Agents

In an email to agents this evening, Hachette Book Group USA CEO David Young announced a shift to an agency model for eBook pricing.

Here's an excerpt: "There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors' works. In the long run this will enable Hachette to continue to invest in and nurture authors' careers--from major blockbusters to new voices. Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer."

And he added this point about eBook releases: "Another great benefit to our consumers is that we intend to release HBG e-books simultaneously with the hardcover (or first format print edition)."

This makes Hachette a valuable ally for Macmillan in their price feud with Amazon (AMZN). In a paid advertisement about the Amazon debate, Macmillan CEO John Sargent defended the agency model: "Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time."

In its letter about why they temporarily stopped the direct sale of books, Amazon tied the agency model to its list of complaints: "Macmillan, one of the 'big six' publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases."

Read the entire letter after the jump.

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Rubin Pfeffer, the former senior vice president of children's publishing at Simon & Schuster, has joined the East/West Literary Agency (EWA).

Pfeffer will lead the EWA's east coast branch working as "partner and content agent." In this new position, he will work on building both digital and print content designed for "21st Century incarnations of publishing." In addition, he will also work as EWA's digital media strategist.

Here's more from EWA founder Deborah Warren: "We are thrilled by the innovative new directions that Rubin will bring to our agency ... EWA was launched with a bi-coastal vision, and Rubin, with his keen editorial acumen, business sense and digital savvy, is the ideal 'east' to complement our 'west' and 'south' (by way of Mary Grey James in Nashville, TN)."

Has the avalanche of celebrity book deals hurt literary agents?

According to a report at The Bookseller, it has been a rough year for agents. The company measured the performance of six different literary agencies in the UK, finding that only one of those agencies managed to turn a profit in the last financial year. They spoke with Clare Alexander from Aitken Alexander Associates about the trend.

Here's more from the article: "Alexander also blamed the downturn on the medium-term trend of publishers eschewing literary authors for celebrities: 'Publishers' focus has been on celebrities, and most agents play very little, if any, role in that,' she said. 'I think we are at a turning point now. The search for good writing is still on in most of the world, and in some of England too.'"

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management just promoted lit agent, Stacey Glick to Vice President. Glick, a former child actress who started out as a film scout, has contributed to the reputable agency's success over the last ten years.

DGLM's expansion continues as they have just opened a West Coast operation ran by lit agent, Michael Bourret as well as the addition of Jane Dystel's new assistant, Rachel Oakley.

Most of the writers in the audience have a few rejection slips buried in their desks--this editor could wallpaper his office with his collected rejections. Today, agent Janet Reid offered her readers the rare chance to see why she rejected 122 different manuscripts.

Since last summer, the agent from Fine Print Literary has asked 124 aspiring writers to send her full manuscripts. Reid kept track of all her responses to this gigantic stack of work, giving us an invaluable peek into The Mind of an Agent. Here are a few examples, complete with tallies:

"Just plain not good enough: 21 (a novel needs to be in the 99th percentile-these were closer to 90%--not bad, but not good enough)

Good premise, but the rest of the novel didn't hold up: 11
Not compelling or vivid, or focused; no plot/tension: 10
Slow start or the pace was too slow: 9
...
Sent back for revisions with editorial suggestions and I expect to see them again in 2010: 9
...
Got offer from me: 2" (Via Juliet Ulman)

"The irony of our age that it is the smallest folk who have the most to lose, who take the most risks," said Steve Wasserman, the managing director of the New York office of literary agency Kneerim & Williams--defending the small presses and indie booksellers who are pioneering in this digital world.

During a panel entitled "Writer, Agent, Publisher" (hosted by this GalleyCat editor at the eBook Summit), Wasserman stirred up Twitter with his sharp commentary about publishing. Read more about the panel at eBookNewser.

Wasserman was the editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and now serves as books editor of the award-winning online magazine Truthdig. He once worked as editorial director of Times Books and Hill & Wang. Here are a few of his greatest hits, curated from the busy feed. "Publishing was never a business based on Wharton standards. It was a rich boy's hobby," he said, talking about diminishing advances.

