Remember the good old days, when an agent worked for the author? Yeah, me too.

Those days are coming to an end.

Traditionally, agents introduced books to publishers and negotiated the best possible contract for their clients. Most agencies included substantive and copy-editing not as a fee-based service, but as part of the agent-client effort to improve the manuscript’s appeal and increase its chances of landing a contract.

As the industry shudders under a stampede of e-books and the self-publishing explosion, publishers have tightened the locks on their doors and made it even more difficult for new writers to see their work published—perhaps hoping they will lose heart in the exercise and give up. Part of this may have been due to ever-shrinking revenues; readers have embraced the convenience of e-books and the rise in electronic trade has bogged down paperback sales. As a result, publishers have closed ranks around authors who have proven to be moneymakers. This is understandable, if a little short-sighted. Another reason for the barring of doors is the flood of manuscripts that threatened to drown publishers.

Everybody wants to write a book. It’s so easy now—with computers and the Internet—that anyone with a book in them (that’s about everyone) is hammering out some sort of story. Sadly, the majority of these are suckish at best and publishers understandably grew tired of wading through the sludge. Publishers increasingly relied on agents to filter through the mire. This shifting of the slush pile made agents a sort of gatekeeper that left small presses, self-publishing, and e-publishers as the only avenues left to new unagented authors.

To find the diamonds, agents must sift through the crap and to do this they’ve had to become brutal in their selection. A single misstep in a query letter, such as a spelling error, may be enough to earn a rejection without the agent bothering to read the rest of the query.

The chance of a new author getting their foot in that publishing door nowadays is slim to none. It’s a sad reality, but there it is. So what is a new author to do? We e-publish or self-publish of course. Whether this is a good or bad choice is irrelevant here. What is relevant is that agents are feeling the crunch just like the rest of the industry; to survive they must evolve. Again, this is understandable, but the way some agencies have chosen to transform their business model raises serious questions.

Bookends, LLC, a legitimate and much sought-after agency, announced in July of last year that it would offer its authors self e-publishing services.

But why pay an agent to do something I can do for free?

Well, according to Bookends agent Jessica Faust, this service is a way of filling the gap left by e-books between traditional and self-publishing. What gap, you ask? The gap left by new authors who choose to forgo the query routine—nothing but rejection, tears, and wasted time—and went straight to self-publishing. This choice, which many talented, publishable authors make, doesn’t allow agents or publishers to make money. Hence, the gap. That’s my theory anyway.

Faust explains the new business model of Bookends in a post on the company’s blog. She states that clients working closely with the agency on their self-published e-books would pay Bookends fifteen percent commission for their services in the process. What does the agency actually do? According to Faust, the author pays the costs of conversion, cover art, and editing, and the agency manages the books once they’re ready to be loaded onto sites like Lulu or Amazon. In the case of books not previously published, the agent would offer revision and editing services as well. So the author pays to edit, market and to convert to e-book format and still gives the agency fifteen percent…to manage them afterward?

Manages what exactly?

In my opinion, the announcement of the new service raises a ton of questions and gives no solid answers. I hear a lot of talking but no real answers to the ethical dilemmas.

But I don’t want to vilify Bookends. Perhaps, they don’t intend to scam authors but to adapt to an industry that is abandoning the old publishing model in favor of a more author-friendly one. And Bookends isn’t alone in this “transformation” of services. In June, Dystel and Goderich made a similar announcement on its blog.

Dystel “understands” that authors might think that offering publishing services raises a conflict of interest. But apparently, we’re mistaken if we think this is what the agency is doing. The agency denies its attempts to become an e-publisher. No. Instead, Dystel and Goderich intends “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.”

Dystel will charge a fifteen percent commission that covers services like helping “project manage everything.” This means Dystel will charge clients who choose self e-publishing 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.”

Right. And collect fifteen percent for something an author can do on his own—self-publish his book. Hard to see how authors might mistakenly think this is the same service that publishers would provide.

The conflict that concerns me most is that an agent’s role is to find our books a home, not the home we’re building and paying for ourselves but a home already built, paid for, and run by experienced contractors that can give our books the best chance at success. Why else would the agent collect a portion of our royalties? If we could access the big publishing houses without an agent, we wouldn’t pay that fee. Why then, would we pay it if the agent isn’t helping us gain access?

Essentially these agencies are asking us to pay for their expertise in marketing, cover design, managing, and editing. Are agents qualified as experts in cover design or marketing? Let’s face it, anyone can get cover design and reasonable editing for a flat fee of a few hundred bucks. Unfortunately, the only single factor to sell self-published e-books is marketing. What does “managing” the e-book entail? I thought agents were experts in negotiating a contract and protecting the author’s rights. And who retains the rights for the author’s book? Traditionally, the publisher would retain the rights, but if the agent is representing the author as he self-publishes, who is looking after the author’s interests in this area? No one.

New authors have always been advised to be wary of agents who offer services outside of representation to publishers. This includes editing, marketing, and publishing services. What makes these agencies different from the scammers who fleece writers for things the author can manage alone? Sure, they’re legitimate now, but the waters have become muddied, and a writer has to wonder.

The thing is, we don’t need agents to publish our books. If the agent doesn’t negotiate deals with publishers, then his role isn’t fulfilled. Why not examine the services authors still need? Agents should focus on foreign sales, film and audio sales and maybe negotiating the print deal of a self-published author’s e-book. Let’s not forget that at some point in the not so distant future, e-publishers will need a filter for their slush piles. Why are agents not embracing that end of the electronic explosion? Charging fees to help an author self-publish is unethical. Period. It corrupts the very purpose of an agent.

The Association of Author’s Representatives (AAR) Canon of Ethics states:

 

“The AAR believes that the practice of literary agents charging clients or potential clients for reading and evaluating literary works (including outlines, proposals, and partial or complete manuscripts) is subject to serious abuse that reflects adversely on our profession. For that reason, members may not charge clients or potential clients for reading and evaluating literary works and may not benefit, directly or indirectly, from the charging for such services by any other person or entity. The term ‘charge’ in the previous sentence includes any request for payment other than to cover the actual cost of returning materials.”

How is this new service in accordance with the AAR’s Canon of Ethics? Cloaking it in fancy talk doesn’t change the reality. An agency that offers editing, cover design, or other services—which I presume they’ll do themselves or farm out in exchange for a hefty cut—to facilitate self e-publishing is in conflict with the AAR’s ethical guidelines. The agent now competes with the publishers he is supposed to negotiate with. How is this not a conflict of interest?

With the advent of these services, a book that Bookends would turn down has the possibility to make them a few bucks. Does this mean the slush pile is suddenly a potential income source for the agency? If it does, then how is the agency different from a vanity publisher?

Bookends agent Jessica Faust answers most of these questions with “My feeling is that whether or not it truly is a conflict of interest comes down to how a situation is handled by the agent, and in many ways, that’s for the agent and the agent’s clients to determine.”

Sorry, Jessica. Your empty rhetoric is just that: empty. It doesn’t answer anything.