I’m a little late posting this morning and I apologize. I’d really planned on putting up an open thread today, but a couple of articles caught my eye during the wee hours of the morning as I was trying to convince the scaredy dog (yes, that is a word and the nicest I could call the drooler at the time) that we weren’t about to be tossed into the air only to land in Oz. In other words, the big, bad dog is scared of rain and kept the household up during the night because we had storms.
Any way, a couple of articles caught my eye. One has been in the news for a week or so. There have been the typical knee-jerk reaction from the legacy publishers and those who still believe they are the only hope for the publishing industry. Another has been sort of ignored because it doesn’t deal with Amazon even though it is yet another example of how some agents are potentially getting into a conflict of interest, or at least a very grey and murky area of fiduciary duty to their clients.
But the Amazon story first. On the 16th of this month, the New York Times published an article about Amazon bypassing publishers and signing authors to contracts to publish through Amazon. For some months now, Amazon has been introducing “imprints”. Several well-known authors signed exclusive publishing contracts with Amazon. There were a few ripples when that happened, but nothing like the response to the Times’ article last week. The specifics are pretty simple. This fall, Amazon will publish 122 titles. These titles will be across a variety of genres and some will be digital and some hard copy. Among the authors will be self-help guru Tim Ferrias and actor/director Penny Marshall.And the cries of foul were heard far and wide from legacy publishers.
According to the Times, “Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.”
So let’s look at that statement. While I can’t speak to whether or not Amazon is “aggressively wooing” top authors, it would be a fool not to. The same publishers who are crying foul are the ones who backed the agency pricing plan for e-books. This is the plan that lets the publishers set the price for their e-books so there is no competition across the different e-book retailers. Worse, the general reading public doesn’t understand that Amazon can’t control the prices for those books from the agency model publishers, and it is the one on the receiving end of the bad customer feelings.
But more telling is that these same publishers are crying because Amazon is “gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.” Used to provide is the key phrase here. Past tense. As in, these are services that were once provided by publishers, critics and agents and are no longer. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? And, frankly, can you blame an author for signing with Amazon if it does offer the editing, copy editing and proofreading, promotion and placement legacy publishers used to and no longer do? I can’t.
I also think it’s rather disingenuous to have an agent, who also happens to be a publisher, complaining about Amazon taking money out of the hands of agents. What about putting money into the hands of writers, especially when so many agents these days are either turning into publishers themselves (which brings up the question of just how hard they are going to work to place their clients’ work with another publisher when the agency could be the publisher)? I’ll be honest, those who are crying “foul” the loudest are those who have enjoyed telling the writer to bend over and cough, forgetting that, without the writer, they wouldn’t have a business.
Read the article and let me know what you think.
Then there’s the second article, which sort of falls in with my last set of comments. The Perseus Books Group has announced a new venture to “help” authors who want to self-publish. The catch: these authors have to be represented by certain agents who have signed agreements with Perseus. So, that’s how some agents are getting around the somewhat murky ethical issue of literary agents also being publishers. They don’t. They just sign agreements with companies like Perseus to “publish” and “distribute” the books.
The article notes that one of the “benefits” of doing it this way is the breakdown of authors getting 70% while Perseus will only get 30%. Guess what, boys and girls, an author can get that from Amazon now by self-publishing through them. More than that, any author is capable of putting their e-books into the outlets mentioned in the article. Even if the author doesn’t have the required Mac computer for iBooks/iTunes, it can be easily done through Smashwords. Again, quick and easy and without the middleman.
But there’s more. At least I have more concerns. Question one, if Author A is represented by one of the agencies that has an agreement with Perseus, does Author A owe a commission to Agent B if he goes through Perseus? Question two, if so, how does the agency build the proverbial Chinese wall (no insult intended here. It’s a phrase learned in law school.) to make sure there is no undue pressure put on the author/client to go this route instead of the traditional publishing route? Conversely, what sort of pressure would the agent put on Author A if the author came to him and said he wanted to self-publish and Agent B really wants to take the book through the traditional route?
I know legacy publishers and agents are scared about where the industry is going. Or they should be. Heck, anyone in the business, including authors, should be at least a little scared. But it really is those who have made their livelihoods on the backs of authors who are the most scared and who are doing their best to find new and imaginative ways to maintain the status quo. My advice, whether you are shopping a book around right now or thinking about doing so in the near future, decide what route is best for you. Most of all, if you are offered a contract by either an agent or a legacy publisher, hie thee to an intellectual property attorney forthwith. Do NOT sign it without first having someone very familiar with the industry looking it over first. And please, note I said legacy publisher AND agent.
(Edited to add: Welcome to everyone coming over from Instapundit. Thanks to Insty for the mention and link.)
(Cross-posted to Mad Genius Club and Naked Truth)
The Worlds of Amanda S. Green 
Amanda, I’ve been reading Larry Block’s ebooks the last few days. Interesting to discover that Scott Merideth had a similar sort of deal (along with the reading fees scam) with some early B- and C-list paperback publishers: you could only sell to them if you were represented by Merideth.
