As more and more established authors go indie, either by e-pubbing their backlist or taking new material straight to ebook, many of us wonder: What will be the agent’s role in this new publishing frontier? That conversation came up repeatedly during the recent RWA conference in NYC. Among the authors I spoke with, everyone agrees that agents actually becoming publishers is a bad idea. But, what about agents assisting their authors with self publishing? Now that, I can see as a positive thing. Here’s the big question, though:
What is fair compensation to agents who assist authors with self publishing?
This is an extremely important question, folks, because what authors agree to now will be precedent-setting. Any of us who have taken the plunge into self publishing ebooks know the learning curve is huge. For anyone trying to tackle it and maintain any sort of a writing schedule, it’s nearly impossible. I’ve been burning my candle at four ends for so long now, I honestly don’t know how I’ve managed. What’s the solution, though. Do I continue doing all of this on my own? Do I hire an assistant (which I’m seriously considering)? Or do I self publish my next ebook with my agent’s assistance?
If I choose option number 2, that’s money out of pocket for an hourly rate. If choose option number 3, that’s going to mean giving up a percentage of my ebook sales. But what should that percentage be?
I’m hearing people suggest everything from 5% to 50% commission to the agent. Whoa, that’s a pretty big range. Others say agents should get the same 15% commission they get on our print sales. Yet this is a completely new service that is nothing at all like what agents have done in the past. My big fear is that authors will look at the scary learning curve for e-pubbing, become intimidated and agree to give up far too much of their ebook royalty just to have someone take the burden off their shoulders. Then that will be the royalty split the rest of us will be stuck with. So, let’s look at this question from both sides.
From the authors’ point of view
Fair compensation is going to depend on what the agent provides. If all the agent is going to do is take an out-of-print book or a new manuscript and make it a live ebook on Amazon, BN.com, Apple, etc, why would the author give up any percentage of their sales? You can hire all of that done. Two excellent resources are Pam Headrick with A Thirsty Mind (she’s who I use, and she’s a formatting goddess), or Nina Paules with eBook Prep. Pam only does the scanning, cleaning, and formatting, while Nina Paules is more turnkey.
So, for me, an agent will have to offer something more, like help with promotion and “discoverability” before I personally will give up a percentage. Some things that might entice me are an agency Website and eNewsletter with a large reader following. Someone within the agency who will promote my titles and sales on Twitter and Facebook. The clout to get special placement at the eStores. Those would be worth giving up a percentage of my sales.
From the agent’s point of view
Fair compensation is going to depend on the author’s ebook earning potential. Getting an ebook live requires an upfront investment of time and money. The learning curve is huge, but once you have the process down, it’s no big deal. Still, if an author has no built-in ebook following and zero intention of promoting their ebooks, the agent is going to have to work really hard (doing everything I just mentioned above), or (potentially) settle for a very small return on their investment. Ebooks are a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes one will spark on its own, but most of the time, they require some Internet-savvy promotion to make them spark.
That brings us back to: What is fair compensation?
I’m not sure there is one commission that will be fair for every author. For those of us with a solid ebook following and a wealth of promo-savvy, there’s no way we’d give up more than a very small percentage and we’d expect quite a bit in exchange for that. Because 5-10% of our ebook earnings is going to be far more than 15% of our print book earnings ever were. But 5-10% of the ebook earnings for an author who’s been out-of-print for 15 years, has no Internet presence, and no intension of becoming a social-networking wiz, may barely be worth an agent’s time.
What are your thoughts, though, on this vast and controversial topic?
Julie
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Maybe one of the roles for the agent is to be the promoter of the author who does not want to spend a lot of time building a presence on the Web and doing all the online marketing. I would gladly give 10 percent of my earnings to an agent who would help me boost sales.
My agent and I are doing this together and we both see it as a partnership. A good one since we’ve always been on page one from the beginning.
I agree with you that one commission size does not fit all, and we need to be careful about setting precedents. Right now, most agents seem to feel that their “industry standard” 15% print royalty should just automatically apply to ebooks. Why? What are they doing to earn such a big piece of the pie? We’re not talking about a print product that disappears from stores after a few weeks. We’re talking about a digital product with a shelf life of forever. I’d say 5% or 10% is more than fair.
Another thought: since the “out of print” clause has now lost all its teeth, authors need to be careful about signing agency contracts. It might be smart to add a time limit. In other words, “I’m granting you the right to act as the agent on this property for X years.” After that, re-negotiate. If they prove their worth, you’ll want to re-sign with them — but if they’re can’t get the digital job done, you want to be free to find someone who can.
I think maybe if I was just starting out, with no knowledge of the epub/self-pub business, I might take advantage of an agent to do all this for me. Now, no, because I get how it’s done. But initially, the process was daunting. I have no idea about percentages, so I’m glad to read discussions on this. Good blog, Julie. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Kathy Shay
I have serious questions about it being worth it to hire an agent. First, agents may or may not know diddly about marketing/promotion. I’m willing to guess that few agents do, but most authors know more because we’ve had to do our own leg work for so long. Sure we’d like to hand it over to someone else, but agents? Really? Learning curve – same issue applies to agents. They’re scrambling to learn this new ball game as well. Will they be better at it than authors? Big maybe IMO. Finally, how does giving up a percentage to an agent affect pricing of our books? The big advantage of indie publishing is not slicing up the retail price so much that the authors end up with pennies.
Seems to me hiring agents to publish our indie titles just transfers the old publishing house with all its overhead to agents.
