Large publishing houses attempt to consolidate their positions under threat of new players such as Amazon and its Kindle devices, and the associated eBook sub-industry – not to mention print-on-demand specialists such as Lulu.com.

Agents, too, are finding their roles changing, focusing on an ever-smaller and more rigorously defined group of clients while trolling Amazon looking for ‘The Next Big Thing.’

This industry malaise has resulted in more of the very thing it has been trying to combat – individual, unsigned writers taking matters into their own hands and self-publishing, bypassing the publishing houses and getting listed on Amazon without even the sniff of an agent.

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