Self-Publishing Agents: Unnecessary Evils

Two prominent names in self-publishing (Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath) are presenting the case that agents have a desirable role as facilitators for authors who choose to self-publish. Barry makes a rational argument at Joe's blog, and Joe himself is trying it with his existing agent. The basic premise is the agent handles the cover, the formatting, and the uploading and derives a 15 percent commission (the same commission the agent would make selling a book to a U.S. publisher). Joe calls them "estributors" but they are not distributing the book to readers, they are distributing them to distributors, which puts them more in a wholesale role, except of course they aren't selling anything.

I respect their experience (Barry is married to an agent, and he'd probably BE a good agent if he so chose), and Joe is probably the most educated self-pubber on the planet, but I just don't see why agents should be considered ideal candidates for this task. What is an agent's current job and experience? To assess a manuscript and find a market.

In self-publishing, they do neither. Their assessment skills have zero value in self-publishing. Right now they assess with one measure: can I sell this to one of the few dozen editors in New York? Self-publishing requires no assessment, unless the agent says, "Whoa, this is crap, you can't publish this!" And who is going to lose their 15 percent to be that blunt? The agent's second role and experience is also rendered useless. The market is already there, and it's the millions of readers owning electronic devices or ordering print-on-demand books.

Presumably they aren't editing the manuscript (which is a different skill that an agent may or may not be qualified for), but it's certainly not a task the facilitator is handling. Let's assume the facilitator knows cover artists. You still have to describe the book, send suggestions, approve the cover file, and basically DO EVERYTHING you would have done on your own except make the first contact (find your own designer) and the last (upload the final file). And you're paying for it, I assume, unless the facilitator is footing some risk and cost.

Okay, the agent can format your file, or have that service arranged. Ted Risk at Dellaster Design will do a very clean epub and mobi for $89. A one-time fee with a fast turnaround time. The "facilitated" author still has to email the MS Word file to the agent/self-pub facilitator, who then sends it to a formatter or has one in-house. The author has merely saved two steps: (1) receiving the formatted file back from the formatting service and (2) uploading it to the markets.

Even if the agent/self-pub facilitator is writing the product description, that won't be written in a vacuum. The author will still have to outline it,  proof it, and suggest keywords, because even IF the agent reads the book, the agent will never understand it as well as the author (this is actually true of the cover design, too). Time saved: not much. It actually sounds like more work to me.

Employing someone in this role means giving up 15 percent for the entire life of copyright, for a book remaining on sale forever, for a job not only saving the author hardly any time at all, but possibly even CREATING MORE WORK FOR THE AUTHOR!

Yes, now you have an employee/partner to manage, and account for, and play email and phone tag with, and the money that could flow straight to your bank account every month will now be held by someone else who MAY, if you're lucky, dispense it quarterly, removing their share first. In my experience in the publishing world, the biggest risk in the entire venture is letting ANYONE handle your money when you don't have to. Too many things can go wrong. I am not saying fraud is likely, but imagine how hard it would be to audit Amazon if you thought your sales figures weren't adding up. And then imagine how hard it would be to audit an Agent/ Self-Pub Facilitator when sales figures don't add up from multiple revenue streams.

No, I am not suggesting all agents are shady and that 15 percent may magically expand to 50 percent under the table. But what would you do if it did? How are you going to audit six or 10 different distributor payments every month or three? Personally, I'd rather have my money shoot straight into my bank account. And in three years, when all the agent does is trim 15 percent before sending the rest on its way, and is not adding any new value at all, an author may just get a little bit resentful, even if everyone kept their word.

(Okay, I forgot the third role and experience of an agent: handling your money. Don't forget, agents are have no certification, degree, membership association, regulatory oversight, or even uniform code of ethics. Most are self-selecting English grads who moved to New York and hung out a shingle. There aren't a lot of accountants and MBAs on the agency rosters. But you're willing to give them your money just because they once were necessary evils?)

Okay, that being said, IF I thought such a service was valuable (and I clearly don't because my overhead on Liquid Fear was exactly $6 and a few hours of time, and it's earned me more than any book I've ever written, including ones that had dozens of fingerprints on them, and I get paid regularly, and heck, sounds like I'd be a better estributor than almost every agent on the planet, except I don't want to handle your money), I would prefer to have an experienced and downsized New York editor handle the task.

While an agent has never picked out a book cover, editors have. While an agent has never handled promotion, editors have. While an agent has never assessed a manuscript's value in the true marketplace of readers, editors have. While an agent has rarely handled layout or formatting, most editors are at least aware of the process, if not having hands-on experience. Agents handle the very front end of a book, an abstract idea with no intrinsic value. Editors are solidly on both edges of the middle of book production.

But the real question is, why would you assume anyone with experience in traditional publishing knows ANYTHING about what is happening right now? Indeed, it's the outliers who seem to be the most successful, not those who are most closely imitating the old model. I am not relishing the fact that a once-respected profession may soon be on the ropes, but I don't need my blood on the canvas to keep agents in the ring.

