If by "trying your hand at wholesaling" you mean bird dogging for an experienced wholesaler in your market, then that's a find way to get started.If you mean go out and try it by yourself based upon reading a little about it and listening to a podcast, see the sentence directly above.

those mags were accompanied by national geographic.  

Any advice about finding a good wholesaler/bird dog in specific areas?

Find an experienced investor in your market doing what you want to do and offer to bird dog for him or her. 

Bird dogging for an experienced wholesaler may be but not trying it on your own. 

Start as a bird dog.

I also intend to purchase do some bird dogging and tax lien purchases.

A little bird told me that BiggerPockets was launching a book soon.So @Brandon Turner - what’s the deal?

@Kyle ScofieldWhat you're talking about is called bird-dogging.It's not illegal per se, it's just not something that a real estate agent is really going to do for you.  

Sometimes this is accompanied by a lease back if the borrower wants to stay.