An Agent Agent? Just Say No

Earlier this week I read an enlightening post at Jennifer Represents, the blog of literary agent Jennifer Laughran. In this particular entry, Jennifer posts a great mock conversation with her and an agent agent (which I won't reproduce her but I urge you to click the above link to read the entry), as well as the following, which I've included here to explain what an agent agent is:

Much more often -- every couple of weeks at least -- I get the same basic thing but in email form:

Subject Line: AUTHOR REFERRAL!

Hi Agent, I'm Random McNoname, and I'm writing to reffer [sic] my client Author Sapsucker to you. Sapsucker has a pHd in Neurocathology [sic] and 78 followers on twitter so he's the real deal. The manuscript is attached, I look forward to hearing from you by next week.

If you're not quite following, this is the gist: Jennifer is an agent. Authors need agents to send their manuscripts to publishing companies that won't deal with unsolicited submissions. Agents are easy to get hold of - they have to be, because their livelihood depends entirely on having authors to represent. Somewhere along the line, deceitful cunning people have created a new job, that of the agent agent - an agent that an author pays to find them an agent for their book. As if getting published wasn't hard enough...

Jennifer further explains:

These are what I call "agent-agents" or third-party queriers. They convince authors that their "services" are necessary to query (aka spam) literary agents*. Authors who are totally new and/or desperate will take the bait and pay, in the hopes that it will give them a leg up on the competition. 

But it won't give a leg up on the competition, all it will do is frustrate or anger the agent, cost the author a lot of money, and all but guarantee their work is rejected on the basis that the agent agent is causing problems. The agent agent works on the premise of 'if you throw enough mud at a wall, some of it will stick' i.e. hit up enough agents and one may show interest. As such, they don't take the time to research each individual agent and find out what books or categories they represent; after all, a rejection doesn't matter to them, it matters to the author, so they need no qualms about accuracy. Spamming an agent is the quickest way I can think of to alienate an agent - and the very last thing any author wants to do is alienate agents. If they remember the title of the author or the book, that can haunt the writer if they approach the agent directly after ditching the agent agent - we all make mistakes and act in ignorance, but agents can afford to be picky about who they represent and who is going to want to recommend someone who doesn't do basic research into the appropriate steps to take?

Remember, budding authors, agents represent authors. By virtue of that fact, they need to hear from you, get to know you, and communicate with you and you alone. Querying is a step that authors need to take for themselves, and authors are already being represented - by their books.

Querying can be time consuming and tedious, but it isn't hard. It's made much easier by agents, because they post visibly on their websites how to approach them and clear instructions on what to include with a query. Paying someone else to do that for you isn't just expensive, it's alienating. 

Do Ebooks Confuse You? They're Just Documents

Earlier in my career I was quite surprised at the number of requests I had from people asking me how much it would cost to "edit my ebook", or who spoke about them as their own entity - "I want to write an ebook" for instance.

I've also experienced people asking whether they should write an ebook, and being baffled at the technological advances.

Actually, I think my confusion was comparable to that, and it was simply a case of "Why is there this extra, boundary-defined category?"

That's not to say ebooks shouldn't have a name, but rather let's not create confusion where it need not exist. Ebooks are documents, that's all there is to it. In the case of books, they're manuscripts just like any other book. The only difference is the final format, and saying "I want to write an ebook novel" is no different to saying "I want to write a hardback novel". In reality, you want to write a book, and publish it digitally. Isn't that clearer?

But What If It's Not a Novel?

It doesn't really matter. As usual, we've got caught up with labels and the insatiable need to define everything as separate from other things. In the simplest definition, an ebook is a digital version of what it would be in physical version. So, if you have a three-page pamphlet on caring for a baby, but you email it to someone, it's still a three-page pamphlet. If you write an 80,000-word novel on your computer, it's a manuscript, and when it's published it will be available as a physical book or ebook - or maybe just an ebook, if you so desire.

Words are words, stories are stories, documents are documents. Don't get caught up in the technicalities or you'll get dragged down by the technicalities.

As I said to my clients at the time, "Editing an ebook will cost the same as editing any other format of book", and "Writing an ebook is no different to writing a 'regular' book, it's just available digitally".

What About Marketing?