Charlie, I’d forgotten about that. Seems like just as we start educating folks about the latest — and worst — of the scams in the industry, something new comes up. Sorry, did I say “scams”? I meant to say “innovative and sometimes questionable practices”. I’m readying the popcorn and cold drinks in preparation of watching the fireworks when authors finally realize they’ve been taken long enough and decide to force publishers — through the courts if necessary — to give accurate accountings of sales. The same goes for agents. The line has been more than blurred when it comes to just how far an agent can go before he no longer is representing the best interests of his client, instead looking out for his own bottom line instead.
My question: is Amazon an innovator or a pirate? It is much easier for Amazon to steal successful authors than find new ones.
If they go that route — and I have no reason to believe they won’t — then the existing publishers die as their cash-cows are stolen by Amazon and Amazon publishing then dies because they have no interest or expertise in finding new authors.
In the end, everyone suffers.
Keep an eye on this please…
Owen, I don’t think of it so much as stealing authors from publishers as publishers forcing them out by not providing the authors with the editing, support, promotion and, most of all, accurate accounting of sales that they should. Publishers expect authors — and to a lesser extent agents — to do things that have been traditional to publishers until recently. As a writer, why should I spend months or years writing a book only to get, if I’m lucky, 25% of net and, from that, having to pay for my own editing (if I want to make sure it is edited properly) and my own promotion when I can get 70% if I self-publish through Amazon? If Amazon, the main retailer of my books, offers me a contract that beats what the legacy publishers have been offering, what loyalty do I have to these same publishers who have done nothing more than use my creative product to line their pockets while doing their best to make sure my monies don’t increase?
As for Amazon becoming a publisher, killing the industry and then dying itself. I doubt that’s going to happen. For one, Amazon is making, I assume, a nice sum from those who use their KDP program. Yes, those in the program get anywhere from 35 – 70% of the sales price (approx.), but Amazon gets the rest for basically doing nothing more than maintaining their site and listing the product. If you think of the tens of thousands of titles this entails, you can see where they are making quite a bit of profit there.
No, I see this venture into publishing as a way to rub the noses of the legacy publishers, especially those who adopted the agency model of e-book pricing, in the excrement that will soon be hitting the fan. I could be wrong and, yes, I will be watching it to see how things develop. Will it help bring out the fall of some of the legacy publishers? Quite possibly. But I don’t see it signalling the end of the industry, or of Amazon itself. However, only time will tell.
It’s called disintermediation, and it’s made possible by the Internet, which was funded by U.S. taxpayers.
To taxpayers I say, “Thank you for disintermediating the gatekeepers, who know ever so much more than the rest of us, except how to keep their jobs.”
David, absolutely. Thanks for commenting.
Dinosaurs never want to go extinct. Old publishing is the Spanish Armada. Amazon and others are the new British navy. How dare these upstarts be better, faster, cheaper and more productive of opportunity than the old vanguard. Why, the dinosaurs should just throw ethics out the window in order to compete.
P.S. I too learned “Chinese Wall” re conflicts of interest in law school. Over the years in practice we changed to using “firewall” which I guess says the same thing. And you don’t have to apologize EVERY SINGLE TIME for using it.
Esteban, the problem is, these dinosaurs threw ethics out the window long ago. If they hadn’t, we’d never have clauses in publishing contracts requiring authors to not publish with anyone else or tying up every form of the novel in whatever format or means available, even those not yet invented or imagined. Nor would authors have to rely on the publishers to tell them how many books they sold even though the publishers don’t give an accurate figure. They rely on bookscan that merely extrapolates based on what certain bookstores in certain markets sell. Sorry, publishers know how many books are printed, how many are shipped to stores or outlets and how many are returned. Should be pretty simple with the right program to know how many were sold. But wait, that’s another aspect of the business publishers have shipped off to third parties to do. More money they have to pay to contractors so another reason why they don’t want to pay the writer a fair share.
I’m an indy-author since trying the trad-publishing route in 2005-06 with my first two books (historical novels, which several agents looked at, and said regretfully that they were very good… but just not marketable.) I already had an established fan-base through blogging, so I went ahead and published them through a POD house, where they have sold respectably well ever since. A good few indy-authors that I know of have since gotten traditional publishing deals based on their success with indy-published books, but unless I were offered an insanely large advance, I don’t think I would go for it. I would much rather hire an editor, formatter, cover-designer and publicist myself, knowing that they work directly for me, and I could hold them responsible for their work … than take pot-luck at a traditional house, where all those people would be working for someone else, whose corporate interests might be inimical to mine.
Celia, I’m hearing from more and more authors who have taken the same road you have and for the same reasons. It’s amazing the number of authors who have had books turned down either by agents or editors — or both — that have gone on to sell very well on the indie market. Those same indie authors do, sometimes, get contracts from legacy publishers. But they are the exception and not the rule. What I find increasingly frustrating and mind-blowing is how these books that have been turned down by traditional publishers go on and make good money but the publishers don’t get it. They don’t get that the trend of yesterday isn’t the trend of today and that readers want a well-written and entertaining story, not the same rehash that’s been done dozens, if not scores, of times before.
