Not sure where the future of e-books would be, several literary agents became publishers of a sort when they expanded their business model into the production and promotion of their clients' e-books.
As you might have guessed, the traditional publishers couldn't help but notice and they've started to poke their wee heads over the parapet and launched a counter-attack.
Perseus Books will now help authors self-publish their titles electronically. Take that, literary agents who dared to leave the safety of their defined tasks.
In fact, an author wishing to use the Perseus service must be represented by an agent who's already signed an agreement with Perseus. That's one way to undercut the agents who have gone off on their own. Now there's a publisher that's willing to do the heavy lifting on the e-book front, so if an agent were thinking of doing it themselves, they won't have to.
Whether it's the literary agent or Perseus doing the publishing, the idea is the same. Authors have books that the traditional publishers don't want because they're not blockbusters and the author wants the work out there so that the public can decide if it's worth a read. There's backlist offerings where the rights have reverted to the author, and why not make a book available if it's gone out of print? Someone, or several someones, might be interested, and it makes no sense to miss out on additional sales.
With a marketing department already in place, Perseus is well positioned to handle the promotion end of things, just as publishers have always done. Little wonder that Janklow & Nesbit has signed up, with Curtis Browne not far behind.
The competition between the literary agent and the publisher is forming up sides. Who knows which direction the publishing industry will take?
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