Share 'Question(s) about getting published.........'

Okay so i have a few authors i'm friends with on myspace and one has a list of ten things - its cute the way she posted it as 'ten things to do if you dont want to get published' : ) Now most of these things made sense to me but a couple i was confused about. One was having an agent. I wanted to know from all you published authors, if thats really needed. I don't exactly have all that much money…