As a writer who was frequently rejected by agents because a) my books did not meet their needs for their covered markets and b) they did not have the time or the inclination to read my proposals, I turned to self-publishing as a means to meet my ends. So now, agents are nought but a superfluous and unnecessary appendage. I learned that since publishers do not contribute to the success of their own products I might as well do it all myself, and while book sales have fallen off in the market over the last few months, I still have the potential to reach my readers through ebooks. There will still be authors in search of agents, but until the agents learn not to specialize so much there will be a dearth of good literature on the market. Too often I have seen lists of agents willing to see authors but will not entertain offers from the most popular genres in demand. And right now nonfiction sells better than fiction. If you close the doors to some, you are closing the doors to all. The author an agent supports may turn out the next bestseller, but until the agent recognizes that there is no motivation to switch.