There's a great Harlan Ellison line in his story Mephisto in Onyx: "Don't confuse a thousand years of experience with the same year of experience a thousand times." If you want to be the monkey, you'll climb higher if you don't have a gang of carnivorous dinosaurs sinking their teeth into your back.

(Update: I talked with Joe a few days ago and under his deal, the agent pays for cover and formatting, so those costs are included in the 15 percent. Makes the deal SLIGHTLY better, but I still believe it doesn't save any work at all and adds risk and complication. Joe also foresees marketing clout one day but I have to ask, where is the agent suddenly going to learn book marketing in the digital era? Picking up a primer on social media? Writers already know more than agents. We've been forced to do so.)

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The $6 Bestseller: The Fallacy of "Use Pros"

While we are engaging in new thinking, there's a new universal truth that is clearly not so universal--that you need to be edited by a pro and that you need pro book covers to be successful, and you need to invest $2,000 to get published.

Here's a little secret--nobody touched Liquid Fear or even saw it besides my all-star proofreader, Neal Hock at Bookhound's Den. I did the editing, I did the cover, I did the formatting, all in house, all with easily available and free tools. Besides my time, I have maybe $6 invested in the book (Neal and I work in trade). It hit #25 on the Kindle bestseller list and has sold pretty well. Conclusion: You DON'T need to pay a whole bunch of money to look like a certain thing in order to be "successful."

In fact, I've found the opposite to be true--if you duplicate the professional-quality look of NY, the expectation of what a book should "look like," guess what? You look like all the other hundreds of thousands of books. If you have your kid go into a Paint program for the first time and make you a cover, you're going to look like the other hundreds of thousands of people who totally don't get the new era and do the amateur thing because they are trying to imitate a book cover but don't know what one is.

Here's why I will probably do all my own covers from now on: it's fun!

I don't claim to be a graphic designer, because I'm not. I did spend a couple of years learning basic skills to function in the new arena, but since I don't care about making a NY cover, or a crappy cover (which may take even longer than a pro cover), I can just find an image that tells my story and then come up with clean, legible font and look at in it postage-stamp size, in black-and-white.

That's another reason I started doing my own covers--I was having a difficult time explaining to people with big, fancy computers and large, high-resolution screens that this wasn't art, this was NOT a book cover, it's an icon button for a digital product. An entirely new product, and it needs an entirely new presentation.

The third reason-- since few cover artists ever read the books for which they do covers, they work only from their own idea of what the book should be. In NY, that may be a synopsis or editorial instructions, but very rarely is the author consulted. See the problem? The author knows the book better than anyone else and would complicate matters tremendously by trying to explain it to an artist. I know the tone and feel and nuance of my book and how I think it should be presented. I should know better than anyone how I want to invite my reader inside.

I hear my writer friends talk about the exhausting back-and-forth with a cover artist, or the four-month wait, and I can only shake my head. That's another reason I re-did a few of my existing covers. I discovered the ones I did in 20 minutes were more effective than the ones I labored over for days, because simplicity is the keyword for today.

Editing. I am a professional editor, but that doesn't mean I think everyone needs to be edited. Potential clients send me five-page samples for free. Sometimes the writer is not yet at a stage where I can help--that writer needs more experience and it would be immoral for me to take the money. If I feel we can each benefit, I will take on the job. But it's also not uncommon for me to realize a particular writer doesn't need my services, and I tell the writer so.

I don't think editing is an absolute need. I do believe you need a proofreader, no matter who you are, and preferably several, even if your book is professionally edited. I would probably be kicked out of the editor's union if I were in one, but the idea that "Every book can be improved by editing" is one of those stories told to keep editorial jobs alive. Why should anyone know the book better than the writer? And if editors are so brilliant, why aren't they writers instead?

Formatting is another skill that can be learned. I like doing it and I put in a year tinkering, even though I am not naturally a tech whiz. It's hard work. But I realized it was critical to my business. If you sell widgets, you should understand how widgets are made. My friends at Dellaster Design and Book Looks do low-priced e-book formatting, and Stephen at Book Looks does the print formatting of my books. I can use them if I want, but I don't need them.

The point of all this is not to minimize the wonderful skills of artists, editors, and e-book formatters everywhere. If you personally need them, by all means, you owe it to your book and your creative happiness to do everything within your means to make your baby shine. But you don't need them. That type of thinking is just setting up another gatekeeper system, where only those with money can play in the sandbox.

Could Liquid Fear have been improved with the guidance of an outside editor? Maybe. Or maybe it would have been merely changed. That's subjective, and the world will never know. I may even revise it myself later--I have revised at least four of my books while they were already on sale. Why not? I can do it, and if it improves the book, I have an obligation to do so. Maybe an editor would have pushed Liquid Fear to #1. I don't care, because I don't need #1 to be "successful."

