We Need Diverse Agents

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From Publishing Perspectives:

In a game of “getting warmer,” the publishing industry has been slow to recognize that in order to widen its consumer base, it needs to represent consumers in its own ranks. As a demographic, black women are one of the fastest-growing consumer groups for books, but according to the 2015 Lee & Low study “Diversity in Publishing,” only 4% of publishing employees are black. If you look specifically at acquiring editors, you’ll find that number is likely even smaller.

With nearly 80% of the industry identifying as white, straight, and able bodied, is it any wonder that so many stories sound the same? Calls for more diverse characters, authors, and stories are great. There’s a step further that must be taken, however; we need to make changes to the gatekeepers. As Kacen Callender rightly pointed out in their Publishers Weekly article, “We Need Diverse Editors,” sometimes stories weren’t written for the people we have guarding the house.

The need for representation in all aspects of publishing is clear. In order to get an editor, books need to be represented by agents—so it stands to reason that the industry needs diverse agents, as well. Publishing already has some amazing agents of color who you can learn more about via litagentsofcolor.com. But few agencies have more than a handful of agents that stray outside the industry’s typical demographic. Though many publishing houses and agencies claim to implement “diversity initiatives,” they often fail to address the true barriers to entry that exist—and they don’t take actionable measures to ensure that the people they do hire have opportunities to advance.

As a standard practice in the agenting world, agents and assistants work very closely together, both figuratively and literally. In hiring for a position that requires a great deal of subjectivity, agents often look for people with whom they share a connection; they want those who will view books the same way they do. Unfortunately, that is often focused through a white, heterosexual, able-bodied lens.

Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives

While recognizing that there are good and bad agents, PG doubts there is much of a future for diverse or non-diverse agents coming into the business these days.

He has no problem with the artistic and business advice services good literary agents provide nor with the access to editors at traditional publishers they also offer.

In PG’s experience, author/agent problems arise from the following elements of the business relationship:

  1. Agency contracts and royalties extend forever (life of the author plus 70 years in the US) because they piggyback on the publishing agreement the agent acquires for the author and typical publishing agreements from traditional publishers extend for the life of the author’s copyright. The agency agreements are almost never tied to the services of a particular agent, someone the author knows and trusts, the reason the author signed with the agency. When that agent dies or retires, someone new will inherit all the rights and powers the author granted to the original agent s/he relied upon and trusted.
  2. Agencies usually receive the royalty statement and the entire royalty check traditional publishers send out twice per year. Some agencies never provide copies of the publisher’s royalty statement to their authors. Some agencies never tell the author the exact amount of the royalty check(s) received. Some agencies don’t immediately tell the author when the royalty statement/check arrive. Unfortunately, some agencies keep part or all of the royalties the author should be receiving.
  3. Anybody can become a literary agent. There are no state or federal licensing requirements with accompanying rules/standards with which an agent must comply. Someone can walk out of prison (or a drug rehab facility) one day and open a literary agency the next day. A literary agent can be indicted for fraud and continue to accept new clients and receive royalty checks for large amounts of money. PG is not aware of any government entity that is tasked with regulating or auditing literary agents.

Again, PG has no complaint against the knowledgeable, honest and hardworking agents that are scrupulously careful with their clients’ money and artistic future. He merely points out that, based upon his long observation of human behavior, where there is an opportunity for a person to abuse a relationship of trust, a small percentage of people will eventually abuse that relationship to the detriment of the person who trusts them.

Lawyers can be disbarred (and a few richly deserve that treatment). Accountants can have their professional certifications and licenses terminated. Medical licenses can be revoked. Some states require that manicurists and pedicurists (“Nail Technicians”) be licensed and those licenses can be terminated.

Literary agents? Nada.