Agents Wearing Two Hats

Hats are not as popular as they once were, but there are still certain occupations requiring head gear to identify the wearer. The carabinieri of Italy are perhaps the most stylish of all law enforcement personnel when it comes to covering their heads, and you can always spot a North Korean officer by the enormous size of his hat.

Literary agents and publishers aren't known to walk around New York City in anything that sets them apart from the rest of the crowd, but if they did, perhaps their hat would look something like the one pictured here.

More and more, literary agents and publishers are joined together, with one side of the firm looking towards selling manuscripts and the other side creating e-books for the same clients.

The latest to jump on board is the Gersh Agency, which has announced a joint venture with Diversion Books. Gersh will have its own imprint for its authors and will offer both digital and hard copies of new titles or backlist re-issues.

No one seems to be talking much about the ethical conflict of interest in an agent also being a publisher, but then again, what might someone say? There has long been an assumption that an agent would not work hard to sell a manuscript to one of the major publishers when the same agent has the option of acting as publisher and possibly making more money.

The other side of that coin, or hat if you prefer, is that the agent has the option of getting an author's manuscript into the hands of the reading public, especially if that manuscript is a niche publication or something not likely to lead to millions of copies sold. Good books are not all best sellers, and agents who want to do all they can for their clients are looking at ways to bypass the traditional route rather than let quality writing gather dust in a drawer.

Gersh Agency can use their venture with Diversion Books to promote clients in a way that the major publishers no longer do, and thereby create reader interest. It is not unlike an internship for the author who needs experience on a resume to win a publishing contract. The literary agency, in this case Gersh, supplies the environment and the mentoring.

The publishing industry is changing because of new technology that makes it easy to publish electronically. Literary agents looking to best represent their clients have noticed that the slow-paced traditional publishers are not moving fast enough, so they are moving in. The ethical question has evolved from a concern over conflict of interest to a fear that an author would be ill-served by an agent who did not act as publisher.

Wearing one hat may be more of a detriment as the industry grapples with change. And it is certainly becoming more fashionable among literary agents as they copy the style of their pioneering colleagues who took the risk when others were not so sure it was an attractive option.