It’s just upsetting

[stacia_kane]

Some of you may have heard that the Waxman Agency, a legitimate, highly respected literary agency with an excellent reputation, has decided to open an epublishing imprint of its own. No, you didn’t read that incorrectly. It’s an agency deciding to set up a publishing arm.

This has, as you can imagine, sparked a bit of controversy in the literary

Comments

[ex_naomi_ja]

This is very sad and worrying for all the reasons you've listed. Having followed the Ravenous Romance story and found the whole set-up rather skeevy, I'd be sad to see a good agency tarred with the same brush for reasons I just can't fathom. I'll be keeping an eye on this one with some concerns.

[brian_ohio]

Thank you for such a detailed summation, I had only heard little blips about this on Twitter. To me it feels like the Waxman Agency (which I HIGHLY respect) has dirtied its image a little. We'll see how it plays out, I guess.

[david_bridger]

It smells bad, doesn't it? For all the reasons you've examined so fairly here. A development to watch carefully.

[anonymous]

Worse, to me, is on another blog I read that some publishers are starting to "outsource" their editors. The blog said soon we could be required to have our novels professionally edited BEFORE a publisher will buy and publish it.

I read so many blogs right now (I really need to cut back on some of them) that I can't for the life of me recall who's blog it was. Otherwise I'd provide a link. But if this is true, then it could seriously curtail the ability of most writers to get published. Who can afford the cost of a professional editor with no certainty of selling their project.

And now agents want to get into the publishing business, too. Times are changing. It all makes me wonder what kind of model we'll all be operating under in ten years.

[tom_gallier]

Sorry, that was me. I thought I was logged in.

[stacia_kane]

I'd be extremely interested to see who wrote that blog post, Tom, because it sounds like the kinds of lies scammers tell to get authors to pay to publish. I've heard that one for years now; it's not true. :-)

[tom_gallier]

I wish I could find it. It was a link I clicked on within a blog. I spent the weekend reading countless blogs, and researching query letters, and such, and for the life of me I cannot remember where I found it. Shame, because I'd like to read it again to ensure I understood it. Maybe I found it so disturbing I am blocking it. LOL

I've spend the last hour trying to find it. I give up.

Sorry.

[ext_224935]

I have to be honest here; I have no idea what he’s talking about. I don’t even know of any ebook publishers who primarily publish reprints. I do know dozens of ebook publishers who publish new, original content every day, or every other day, or twice a week depending on their release schedule. I’m terribly confused as to how anyone could research the ebook industry and not have seen all of those publishers.

He's probably talking about companies like E-Reads, which specialize in putting out e-book editions of reprints. (It was also started by an agent -- Richard Curtis in this case.) But the fact that he doesn't know that most e-book publishers put out original work is scary. E-publishers like E-Reads are the exception, not the norm.