First of all, if you are strictly interested in publishing short fiction or poetry, or short non-fiction to the magazine, newspaper or online markets, having an agent is not neccesary. You also have to hit a lot of possible markets to sell a short story or an essay these days, and you can probably do so on your own more efficiently than an agent can, especially if you cultivate a relationship with an editor and sell repeats to the same markets over and over. If the work of your heart is a literary novel that you hope to have published at a small press such as a university press, an agent is also probably not called for. Again, the small margin of profit makes the shopping around of such a project prohibitive for most agents. But if you are writing or have written a blockbuster type novel, a romance, mystery, woman s fiction, science fiction or mainstream, an agent may be just the person to add to your writing team.
Agents have contacts in the publishing world, and know the markets.
They also can help make suggestions and give advice on works in progress, guide an author s future efforts and help with publicizing, boosting sales, negotiating profit percentages, advance figures and more. While it is still theoretically possible to sell your own novel to a publisher, particularly if it is a genre novel such as romance, having a good agent can still be highly beneficial. On the other hand, many authors attest to the fact that sometimes having an agent, a poor agent, is worse than having no agent at all. Your work vegetates on her desk for two years, then gets rejected because it s not timely. But a good agent can find a hot deal for a well-written novel, help the author make it in the big time, handle options and assure a future of continued sales, if quality work is being produced.