For real stuff, I approach the fae from a shamanic perspective. Which means journeying or entering trance to talk to the spirits where they are.
There’s two main types, the nature spirits and the fae, both are of the Earth, the first are more like higher beings, more like the overlighting essences of growth of each species or animal and plant, the 2nd are more like a people, with dualistic emotions and needs like humans. Both get called fae and there’s some overlap who hears what requests and acts on them, so it depends what you want to do I guess?
For Nature spirits, I liked the Perelandra project, and the Elves of Lily Hill Farm for a more shamanic style of working where people are co-creating for practical purposes with the fae and nature spirits both, in real life, usually gardening. Lily Hill Farm was a vineyard I think. Perelandra is still an active project today.
The spiritual aspect is low-key on the website now, but the book Behaving as if the God in All Life Mattered explains it.
I really liked this view, it works with my style:
For Fae, I rely a lot on folklore, for history and and reading between the lines. These people are of the Land, and work with the Devas on peoples behalf as well, and the folklore picks up where the nature spirits stuff leaves off, with fae that aren’t so friendly and might need work on the relationship, or even appeasement if they’re angry, and where the Devas would not retaliate, the fae can.
So, I have two main ways I work with the Good Folk, leaving offering and talking to them - they can hear me I might get some clairsentience but I might not. I don’t contact them unless I have to, like, they hid something and I need it back, which they do a lot. The other is to journey to the lower worlds and talk to the king and queen of the fae as higher beings rather than those nearby.
Being of the land, the fae races change depending where you live and the country you live in. There’s are beings in the US that don’t exists in Europe, or the Middle East etc, and vice versa. Some are more global - Canada and Ireland both have Selkies, but I’m not sure there are any Water Horses in North America (?), instead you get the races seen by the Native Americans.