for Under $20."

The price of the book is $14.95. But the advice she offers might save aspiring models (and their parents) plenty, not just in money but in headaches from rip-offs that many people stumble into while trying to get noticed. Goss devotes an entire chapter on how to spot and avoid common scams in the modeling world.

"Paying someone ahead of time is never a legitimate way to get into a modeling agency," Goss writes. "This is very well known within the modeling industry, but most outsiders do not understand that you can get proper exposure to agencies worldwide for virtually no money."

She outlines a four-step method to break into the business, starting with figuring out what type of model you might become, procuring photos that will get you noticed, promoting yourself and presenting yourself at an agency.

She's not alone with the advice that an expensive portfolio is unnecessary. Former supermodel Carol Alt has similar words in the back of her new fiction book, "This Year's Model."

"Do not waste money, sometimes thousands of dollars, and, again, valuable time on a portfolio," she writes. "My agents took one look at me, at my face, and made the decision right there that I had 'it.'"

You don't need fancy photos, she says. Simply send in or take an agent some photos of you with the family. "If you have potential they will see it just as easily in some family snapshots as in an expensive portfolio," she writes.

Jill Joyce, the owner and founder of Directions USA modeling agency in Greensboro, is among the reputable agents Goss mentions in her book that don't require an expensive portfolio or credentials from a modeling school. Joyce says she's able to spot models she wants to look at from snapshots that are e-mailed to her.

"They don't have to go to modeling school," she says. "They don't have to go to the big conventions."

Eventually every successful model does have to spend money to create a photo portfolio, however. "That's true anywhere in the world," Joyce says.

Models need those portfolios to book jobs, but typically the portfolio isn't created until after they've signed with an agency that thinks the model has a shot at making money in the business.

"If they get with a reputable agency, the agency is not going to encourage them to do a portfolio unless it's going to work," Joyce says. "The only way we get money is if they work."

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