I play in my sandbox because it's fun, and I love every single aspect of what I do, and there are no rules and no absolutes and no certain direction--it seems like every universal truth I ignore, the happier I am and the more creative I can be and the freer I am. That's "success" for me. And, guess what? I earned my $6 back. The rest is candy.

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Save the indies? We could have saved each other

I knew this was coming. Again. Remember when the creeping encroachment of chain stores led to a public outcry of "SUPPORT INDIES AND SAVE LITERATURE!!!"? Well, maybe the cry wasn't all that public, emanating mostly from bookstore owners.

And guess what? Indies died by the dozens. They expired like whales on an oil-infested beach, leaving the stench of recrimination on our collective brows.

The next evolution of the outcry is "SUPPORT INDIES AND SAVE REAL BOOKS!!!" This is the case made by The Regulator Bookshop. Basically chastising people who like e-books, sneering and snubbing, creating an elitist argument veiled as a populist uprising. I wish I could be sadder for you. Actually, I am sad. But it's the kind of sadness felt over a long-ago high school crush, or that job where you never got promoted, or that old swimming pool that used to have a diving board.

I am sorry you will have to find a new career. Really. But you are not alone, because I expect the chains will be following shortly. You survived Borders but you can't survive electronic tablets and instant, wireless communication. You didn't do a thing wrong. You will die for one reason only: you are not giving your customers what they want. Thrash and moan but you won't change that. I can't change that.

Sure, I can drive three hours and buy a few books and you can pay the electric bill another week. But the books will cost more than I can afford, and my philanthropy extends primarily to those who are truly starving and not those who might theoretically starve one day. Your books cost more than I care to pay, anyway, because all I care about is the content and the experience, not the package, that wonderful R-book that will cost me two-and-a-half hours' pay and has many, many hands chipping away nickels between the author and my eyeballs.

I do support my local indie when I can. I do buy R-books there, and it's an emotional exchange, not a need. They sell my books. I send people there. Simple.

The local store took out books to put in a yarn section, and now sells gift items and jewelry as well. It's not just a "bookstore" anymore, because the owners realize change equals possible survival. They aren't making people feel guilty for not wanting something they don't need--they are giving them things they want. They are even exploring setting up an e-book shopping experience.

Still, I can't support you, Regulator. You probably don't remember me. Five or so years back, I made multiple book-signing trips across this state. I called you and wrote you emails. I sent you book cover flats and press releases for each new book, asking to set up a signing at your store. I figured since I was a notable North Carolina author, you'd be proud to have me and my books in your store. Because indie bookstores are great at hand-selling and supporting local authors, right? Heck, I promised to do the publicity, since my friend was editor of your local paper. You never answered. Nothing.

I once even drove around downtown Durham looking for your store, so I could meet you in person and maybe buy an R-book or two. I couldn't find you. The cry of "Shop indie" no longer means supporting local bookstores, it means supporting independent writers. Your very battle cry has been usurped.

You ask us to support you and give to you and save you. I wish you had given just a little so we could have helped each other. Maybe I would be even sadder today. Instead, I will just upload my e-books and partner with the people who want a mutual relationship. I don't care about R or E books. I care about MY readers, whatever letter they put in front. Your store doesn't have my readers because I was never in your store.

But you won't be lonely, Regulator. You will find plenty of company in the unemployment office, in the line of agents and editors who insist on artificial preservation of their industry. You guys can kill a little time together, reminiscing about the good old days when books were books and everything was real.

Me, I am going where stories are stories and everything is a dream.

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Retreating advances and trench warfare

The Bookseller recently reported falling book advances, which is one of the predictions made by some authors as the rising digital market takes hold and publisher's profits slip. Presumably, one would expect this is the type of across-the-board cut made in any evolving industry as it adapts, and not just a cut to the most convenient line item of a book's cost.

There are only three advantages a traditional publisher currently has over self-publishing through a digital platform: 1) the ability and willingness to give the author money up front; 2) the ability to get your books on store shelves; and 3) whatever prestige remains in being "a real published author." It's clear that by choosing prestige you are likely to cost yourself dearly. In fact, I am almost willing to call taking a $500 (or pound) book advance "The New Vanity Publishing." Because even someone with limited marketing skills should be able to make $500 in five or six months off a self-published ebook and POD.

No, I am not saying "Traditional publishing is dead" just because I released some books through our small company. I am still connected to New York and think the industry is great at what it does and I'd love to route some of my projects there. It's just no longer a no-brainer decision to sign on the dotted line, because there are so many factors involved and the long-term income may prove more important than the short-term income. It's clear that declining advances will further widen the publishing classes--bestsellers and everyone else. Bestsellers are still profitable, even under the clunky and inefficient model of discounted hardcovers. I am just not sure whether most authors should be willing to subsidize the practice on the off chance they will punch a lottery ticket and join those rare ranks.

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