The purpose of these posts is not to advise writers whether to go traditional or indie. I am for writers being informed. We can’t afford to hide our heads in the publishing sands and expect to make decisions on our career.

Some facts:

• If you keep the rights then you are self published.
• If your agent keeps the rights then your agent is your publisher.
• If your agent helps you self publish, do you trust him/her to always put your interests and career first?

Be informed. That’s the key.

So let’s look at what different industry professionals have to say about this. In many of these posts there are gold nuggets of info in the comments.

Mary Kole wrote about The Agent’s Role in Today’s Digital Book World at the digital book world blog.

In response, Dean Wesley Smith posted: The New World of Publishing: Agents and The Future. He expresses his concerns (and that’s putting it nicely) about Mary’s ideas.

And my response to these articles is to point you in this direction. Barry Eisler guest posted at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. He breaks down the agent as publisher issue very logically and in a nice way. No bashing.

And here’s Agent Scott Eagan with his post: I heard agents are no longer needed.

And if you’re interested here are a few other posts:

• Anne R. Allen: Literary Agent – An Endangered Species? (Toward the bottom of the post she talks about Agents as publishers.)
• Writer Beware: Agencies Becoming Publishers. This posts raises great questions concerning your agent helping you self publish or becoming publisher.
• Author/Agent Mandy Hubbard: In which your agent wears dueling hats.
• Dystel & Goderich Literary Management: Answering questions with a link to their Announcement.

So, that’s a lot to think about. In some of the posts, I don’t care for the bashing of the system, industry professionals, and “stupid” writers, but if you look beyond the style to the content, you’ll find valid concerns.

What do you think? If you’re not sure what you think, what are your questions?