When agent Jason Allen Ashlock told him: "I think we fundamentally agree" about eBook delays, Wasserman replied: "Probably, but we're on a panel. We need a little bit of faux drama."

He also pondered the excessive pondering of the future of eBooks. "I suppose we could sum up this entire two-day conference under the headline 'too early to tell.'"

Eighteen-year-old novelist Kody Keplinger declared today Unofficial Agent Appreciation Day, and GalleyCat thought her loving tribute to her agent--along with the online mobilization of other authors--deserved a Friday afternoon post.

Here's an excerpt from her tribute to her agent, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe at Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation: "Like all writers, I often find myself stumbling into the ocean of overwhelming self-doubt. This is normal, I believe. But Joanna never lets me swim out in that ocean too far. One of the amazing things about my agent is that she truly, honestly believes in my work, even when I might not."

Above, the author and agent are pictured together. Feel free to leave a tribute to the agent in your life in your life in the comments section. Look for more about the life of a 21st Century agent during our eBook Summit coverage next week.

Jenny Rappaport, the literary agent who runs the both the Rappaport Agency and Lit Soup blog, announced today that she is closing her boutique literary agency.

After working at Folio Literary Management and the L. Perkins Agency, she opened her own agency focused on science fiction and fantasy, young adult, and romance. Here is the announcement, from her blog: "It is with a great deal of sadness that I announce that The Rappaport Agency, LLC will be closing for business at the end of the year, due to economic reasons. I have been privileged to get the chance to work with amazing people over the last four and a half years, many of who I am proud to call my friends. In the coming weeks, I will be wrapping up outstanding submissions and putting things in order. I can be reached by e-mail at jenny [at] rappaportagency[dot]com."

She concluded: "This isn't a decision I've come to lightly; it's taken a lot of thought and effort to reach this point, and to decide to seek a change of careers. I want to thank you for reading along with me on LIT SOUP, and I hope to remain connected in the writing community. I'm still going to be writing myself, striving like the rest of you for publication, and to get my own words out there."

What is the agent's role in the digital book future? Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Karen Gantz, a literary agent who has represented to an impressive list of authors including Alec Baldwin and Kathleen Turner.

She explained how she founded Karen Gantz Literary Management, and was joined by her partner, Dr. Joyce Starr--talking about the agency's author coaching services.

Gantz didn't sugarcoat the industry while talking about the current market.

"We feel there is an even higher standard in obtaining a book deal today," she explained. "Every week I meet with an editor on the phone or in person. There is a much higher standard because there is so much content on the web for free--publishers have to find something that's really fresh, dynamic, and new to take a chance on an author...In Virginia Woolf's day, you just sent in your manuscript and it was published, no questions asked."

She also thought agents were more important during the digital age, explaining one part of her bargaining strategy: "Many of these [contract] issues are in flux they are evolving. One of the ways to deal with it to put a provision in the contract that when these rights percentages change and the standard in the industry improves, the author will benefit from that change," she concluded.

In December, agent Irene Goodman will auction off 25 critiques for partial manuscripts--a chance for fledgling writers to donate to a worthy cause and polish their work for the agent search.

The auction will run from Dec. 1, 2009 and ends Dec. 15, raising money for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the Deafness Research Foundation. Her 22-year-old son (pictured, with Goodman) suffers from Usher Syndrome, a genetic disease that causes progressive loss of hearing and sight. She explained: "when you are 22 and you are losing your sight and your hearing, you want the cure to happen NOW. All this costs a lot of money, and that's where your dollars will be spent."

Here's more about the quality of Goodman's advice: "I believe that nicey-nice doesn't really help you. Honesty does. If you can accept well-meant feedback from someone who has built a lot of best-selling careers, then this is for you. My track record in this regard astonishes me when I look at it. There are dozens of books that sold for sizable advances as a direct result of my feedback to the authors. When you are hungry for information that will really make a difference, not waste your time, and respect your goals, you need a real industry professional who has walked the walk."