The lines between authors, agents, and publishers used to be very clear and bright. Each one had certain things it did best, and the idea of authors or agents jumping into publishing themselves was all but unheard of. But with the rise of e-books and e-publishing, many authors have gone into publishing for themselves—and now a number of literary agents are doing so as well, for backlist titles traditional publishers have been less willing to touch.
The Bookseller has a feature looking at some of these agents. For example, Ed Victor has branched his literary agency out into offering public speakers and publishing backlist titles. Victor believes that the time when “agents can just be agents” is over. He told The Bookseller:
“There was a time when I believed fervently, as an article of faith, that if you’re an agent you should be an agent and nothing else. I mostly stuck to that, when selling film rights I would sometimes be executive producer—because it was a role that helped me protect the interests of the author. Instead of just doing the film or television deal and rolling over and going to sleep, I’d be pretty actively informed about who was writing the script and who was going to star in the film. But believe me, I had a dialogue between self and soul about doing that, because I believed agents should only be agents. But look, Amazon is now going into the publishing business. So, yes, we have to change.”
It also touches on Patrick Walsh’s public speaking agency sideline, Hire Intelligence (which I covered here), and Sheil Land’s placement of Catherine Cookson’s backlist with Amazon.
The idea of agents branching out has had its share of controversy, but with the ongoing shakeup of the publishing industry through e-books, it seems businesses ought to be thinking about trying new things to secure their revenue streams in a changing world. Small wonder the UK Association of Authors’ Agents has been thinking about changing its constitution to permit agents to publish.