So, here’s my take: 1. I didn’t find the learning curveall that steep. Yes, it seemed daunting, but that’s because learning a whole new set of skills scared the bejeebies out of me. Once I got familiar with the lingo, formatting, etc. I was cool. 2. About promotion, authors can be free to do as little or as much as they want, but the popular wisdom says offer more product and sales will gradually climb. 3. I know as a traditionally published author we’re used to hit big and hit fast, and that tone seems to have seeped into indie publishing IMO. But we indie authors, with some savvy research, can have minimum investment, so no big overhead bills. That’s what drives frantic push to sell big and fast in traditional publishing. Even indie authors who are full-time and have bills to pay have said, writing more books and faster is key. Not burning up writing time promoting your books.
Thanks for this, Julie. My agent has been very supportive of my self-publishing without expecting to get anything from it. But those have been from manuscripts that he had very little to do with. I think your point about one-size-fits-all is a good one. Seems to me it should absolutely be based on what the agent brings to the table, and how much he works to promote the author’s visibility.
Although agents, at least the good ones, are savvy about the traditional publishing world, very, very few are savvy about the ebook/self-publishing world. To any author considering signing with any agent for this type of service, I would recommend the author spend a few hours reading threads on the Kindle Boards and a handful of Joe Konrath’s blog posts. Then when you’re considering signing with an agent you can ask intelligent questions. If you don’t receive intelligent responses, then even 1% is too much because this person will not be able to help you. Marketing self-published ebooks is different than marketing traditionally published books.
Because, for so very long, the agent has been the gatekeeper between most authors and most publishers, there is a new relationship that needs to be developed for this agency-ebook business model. I have heard of authors who split 50% with their agency, and I wonder if that is a sound decision — and if the author has the ability to walk away if it turns out not to be.
A new business relationship should probably rest on outcome-based assessment. For example, an agent who is only interested in handling foreign rights could take the industry standard of 20% for foreign rights, but nothing for ebook sales. An agent who is interested in multiplying agency client exposure, and can effectively do this, could be worth 5% of ebook royalties (again, outcome based meaning if the author sees no sales increase, the deal ends, no harm, no foul).
I admit I don’t worry about any percentage shares up to 15%, because up to that point, the agent doesn’t make more money putting a client right into the agency epublishing arm than by getting him/her a traditional publishing deal. Anything above that definitely falls into my idea of conflict of interest.
When I did my 50 day wedding promotion blitz, I could have used an agency-backed Tweet machine, and agency contacts to get my book reviewed and myself interviewed. I learned a lot getting the interviews and begging Tweets from anyone who’d tweet me (and it worked well for me, my efforts got me to 48 on the Kindle Top 100 at one point). Still, I’m sure there were opportunities I left lying on the table because I am only one person, and I need my 8 hours sleep or I’m really really cranky. As it is, I’m spending an average of 14 hours a day working on the backlist, promotion, and writing new material. It is exhilarating to know there are readers for my work — but the same writing fears crop up (will this book hang together? have I Tweeted too much today? How am I going to find out this critical fact to make my scene authentic?). I wouldn’t mind a little help on the presentation and PR front, for sure.
Thanks for bringing up this important topic, Julie.
I see that getting your stuff e-published is a lot of work. So much that I haven’t actually gotten anything up yet. I’m willing to pay for help, but I like the idea of paying a flat fee for service, rather than paying someone who wants a percentage. I may change my mind when I need promotion help.
Rebecca York
The only ongoing value I could see at all is in marketing–but agents have NO experience in modern marketing. They’ve been marketing to a few dozen editors, not 10 million device owners. Completely different skill sets are required.
I blogged about it recently, pointing out how this may not even save the author any work at all, and in fact may create even more work.
http://hauntedcomputer.blogspot.com/2011/07/self-publishing-agents-unnecessary.html
That said, some people may be good at this and worth it. I just don’t automatically assume it should be agents and wonder why writers are working so hard trying to create a new job for them.
Scott Nicholson
I agree with Scott and the others who have pointed out that being an agent doesn’t automatically make them knowledgeable for promoting ebooks. The learning curve is going to be just as steep for them as it is for authors. Plus, promoting ebooks is hugely time-consuming! Is it in an agent’s best interest to take that much energy away from their primary purpose, selling their clients’ front list to print publishers? I think for agencies to be of value to authors in this new arena, they’ll have to hire someone in house whose full-time focus is promoting their clients’ indie titles.
Until the other day I have felt a bit sorry for myself because I had no choice. So far, no agent has been interested in my manuscript (a cosy mystery to be published in August).
What I have done career-wise so far is self-publish two volumes of flash fiction plus a short story. Not because I thought they´d make me rich, but I hoped for some experience and a bit of exposition.
What happened the other day was that Amazon.com realized I had offered the short story for free on Smashwords, and then they followed suit, of course. So in the course of three days, 5,500 readers have downloaded my free story. No, I am still not rich, but I am beginning to get streetwise, and I have found one way of getting in touch with potential readers so now it is up to me to write so well that they´ll come back.
Do I still want an agent? Well, perhaps, but I am not at all sure I´d want to give up more than 5 %.
Dorte Hummelshoj.
Julie, you’re spot on, as always, and a very useful post this is – and it deservedly got some very interesting comments!
The conclusion is clear: agents are the gatekeepers to traditional publishers and nothing more. If you need support for promotion and improving “discoverability” of your e-book, then you need a different kind of person – not a standard agent.
How much should your e-book promoter be paid? Good question. I would prefer a flat rate for service rendered, within a specified timeframe. For example, 5% (or 10%) royalty for the first 2 years from book launch. Then a review and renegotiate more if needed. But if the book sales are flat, then fire!
Great blog!!!
I think agents are for selling books to publishers. Self-published books are not being sold to publishers.
Marketing people are for selling books to the public. So if/when I’ll need help with marketing, I’ll hire a marketing professional with relevant experience with selling romance and a proven track record. And I’ll pay a flat fee.
I don’t want everybody’s hands in my pocket forever.
Dana