Dear Beverley,thanks for all your feedback today!! I’m no expert on the publishing industry, but I’ve always been told that a writer doesn’t necessarily need an agent but can submit a manuscript directly. But in practice, the larger the pubisher, the harder it is to get them to look at it. And it’s really hard finding an agent too. I got my agent by a fluke. I sent her five pages from my manuscript in an email, and she phoned me a few months later, not because of what I sent her but because she recognized my name from an essay I had written in a magazine about 5 years before. She phoned to ask if I’d thought of turning the essay into a book. Only after talking to her for half an hour did she agree to read my ghost story. One thing she’s always said is that publishing is a lottery. Not so much a meritocracy!! Sometimes good writers don’t get published or do and then don’t sell, and sometimes not-so-good writers get published and sell like crazy!! But I guess the only advice one can take from that is “you can’t win if you don’t play.” 🙂 Best wishes!!