Abe Lincoln's Advice on Querying
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Comments
I once wrote and illustrated a children's picture book for my sisters. I never tried to publish it. (It was an illustrated ecumenical hagiography for children, which would have made for an amusing pitch! I can just imagine what agents would have had to say had such a query crossed their desks during #queryFAIL, lol.) In fact, I printed and bound it myself, made only two copies and gave one as a gift.
That was fine for that book.
My first two novels were sold directly to the editor of a small press that accepts unagented submissions. I sold a novella and a short story to an anthology the same way.
That was fine for those books.
However, for the long term, since I would like to take my writing from craft to career, I feel I need someone who specializes finding books their homes, and this is what an agent does. I don't have the many, many skills of an agent; if agents didn't exist, I would still want one.
It also depends on whether you are talking fiction or nonfiction. If you have a strong platform and marketing ability you might choose to not only forego an agent, but even a publisher, and sell your own ebook from your website. On the other hand, if you have a strong platform, you will be more appealing to agents, so it still might be worth looking into getting one.