Do you need an agent?

I'd love an agent but I'm having a ball promoting my picture book and doing all I can to get it noticed. I've sold 1300 copies in six months and the margins are good without an agent and publisher. I should break even in a few months and then I'll be able to start paying Railway Children half of the profits from book sales as promised. While I'd love a big publishing house to take over and fill my bank account with gold, it just doesn't happen like that unless you're JK Rowling. Agents and publishers don't massage the egos of first-timers until they start earning them money. To all writers, remember that the industry is going through massive change as digital sales gain ground on physical sales and numbers get crunched by the hour to stop the grim reaper from appearing. There are many other issues that need attention in the industry so don't even imagine for a moment that they'll have the time or inclination to offer a contract to anything other than a masterpiece, the work of nepotism (which is thankfully in decline), celebrity or sleaze (which will always be there). These are the main reasons I went straight ahead and self-published. Well, that and the fact that rejection drains the shit out of me and can give me the wrong outlook on life, which isn't conducive to shifting stock. 26% of all published work was self-published last year and it's rising, mostly due to the dire state of publishing in what is a depression, if only we'll see it as such. The world's changing (sorry, changed) and it's all about hard work now. There are some success stories out there but it needs to be really good to catch anyone's eye. Word of mouth is the thing and self-publishing offers a little hand-up into the market. If I had the bucks, I'd definitely subscribe to The Bookseller, which has all the clues as to what's going on in publishing every month. It's probably on the internet so head there for a stark reality-check.

Couldn't agree more with you Elf about the quality of some of the work here. Trouble is, the site's so addictive I'm not getting much writing of my own done! Although, some might say that's a good thing! KJD