Literary Agents Will Be Around for a Long, Long Time

Jeff Rivera of JeffRivera.com asked me the following question yesterday: With the publishing industry undergoing the digital revolution, will there be literary agents in the next 5-10 years? And if so, how will their role be affected or changed in the near future because of devices such as the Kindle and the Nook?

Here is my answer:

I think there will always be a place for agents and mainstream publishers.

Even with Kindle and Nook, books still need to be promoted to sell. That means there will still be room for good book publishers. And good book publishers need agents to help them find the best authors.

I expect the best agents to continue to prosper for many, many years to come. As with any technological change, the less capable fall by the wayside while the best continue to do well.



For those of you looking for a good agent, you can order my Literary, Foreign Rights, and Subsidiary Rights Agents directory for only $6.00 at http://www.bookmarket.com/orderform.htm. When you order, you can immediately download this directory as a Word document.