Or Maybe I Do

Some while back I posted a short essay having to do with whether a writer needed an agent. At the time, I thought not, but since those heady days I have learned a bit more about the publishing business. And one of the things I learned, as other writers I know have also learned to our collective dismay, is that the business is very different from how it was prior to the introduction of social media. These days a writer is expected to take a major role in selling his or her book(s), which I guess works fine if you have 20,000 Facebook friends, but if you are an adult writing for young adults or children, you'd better not have 20,000 friends unless they all have children of an age appropriate to what you are writing and are not themselves children. (Spoiler alert: if the latter is the case it will likely tag you as a pedophile and a candidate for having your front door kicked in some dark night.)

Thus, I am now thinking that perhaps an agent can provide more guidance and assistance in finding just the right publisher. We will see. Meantime, I am trying to place a detective novel called "Lost Little Girl," and am working on another YA novel which I am calling "Connor's War." We will see how each of these works out.