The Dystel & Goderich agency has announced it will be assisting authors in self-pubbing. Unlike other agencies, however, it will be acting as an agent, not a publisher, and charging 15%, not 50%. Joe Konrath is a client and says he’ll use their services for an upcoming novel instead of going pure indie.
Excerpts from the agency announcement:
As an agency that has prided itself on being a bit of a maverick among the stodgy old guard, we have always been more intrigued than scared about this new world of e-books. The consensus among us, even after listening to the doomsayers, has been that e-publishing will re-energize our business and create more readers. That’s right, instead of bemoaning the death of publishing as we know it, DGLMers have always felt that e-books and electronic media offer a tremendous opportunity to expand our reach and that of our authors.
. . . .
Over the past months and years we’ve come to the realization that e-publishing is yet another area in which we can be of service to our clients as literary agents. From authors who want to have their work available once the physical edition has gone out of print and the rights have reverted, to those whose books we believe in and feel passionately about but couldn’t sell—oftentimes, after approaching 20 or more houses—we realized that part of our job as agents in this new publishing milieu is to facilitate these works being made available as e-books and through POD and other editions.
Right now, you’re thinking, oh, DGLM is going to be another of those agencies that has decided to become an e-publisher and charge clients whose books they can’t sell 50% of their income for the privilege of uploading their work. Some of you may be mumbling, “Uh…that’s a conflict of interest.” We get it and we understand how that can be the perception. However, we have no intention of becoming e-publishers. As we said above, we have too much respect for the work that publishers do and too much respect for the work we ourselves do to muddy the waters in such a way.
Again, what we are going to do is to facilitate e-publishing for those of our clients who decide that they want to go this route, after consultation and strategizing about whether they should try traditional publishing first or perhaps simply set aside the current book and move on to the next. We will charge a 15% commission for our services in helping them project manage everything from choosing a cover artist to working with a copyeditor to uploading their work. We will continue to negotiate all agreements that may ensue as a result of e-publishing, try to place subsidiary rights where applicable, collect monies and review statements to make sure the author is being paid. In short, we will continue to be agents and do the myriad things that agents do.
Link to the rest at Dystel & Goderich
Passive Guy has blogged before about the conflict of interest that can arise when an agent becomes a publisher, epubbing or otherwise, for an author.
Without looking at the Dystel & Goderich contract, he can’t be sure, but PG believes the agency may have structured their program to avoid most, if not all of the potential conflicts. The main ways they have done this are:
1. They remain an agent and do not become a publisher, and
2. They receive 15% for their work on indie publishing, exactly the same amount as they receive for working with traditional publishers.
The straight 15% rate allows the agency to be agnostic regarding indie pub vs. traditional pub. Unlike agents who become epublishers and receive 50% of revenues in that role, Dystel & Goderich will be in a position to recommend the avenues that will make the most money for the author because their financial interests are always aligned with the author’s.
Presumably, the author or a captive publishing company set up by the author will be the publisher under Dystel & Goderich’s proposed system. PG would expect the Amazon, Nook and CreateSpace accounts would be set up so the agency had access for royalty review purposes.
It would be interesting to know if royalty payments will go straight to the agency or not and whether the agency will front costs for editing, cover design, etc., for authors who can’t afford those costs.
It still remains to be seen how skilled agents are at coordinating self-publishing activities but, assuming a reasonable termination clause in the agency contract, an author can probably give them a try for a reasonable percentage without betting the ranch on the outcome.