Nor do those same publishers get why authors are taking matters into their own hands and self-publishing on both the digital and print levels. They refuse to pull their heads out of the sand and adapt to the changing times — and to give authors a reason for signing away 75% or more of the money from the author’s labor.
“They don’t get that the trend of yesterday isn’t the trend of today and that readers want a well-written and entertaining story, not the same rehash that’s been done dozens, if not scores, of times before.”
That must account for a ton of HF about the Tudors, and the glut of zombie books… 😉
Someone writing a book about Tudor zombies will be the next big thing. (And I believe someone already came up with a Tudor vampire book!)
I worked hard for 15 years before getting my first novel published (a small press). I now have four published novels and two published short stories. I’ve received very good reviews but not much in the way of sales. My publisher is close to defunct, my agent has not done much for me and I’m thinking of self-publishing on Amazon. However, aside from the vanity of having another “published” novel, does Amazon do any marketing whatsoever on such books. How is the reading public supposed to know that my book is available (and might even be worth reading)?
Robert, I’m not sure what all Amazon is offering those books they are putting out through their imprints. As for going the indie route on Amazon, the answer is multi-fold. You have to be vocal about your book without being obnoxious about it. Promote it on your blog and other social media before it comes out. It does help. Don’t stop promoting it once it is out. Speaking from experience here both as an author and as an editor, those titles that the authors continue to promote (and it can be as simple as having the cover image starting each blog post) sell more than those who never mention the title again. But the real key seems to be frequency in publishing — and in having your author central page set up on Amazon. The more you have out there, the more likely it is someone will find it and buy it. Then they will buy other titles by you.
Take part in online discussion fora. You don’t have to tout your book then, but you still get your name out. This is especially true if the forum has some connection to what you’re writing about. Some fora allow you to add a link after your name which can go back to your website or even the amazon store listing for your book or author central page. Use it when you can.
Yes, it is daunting when you look at how many books are out there on the different sites, especially Amazon. But I can vouch for the fact that it can be done, as long as you have patience and continue to work to add new titles on a regular basis to your list of credits.
Celia, first off, sorry for my response dropping down here. The nesting feature only goes so far. Yes, it does account for the glut of zombie fic, most of which is poorly written imo. It also accounts for some of the very bad Austen mash-ups. Pride, Prejudice and Zombies was fun because it was different. But the others that have cropped up since then have lost the edge, the shine that PP&Z had. Yet publishers continue to crank them out, hoping not only to recover the monies paid out because they bought based on one novel that sold pretty well, but also hoping to create a buzz like Harry Potter or Twilight. Speaking of the latter, has there been anything copied more and as poorly as Twilight? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see another sparkly vampire or emo werewolf for a very long time and I write urban fantasy.
I have been reading mail not my own but sent to two authors I know. Perseus sent a letter to an author of many books. Another publisher sent a similar letter on the same exact day. They both provided some explicit and detailed accounting. I found it interesting. I would not agree that publishers don’t provide an accounting. If I did write something I’d like to have my sister’s agent. I flew out of SFO once sitting next to a girl in the publishing business and learned a lot simply from hearing her cell phone conversation with an agent.
Curtis, the fact that there isn’t a complete accounting for e-books (not even the inaccurate bookscan numbers) coming from publishers combined with the fact that even bookscan admits their numbers are less (iirc double-digit percentage less) than actual sales, means I stand by my original statement. Sure, some publishers and agents are better than others. But now you have agents who are getting into the publishing business — which is, imo, a conflict of interest no matter what they call it — and other agents who don’t help their clients get their rights back after they should have reverted. You have agents placing clauses in their contracts that will leave a book with them for the entire length of copyright, whether they maintain a relationship with the client or not and without any sort of requirement they do anything beyond trying to place the book. If that clause is written a certain way, it means that the writer can’t self publish the work without agent approval.
My issue with legacy publishers isn’t that they don’t give an accounting, it’s that they don’t give a complete and accurate accounting. If you don’t believe me, check out the blogs by Kris Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, among others. (kriswrites.com and deanwesleysmith.com)
Why in the world would anybody sign a contract with an agent? Particularly one with a clause like what you wrote in it? Copyright is the author’s and not ever the agents. I’ve written things and sometimes they get published and sometimes, 8-10 years later my stuff is returned but I never ever granted exclusive rights to anybody to my stuff. If I don’t hear from the first publisher I just move along to the next. The first is delinquent in response but I owe them nothing and never signed a contract giving them ownership rights so I’m perfectly free to offer my written work to anybody at all.
Admittedly, this is from someone who skims EULAs at 20,000 words per minute.
Curtis, there are still some publishers that won’t look at work unless it is submitted by an agent. That’s the main reason for going with one. Plue, there are still good agents out there, ones who are concerned more with doing their best for the client and not for the publisher. However, the real answer to your question is clauses like the one I mentioned are buried so deep in the boilerplate that most people glaze right over it. That’s why I always tell folks to get an IP attorney to look over any contract from a publisher or from an agent. That’s the only way to be sure you haven’t missed something.