Mathias’s Comments (group member since Sep 28, 2012)

Mathias’s comments from the Michael J. Sullivan hosts a Q&A group.

Michael,

Thanks for replying again.

"First Harper Voyager isn't offering any advance and while they've not made it public I'm pretty sure they'll pay industry standard so no having an agent won't get you any additional money."

I think you really hit on the crux of what I was saying, which was that, by doing what Harper Voyager is doing, going direct to the authors, offering up a "standard contract", looking for green (possibly desperate) authors without much leverage, and making it unappealing for agents to get involved, that they are essentially saving themselves money.

It just seems strange to me that they wouldn't have a ton of qualified submissions from agents to publish. So why do this if it wasn't about saving cash by not paying advances and having to give up money in negotiations. Can't fault them for it. It's good business.

You are right that, with as many submissions that they are bound to have right now that there is little leverage for the authors who don't take the deal they present. It would have to be an A-1, top notch manuscript that they would possitively fear loosing to a competitor for them to move greatly, or a proven self-pub success to give the author leverage. And then the question becomes really does the author know enough about the leverage they might have to even negotiate successfully if they are in such a possition.

Talent is always an issue. The more talent, the more leverage.

I appreciate you comments. However one of them seems a little off. Mostly because it seems to imply that contract negotiations in publishing are different than other fields where contracts are negotiated with the help of an agent.

"The 'cost' to HV is the same with or without an agent."

That would be true, I would think, only if an author has the same negotiating tallents as an agent though wouldn't it? Basic econ 101, contracts, etc.

I mean, basically, author wants X. Agent wants Y commission. Total amount requested is X+Y. Total amount gotten is usually some percentage of X+Y.

Whereas without agent, total amount is X, and probably less. And almost always less than achieved in previous example (or why use agents?).

No contract, no matter how in stone it is written when first presented, is really written in stone. I've seen my share of "standard", "unalterable", contracts get more than a few tweaks before deals go down. An agent could easily alter the terms and cost HV money up front. Yes, techically that comes from the "author's share", but that share is bigger usually when an agent gets involved. At least, if publishing is like any other field of contract negotiation that I have been involved in.

Whereas I would think most authors, especially green ones, would have less tallent in that area and thus negotiate lower contract prices as a whole. Especially if HV decides the ebook is selling well and then they want to move into an traditional print version as they said they might do.

I don't know if what I said makes any sense to anyone else. But it makes sense to me as someone knee deep in contracts on a daily basis.

Question:

With Harper Voyager recently making their big announcement about opening up for direct submissions (albeit for a short window), do you think that this is a signal that there is something wrong with the current quality or quantity of projects being pitched to them by literary agents (for whatever reason)?

From my point of view, I would think that if the process of using agents as a feeder system was working well, Harper Voyager would have no need to go around them. Perhaps they are just looking to cut out the middlemen as well and save some money by not having to pay the commissions? Which would be a shrewd business move.

Just would like to hear your thoughts on this.

It is frequently said that art/poems/movies/stories (insert you choice) is never finished, only abandoned.

Realizing that it is hard to argue with success, here's a question. Looking back on this series, is there anything that you now wished you'd changed and/or done differently with regards to the story itself?