Agents of Destruction?

For years, I knew what I absolutely needed to make it as a writer — I needed an agent.  Agents had the magic keys to the kingdom, and they were the ones who could slip me past the gatekeepers and get my manuscripts where they belonged, on an editor's desk.  Even those who encouraged self-publishing still suggested you have an agent, just in case traditional publishing or foreign markets or Hollywood came calling.

But, well, along with everything else in publishing — the role of agents seems to be changing.  Dean Wesley Smith is alarmed enough at some of these changes to say, "I believe that any agent should be avoided right now at all costs. Writers no longer need them."

That's a hell of statement. What prompted it?  Simply this: a lot of literary agencies are turning into little publishing houses of their own, "helping" writers get their works on-line in return for huge percentages.  Plus "expenses," of course, however they might choose to define expenses.

You might be thinking, "Gosh, agents acting as their own publishers, that sounds like an enormous conflict of interests," and you'd be exactly correct.  You might also be thinking, "That sounds like they're taking a percentage of profits in return for things writers can easily do for themselves," and you're right again.

Smith goes on to say:

[....] I feel it's time to start calling this new idea in agents exactly what it is.  It is a scam.

It is designed to take a writer's work, control their work, and make more money off that work than the writer does. It will be frighteningly easy to just not pay writers even the small amount they should get in this deal.

There is no other way to define a scam. This is taking advantage of the uninformed to make money.

– Writers Are Losing the Fight Again.

He goes into more detail at the link, a lot of it. It's all definitely worth reading — he has years of experience, both as a writer and a publisher, and he knows his stuff.

Okay, so, if you don't have an agent, what should you do if someone waves a contract in your face? Smith's answer is simple — you should hire an Intellectual Property Lawyer instead of an agent, and pay them once for their services of going over the contract for you instead of trading away a percentage of your profits forever.

Even with the help of an IP lawyer, though, there are a few things you should know to watch out for in contracts.  More on that tomorrow.