With all the current bad blood between agents and writers, and the belt tightening at publishers, the industry seems to be at a cross roads. Many writers are giving up on the quest for an agent and querying small presses directly. The big houses still demand to work through agents. This is good news for the small presses, great manuscripts with lower advances. Some small presses could break into the best seller list. Perhaps we will see the days of "Breakout Novel"s again, not manufactured best sellers that owe more to marketing than literary excellence.

I'm not going to get involved in the mud slinging. To be honest, I am currently seeking representation. I still think there are good agents out there. There are good agents and bad agents, good publishers and bad publishers, good writers and bad writers. I'm not painting anyone, or any group, with a broad brush. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, our tastes and opinions.

One option for those who are frustrated with the query-go-round is self publishing. It has always been an option, but these times of eBooks and POD it has never been easier. The days of the maligned "Vanity Press" are, for the most part, behind us. The buzz now is Indie and Viral. Put it out there and see if it flies. I can see a day when a breakout novel hits the best seller list from a POD press or when eBooks are as common as paperbacks.

Self publishing has never been easier. With very little computer skill - no more than it takes to learn your favorite word processing program - you can publish a very professional product. With Amazon, and many other outlets, you can market your work to the world. The only drawback of the easy publishing is the huge amount of responsibility placed on the author/publisher.

When you self publish, it is all you. You write the ms, edit, and format. You need cover art, ads for marketing, etc. You are saddled with all of the book's production from start to finish. You don't have an agent to do leg work for you, editors to check your work, designers to make it all look good - you're on your own. Daunting, but liberating. You have complete control. If you sell one copy or a million you have yourself to blame or praise.

There are also a variety of new presses opening their doors that offer very flexible assistance with the process. These buffet presses offer anything from simply POD of your formatted files to complete publishing - editing to marketing. You can get the services you need and still do all the things you are capable of, and/or willing to do. Flexibility is the current trend - do all you can yourself then contract the things you are not comfortable with. This is breaking publishing up into a thousand little parts.

More and more options for getting your work, your art, out into public view is always a good thing. Most writers are more interested in being read than being rich. We write to share our gift with the world. That is why writers have trouble understanding the business of publishing. We just want our work published so people can read it. Agents and Publishers are in the business of making money. It is the same in all of the arts, and artists have always struggled to have their art seen by the masses.

As writers I think we need to take a serious look at ourselves and out aspirations. If all you really want is to be read, maybe get some praise or awards for our work, there are hundreds of options to get your work out there. Publish a website for you novel, offer it free as an eBook, print it with a POD press, enter it in contests or for awards. Marketing, to make money, is where it gets complicated. That's the domain of agents and traditional publishers.

As I said, I'm still on the query-go-round because I think I have a marketable ms, but not the expertise to market it. I want a best seller someday, I want to sit in a bookstore and sign books, and I would love to quit the day job and spend the rest of my life writing and interacting with readers. So I continue to assail the "gatekeepers" for entrance into the halls of commercial publishing.