The Dark Side of Having a Lit Agent

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I recently read an interesting article from Kristine Kathryn Rusch (a Hugo winning SF author). As an unagented author this is something that is not currently on my radar: having to deal with agents embezzling money from me, but it is a problem, according to many authors. according to Rusch, it is more common at the bigger, most respected agencies than anywhere else.

Her article can be found here: https://kriswrites.com/2018/06/06/business-musings-what-it-feels-like-to-have-an-agent/

She cites a story about Chuck Palahniuk (the guy who wrote Fight Club) who has been stolen from for years, now. (His agent’s book keeper embezzled at least 3.4 million from clients… that they can trace.)

One of the upsides of the Indie world is that we can easily track all of our sales numbers. It’s also a drag since that’s the business side of things many of us would rather not do, but at least we don’t have to fear that someone else is playing a shell game with our royalties.

I’m not against agents. I’d love to secure one for a couple of my projects, but it’s one more comfort to take solace in with choosing to be independent on some of my stories. As an Indie, I know that nobody will work harder than me to get books into readers’ hands… and I know that I’m not going to steal from myself (although, I suppose that I could have a Tyler Durden moment.)