Marketing is probably where the confusion arises the most. You know what it's like - you visit a website or blog and there's a big shiny photo of a book and it says "Enter your email address to receive our free ebook!" or you receive marketing instructions telling you to write an ebook so you have a saleable product you can make passive income from. 

It's true to say ebooks have become very popular for marketing and income purposes, but that's not because they're different than regular books, it's merely a sign of the times. For the first time ever, we can all be publishers. I could, very easily, put all my blog posts into a single document and sell that document as an ebook, at low or no cost. That's the whole reason ebooks are used as they are - they're either free or very cheap to make and put on sale. 

Years ago, paperback books were used in the same way, but less prolifically because they needed traditional publishing. You can find them, though - take a look on Amazon for 'how to' books or 'make it as a...' book, and you'll find untold numbers of (typically small or pocket-sized) books telling you how to do something, and they are marketing tools, basically. Exactly the same as today's ebooks, just less convenient for the writer. (Therein lies my cynicism with these marketing books, too - if the authors are so good at making lots of money following the rules in them, why do they need to write the books persuading us to cut in on their market?)

So there you have it, ebooks in a nutshell. They are digital versions of physical products that were already used, written and sold. No more and no less. 

What do eBooks Really Mean For Publishing?

Yesterday I read this article about an author named Amanda Hocking, who has no publisher but sells 100,000 copies of her book a month on the Kindle for between 99cents and three dollars. What interested me most was the comments, with many people there saying this is the end for publishing and that the future lies squarely in digital.

I spent the evening pondering this. Was it true? What will happen in the long term? Could the industry really just die? And what would it all mean for someone like me, a humble editor?

Despite having self-published in the past, the concept is now somewhat worrying to me. With a reported 98% of submitted manuscripts rejected from publishers, there are many authors out there wanting to get their work known. Whereas previously there was very little or nothing these people could do to get their work released, now they can just sell it as an ebook. This is fine in itself, of course; it means good work can be found and purchased, with the author earning higher percentages from their work and consumers spending less. The problem that i see is, in my experience, a lot of those books get rejected for a good reason; indeed as my position now as a self-employed editor, i see a lot of books that require much work before being in a publishing-ready state. And looking at the comments from the article, there seem to be some people who take rejection far too personally and will now be able to release their book while believing it needs no work - and trust me, every book needs work from a detached party before it should be sold.

Where am i going with this? Simple: the daunting reality is that scores of authors will dump their work into cyberspace to be downloaded immediately and at low cost, while possibly bypassing editors. Not only will countless books be bured in obscurity by sheer weight of volume of titles on the market, but there will be a marked increased in the number of poorly written books now available, thanks to authors being able to sell their work commerically without professional advice, an edit or even a proofread. What happens when everyone is a writer and can sell their book with one click? I predict an increase in volume and a decrease in quality.

Is this how it has to be, though? Frankly, i think no, it doesn't. For a start, in no way do i think the traditional book is going anywhere. Sure, sales may decline but an even plateau will probably be reached at some point, in the same way that people can download music legally but CDs still exist. This works for authors too, because there is a definite sense of pride from seeing your book available in print as well as digitally, and it's an avenue many writers will continue to pursue.

That being said, however, this is a transition period for the publishing companies and they do need to adapt to the modern age. Whether they like it or not they need to update their modus operandi to incorporate the new way of writing, selling, marketing and, ultimately, buying. When all is said and done, the only reason writers will ever self-publish is because they either get nowhere with publishers or they don't think they're getting a good deal.

In my opinion, publishing companies need to embrace the Internet. This does not just mean offer their books on the Kindle or have an email address. If there's one thing that authors really need publisher for it's marketing - with no marketing, no one will be aware of a book's existence, and with no budget it is tough to advertise. So publishers need to utilise viral marketing campaigns, create an author bio page on the publisher's website, perhaps offer reduced-price digital copies, and generally create a new method of working that unites old with new.

Publishing will not die, but it can make an effort now to change ways in order to keep flourishing. Right now the entire book industry is in turmoil, not just the publishers but also the book stores, so now is a time when the entire system can be recreated in a way that will benefit the author more than it does currently while simultaneously securing a strong future for the publishing companies. If things remain unchanged for too long then it may be difficult to regain much mindshare and confidence, but by showing a commitment now to being flexible and adaptable, we could see an end to the war-of-words between ebooks and physical books, instead seeing them coexist without hyperbole about one killing the other.