When my agent and I together made the decision that I would self-publish Diary of a Small Fish (the manuscript she had under contract – we’d waited 9 months for 6 editors to not respond), we discussed a strategy to pursue and how it would change the nature of the working relationship we had. Essentially, I had a second manuscript on the way, and we both wanted to continue to work together. She is a big believer in the idea of “building the author’s career” (the – ahem – “garbage”), she’s sold a lot of work for her authors, several of whom have both traddy and SP works in the market, and she works harder than any human being I’ve ever met.

My point in the post was that if we rewrote her job description to include activity outside of the typical agent’s (e.g., promote the book and the author in professional circles, help obtain panel/speaking assignments at conferences, raise profile, etc.), there should be a means of compensating her. In short, I proposed to compensate her, and she declined. So, we continue to work together anyway, and she awaits my second manuscript.

So if this is indeed referring to my situation, the rumor has turned the truth on its head. The agent did NOT demand or even ask for her commission, and when offered it, she declined.

I realize this upsets the cynical characterization of The Literary Agent these days, but there really are a few out there who actually get it, and embrace the dynamism of the marketplace. Being a battle-scarred 56 year old litigator, I can take care of myself, too.

This is just argumentative, I self pub everything I write.

I think the publisher has a better argument than the agent, and the agent should get his percentage on only the revenue the publisher receives from the ebook.

Mind-boggling.

It’s the difference between someone earning a fee… and someone being paid a fee because the writer is paying for the privilege of using the phrase “my agent” rather than paying for work done on a project.

So 15% forever is too much, but I can see cases where a writer might choose to compensate an agent for a self published book. For example, if an agent spent considerable time offering editorial feedback and got a decent offer for it that the writer ended up turning down, the writer might choose to pay that agent a flat fee for the editorial services provided. Not because the writer is somehow co-dependent on the agent, but simply out of a wish to compensate the agent for providing services that the writer benefited from.

And I’ve certainly written said agent back to clarify that these clauses don’t refer to self publishing agreements like Amazon KDP, assuming that it was just a misunderstanding stemming from the fact that the contract was written before self-publishing became common.

And I’ve certainly received, in reply, first a vague response from an assistant, and then a livid e-mail from the actual agent answering none of my questions, but instead pointing out all my character flaws and telling me I was a horrible writer to work with.

Granted, there was other stuff going on in that whole exchange, but there was something funny going on there.

(Quick clarification — the agent in question is not my current agent.)

Nearly six months ago, I wrote a blog which predicted that now that literary agencies were setting up epublishing operations and epublishing “facilitation services” (and rather than specifying how they would deal with the ethical problems inherent in these choices, they instead just vehemently denied that a conflict-of-interest EXISTED in becoming publishers of the clients whose interests they’re supposed to REPRESENT in publishing deals), the next logical (unethical; but fiscally logical) step for these agencies would be to funnel their clients into their e-ventures.

My blog about this on Ninc at:
http://www.ninc.com/blog/index.php/archives/literary-agents-self-publishing

In recent months, I’ve heard of at least two specific instances of agencies which, having set up e-divisions or e-services, are indeed now defining the client’s self-publishing venture as one in which the author must now pay a commission to the agent. These incidents were related to me privately and in confidence by people with direct experience of the policies and practices being implemented by these agencies.

However… what I’ve also been told is that most writers are accepting such terms without understanding what they’re getting into, or WITHOUT CARING what they’re getting into. (In fact, I’ve even encountered writers who feel bad, for whatever reason, about earning money of which the agent doesn’t get a cut, and have therefore VOLUNTEERED to pay their agents 15% of their self-publishing income.)

So agents are not ONLY counting on writers to be even more desperate than agents are (and they’re right), they’re also counting on writers to be bad at business and so grateful just to HAVE an agent that they’re willing to pay portions of their income to the agent for which the agent did nothing. And I have a sad, uneasy feeling that agents -formalizing- this practice by insisting they be paid a percentage of a client’s self-publishing earnings… will become a widely accepted practice. As absurd and outrageous as that seems.