Agents - unnecessary intermediaries?

An interesting blog post by Mary Walters on her Militant Writer blog.

She's not fond of literary agents, the gatekeepers between writers and publishers.

Here's the comment I left on her blog:

Speaking from an economics viewpoint, agents are intermediaries in a supply chain. The traditional supply chain is supplier-manufacturer-wholesaler-retailer-buyer.

As I see it, the writer is the supplier, the publisher and the writer working together are the manufacturer. The publisher is the wholesaler, bookstores are the retailers, and readers are the buyers. Intermediaries (agents) are not really necessary in the supply chain. History is full of examples of intermediaries (middlemen) that have been eliminated. You might say that is the natural evolution of the supply chain - to eliminate middlemen.

Recent history is also full of examples of other steps in the supply chain being eliminated or consolidated. Direct marketing via the internet is one example, with Amazon attempting to bypass bookstores.

No one should be surprised if the publishing industry undergoes some radical change as well. What that change will be I cannot guess - I wish I could. There are plenty of ongoing experiments - most of which are designed to eliminate intermediaries such as agents, or even publishers and bookstores. Only time will tell which experiments will succeed and which will fail.