Can I submit work without a literary agent?
Apart from using a literary agent, you can send your manuscript to a publisher unsolicited and then it goes onto what's elegantly called the slush pile. That means that it is going to have a very, very, very slim chance of getting made public, because of sheer volume of work that comes in on the slush pile. It makes it impossible for the publishing editors to attend to it properly. They get a huge amount of submissions from the literary agents alone. Obviously, if somebody has contact with somebody, that is a help, or knows somebody who knows somebody; any way of arresting the attention of the publisher is useful. Really there is nothing that substitutes a literary agent, unless it is a unique book that is immediately apparent. For example Ben Schotts sent in Schotts' Original Miscellany to us without an agent. He had done the book himself; he had literally type set it, and it was Xeroxed, but he designed it and it was clear within two minutes of looking at it that this book was an extraordinary thing. We've got a book we are publishing next year then it is the same thing. You could tell on sight what it was. It's also possible to get published using a blog. People often use blogs as a way of getting a publishing company and it's becoming an increasing successful way. It is possible, but it is hard.
