It currently works in person but it is possible to envisage the idea being translated on the Internet as a database of freelance consultants available globally for short-term contracts. Even if you can find an agent, there is no guarantee that he or she will be able to find a publisher. And even if a publisher is found, there is no certainty of any sales. And going through the whole process to the point where your book appears in print can take years. Internet publishing such as on the wkpub web site offers writers another way of earning recognition and reward for their fiction or non-fiction work.
Many authors fail because their work is rubbish.
As someone who could not get his work published conventionally in the traditional book format because it was then considered to be too academic and long, I can vouch for the Internet being a great medium for first-time and indeed all authors. Your idea of combining the use of the Internet to make available, display and distribute writing, combined with electronic cash to charge for works, is a great one. Only Internet book publishing can do this. Previously, there was no alternative but to battle the often arbitrary organized traditional publishing route. You even had to have an agent before you could credibly approach publishers.