The Gatekeepers

The publishing trade likes to think of literary agents and publishers as gatekeepers.

They keep the reading public from all the dreck that they know is out there, a time-wasting forest of slush that they slash and burn so that you don't have to hunt alone when you'd like a literary gem.

You'll be sorry when they're gone, says Eric Felten. Those gatekeepers do an outstanding job and you'll be hard pressed to find something worth reading if self-publishing wins out.

Except that some literary agents, notably Dystel & Goderich, will guide their clients through the e-publishing forest for their usual 15% commission. The gatekeepers are still there, but the gate has relocated away from a publishing house. Self-publishing doesn't have to mean the slush pile is open to the public.

Some of the gatekeepers have shrunk the size of the gate's opening. Given the decline in book sales, publishers are scaling back their offerings, selecting only that which has been a proven winner before. Not the best strategy, of course, because the reading public doesn't want the same thing over and over again. They want new, and new is too risky for the beancounters at the major houses.

Anthony Cheetham has left Atlantic Books because he had great projects on his doorstep that Atlantic wouldn't let in because they're quite risk averse these day.

He's going to keep the gate at his own publishing firm, starting up a new provider of reading material. There are several small publishing houses opening up for the same reason as Mr. Cheetham's. There are a lot of good books out there, but the existing gatekeepers aren't doing their job as well as they should.

In spite of tightening belts, new publishers are cropping up because there are people who believe in books and believe that people will continue to indulge in reading.

They're looking at e-books because digital publishing provides a less expensive product. You might not have a fist full of euro to buy a hardcover, but it's not impossible to scrape up one or two for a download. Costs and overhead are lower for the publisher, so it's possible to take a flyer once in a while on something loved but without an obvious market.

The gatekeepers aren't disappearing. It's the old ones who are being left behind, with their carefully culled offerings not as desirable as they imagine. New gatekeepers are opening doors, taking advantage of e-publishing to fill niche markets that go ignored when the big houses only want blockbusters.